US says Islamists want peace in Somalia

ISLAMIC militia that seized Somalia’s capital this week began talks with the country’s largely powerless UN-backed government yesterday, the latest sign of their growing influence there.

The Islamic militia, accused by the United States of harbouring al-Qaida terrorists, captured Mogadishu and its evirons, despite US support for its secular rivals.

However, the Islamic Courts Union behind the militia still faces fierce opposition from a section of northern Mogadishu that has been under the control of the Agbal clan for more than a decade.

About 2,000 Agbal supporters gathered in the northern part of the city yesterday shouting, “We don’t need Islamic deception!” and carrying signs saying, “We don’t need to see innocent blood being spilled.” A similar protest was held on Tuesday,

The Abgals appear to be redefining conflict in the capital as a competition among clans, rather than a religious battle, to build support for continued fighting if the Islamic militants do not retreat.

The Islamic militiamen, meanwhile, say establishing a government based on Islam is the way to bring peace to Somalia. The group has effectively defeated a secular alliance of warlords after weeks of fighting, that left 330 people dead, many of them civilians.

Several Mogadishu residents said yesterday they don’t believe the militia can reconcile its beliefs with the UN-backed government.

“The Islamists want to act on the holy Koran, and the government has its own secular transitional charter,” said Dalal Abdi Mohmed, a Somali businessman.

The weak interim government, wracked by infighting, has not even been able to enter the capital because of the violence, operating instead 155 miles away, in Baidoa.

The meeting of government and the Islamic Courts Union came a day after the Bush administration gave a statement in support of the militia.

The aim of the Islamic Courts Union, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, “is to try to lay the foundations for some institutions in Somalia that might form the basis for a better and more peaceful, secure Somalia where the rule of law is important”.

This statement is all the more surprising in light of confirmed US co-operation with the secular warlords to root out terrorists in the Horn of Africa.

US officials recently accused Islamic leaders in Mogadishu of sheltering three al-Qaida leaders indicted in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The same al-Qaida cell is believed to be responsible for the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya, which killed 15 people.