Xasan Dahir, Inda Cade the takeover...

[General Duke]

^^^ Fears for Somalia talks as wanted cleric heads Islamic militia

Jun 25, 2006, 15:16 GMT

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Mogadishu - A prominent Somali cleric who is on the United States list of terror suspects has been elected as head of an Islamist militia that controls the Somali capital and most of the southern regions.

 

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys was elected in absentia late Saturday as the head of the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC), succeeding the more moderate Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the courts confirmed Sunday.

 

Sheikh Aweys who is regarded as the architect of the Islamic court system, led the Al Itihad Al Islami militia, currently listed as a terrorist organisation with links to the Al Qaeda terrorist network, in the 1990's.

 

Accepting his election from the Galgadud region of Somalia, Aweys called on the the inhabitants of Mogadishu to be ready for Islamist rule via local radio broadcast.

 

A former military colonel who once sentenced current president Abdulahi Yusuf to death after seizing the northern port city of Bosasso in 1992, the hardline cleric is an avowed rival of Yusuf's weak transitional administration.

 

Observers fear the fractious personal relationship between the two men and Aweys's hardline Islamist idealogy could derail a peace pact signed between the Islamists and the transitional government last Thursday.

 

However Aweys confirmed that he would continue negotiations.

 

'I am ready to lead the delegation that negotiates with the government, but we will not compromise our stand relating to Islamic system,' Aweys told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

 

The anarchic Horn of Africa nation has not had a central government since the toppling of dictator Siad Biarre in 1991.