Islamic leaders to begin talks with Somalia govt

An Islamic militia that seized Somalia’s capital this week began talks with the country’s largely powerless UN-backed government today, the latest sign of the fundamentalists’ growing influence as Somalia tries to emerge from 16 years of anarchy.

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

But the Islamic Courts Union behind the militia still faces fierce opposition from a pocket of northern Mogadishu that has been controlled by a clan for more than a decade, throwing a wrench into the group’s plans to consolidate power across the chaotic city.

Mogadishu’s largest and historically strongest clan, the Abgals, drew about 2,000 people to the northern part of the city today, shouting: “We don’t need Islamic deception!” and carrying signs saying: “We don’t need to see innocent blood being spilled.”

The Abgals, who held a similar protest on Tuesday, appear to be trying to redefine the 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 killed at least 330 people, many of them civilians.

Several Mogadishu residents said today 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.

“I suppose their attitudes are irreconcilable.”

US officials have confirmed co-operating with the secular warlords in an attempt to root out terrorists in the Horn of Africa.

US officials said recently that Islamic leaders in Mogadishu are sheltering three al-Qaida leaders indicted in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

The same al-Qaida cell is believed responsible for the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya, which killed 15 people, and a simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner over Kenya.

The militia’s growing power has forced officials in Somalia’s interim government and other top-level politicians to take notice. The weak interim government, wracked by infighting, has not even been able to enter the capital because of the violence, instead operating 155 miles away, in Baidoa.

Two ministers from the interim government were meeting with “top leaders of the Islamic Courts Union today” in Mogadishu about Somalia’s future, government spokesman Abdirahman Nur Mohamed Dinari said.

The meeting came a day after the Bush administration sounded a surprise conciliatory note toward the militia, whom the US has accused of harbouring al-Qaida.

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.

“I think that as a matter of principle that we would look forward to working with groups or individuals who have an interest in a better, more peaceful, more stable, secure Somalia who are interested, who are also interested in fighting terrorism,” he said.

John Prendergast, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, said the statement was a surprising turnaround for the US, which had been waging a proxy fight against the militia.

However, he said, it was important that the US work with powers on the ground in Somalia to bring stability to the country.

“It’s a bit schizophrenic,” Prendergast said. “The overriding imperative now is to bring together Somalia’s warring parties into a process of state reconstruction that will provide our best antidote against extremism.”

In a letter to the US and other governments, the chairman of the Islamic Courts Union said the US bore some blame for the bloodshed.

“The alleged support of the US government to these warlords has contributed considerably to the recent fighting in Mogadishu and the killing of the Somali people who have suffered so long in the hands of these warlords,” according to the letter, which was dated yesterday and signed by Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.

McCormack confirmed that the Islamic Courts Union had sent a letter to the US.

Other top officials, including some from the European Union, which helped fund Somali peace talks in 2004, said they supported the transitional government.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he supports the government’s decision to launch a “dialogue in Mogadishu with the Islamic Courts, civil society, the business communities as well as other stakeholders”.

Meanwhile, the severely weakened secular alliance was preparing to defend its last remaining stronghold of Jowhar, 60 miles north-west of Mogadishu.

If militiamen capture Jowhar and consolidate power in Mogadishu, the Islamic Courts Union will effectively control all the major towns in southern Somalia except for Baidoa.

Somalia has been without a real government since largely clan-based warlords overthrew long-time dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, dividing the nation of eight million into a patchwork of rival fiefdoms.