Somali govt dealing only with moderate Islamists-PM

[General Duke]

Somali govt dealing only with moderate Islamists-PM

 

More By C. Bryson Hull

 

NAIROBI, June 28 (Reuters) - Somalia's prime minister said on Wednesday his government was dealing only with moderates among the Islamists who are the country's new power, and whose demand for sharia law has stoked fears of a new Taliban.

 

The rise of the Islamists this month has forced Somalia's weak interim government to negotiate with a religious authority that controls far more territory than it does in the lawless Horn of Africa nation.

 

Over the weekend, the newly powerful Islamists, a union of sharia courts backed by well-trained militiamen, elected hardline cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys -- whom the United Nations has linked to al Qaeda -- to head their legislative arm.

 

Asked his reaction to Aweys' appointment at a news conference in Nairobi, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi replied: "We are in dialogue with the moderates of the Islamic courts."

 

The Islamists and the government last week agreed to recognise each other and hold more talks on July 15 at a meeting in Khartoum brokered by Sudan.

 

Pressed on whether he considered Aweys, who denies any links to al Qaeda, to be among the moderates, Gedi responded: "You search for (the answer)."

 

The Islamists had no immediate comment, but have said they are committed to the negotiations.

 

Aweys, a former army colonel, is credited with giving the Islamists militias a decisive strategic edge against warlords whom the United States backed as part of its counter-terrorism campaign in the Horn of Africa.

 

The Islamists ran the warlords out of the anarchic capital Mogadishu on June 5, and neighbouring strongholds later, after battles that killed at least 350 people since February.

 

Diplomats who follow Somalia say the West is struggling to come to terms with the Islamists' new dominance, and to determine whether the moderate or hardline elements in their ranks will prevail.

 

"It's hard to know where the political centre is," David Triesman, Britain's minister for African affairs, told reporters in London.

 

"Some of the people with military and planning skills are among the most radical Islamists you can find. The question will be how much the more modest voices are involved," he said.

 

Aweys has insisted on the imposition of a strict form of sharia law and his protege, militia commander Adan Hashi Ayro, was trained in Afghanistan and is linked to a number of assassinations of aid workers.

 

The Islamists deny any al Qaeda links and say they harbour no extremists. Diplomats and security experts say a handful of al Qaeda operatives are in Somalia's lawless vacuum, which Washington has long considered a potential al Qaeda haven.

 

(Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in London)