Somali parliament votes out speaker linked to Islamic movement

[Che -Guevara]

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - A top Somali lawmaker closely associated with the recently ousted Islamic movement was voted out as speaker Wednesday by parliament, a move that could undermine reconciliation efforts in the restive country.

 

Deputy Speaker Osman Ilmi Boqore announced that parliament voted to strip Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden of the speaker's position. Lawmakers cited his public criticism of a proposed African peacekeeping mission that parliament had endorsed and his meetings with Islamic movement leaders without authority from parliament.

 

newsinisideBoqore, in proceedings broadcast live on HornAfrik Radio from the parliament's seat in Baidoa, said that only nine of the lawmakers present voted against the motion. Voting in favor were 183 lawmakers — 44 more than required — in the 275-member parliament

 

Aden's actions have been in "total violation of our transitional charter," lawmaker Mohamoud Begos told The Associated Press by phone from Baidoa.

 

It was not clear if Aden was in Somalia.

 

Aden had made several freelance peace initiatives with Somalia's Islamic movement before government forces — with key help from Ethiopian troops — ousted them in December from the capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern Somalia.

 

In Belgium Wednesday, European Union spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tadio expressed disappointment at the Somali parliament's move against Aden, who held meetings with EU officials in Belgium earlier this week.

 

"We saw him as a someone who could make a bridge with the moderate elements," Altafaj said. "We had encouraged him to go back to Mogadishu to carry out his job and bring together as many political players as possible."

 

Michael E. Ranneberger, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, told reporters in the Kenyan capital Wednesday before the vote that Aden was "the kind of person who could pull people together."

 

The U.S. encourages dialogue in Somalia, including with a key Islamic leader like Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who is seen as a moderate, Ranneberger said.

 

"If he (Ahmed) wanted to play a positive role that should be a possibility. He is a recognized moderate," said Ranneberger, whose portfolio includes Somalia.

 

In the past year, Aden has differed with Yusuf and Gedi over the location of the government and whether peacekeepers were needed. According to Somalia's transitional charter, parliament has to vote on all major government decisions before they can be implemented.

 

Neighboring Yemen at one point stepped in to mediate between the president and prime minister and the speaker.

 

On Wednesday, Gedi told parliament that he ruled out peace talks with the Islamic movement and hoped to see the first African peacekeepers in Somalia by month's end.

 

So far only Uganda has committed to contributing troops and few others have shown enthusiasm for a proposed 8,000-strong African mission to bolster the government's attempt to create law and order.

 

A peacekeeping mission could face some violence, something that may deter many countries from committing soldiers.

 

There has been sporadic fighting since the government took over Mogadishu on Dec. 28. Leaders of the Islamic movement have pledged to carry on a guerrilla war as long as Ethiopian troops remain in Somalia.

 

A U.N. peacekeeping operation in Somalia in the 1990s saw clashes between foreign troops and Somali warlords' fighters, including the notorious downings of two U.S. military Black Hawk helicopters in 1993. The U.S. withdrew from Somalia in 1994, and that was followed a year later by the departure of U.N. peacekeepers.

 

Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991 when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other, reducing this Horn of Africa nation to anarchy and clan-based violence. The Yusuf-Gedi government emerged from regional, U.N.-backed talks in 2004 and has since struggled to assert authority.

 

Source: AP, Jan 17, 2007

[Che -Guevara]

By Hassan Yare

 

 

BAIDOA, Somalia, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Somalia's parliament on Wednesday ousted powerful speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, who split with the president and prime minister late last year over his peace overtures to rival Islamists.

 

"The speaker is out," Somali legislator Ali Basha told Reuters by phone from the parliament in a converted grain warehouse in the provincial town of Baidoa. He said 183 voted against Adan, while eight voted in his favour and one abstained.

 

The ouster of Adan was widely seen as an attempt by the interim government to consolidate power after its troops, backed by Ethiopia's military, ran the Islamists out of strongholds in Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia at the New Year.

 

"They want to send a clear signal to those who supported the Islamic courts that they don't have a place in the present political dispensation. But that may be a mis-calculation," Somali expert Matt Bryden said.

 

President Abdullahi Yusuf's administration is being urged by many to reach out to opponents to ensure peace and stability in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.

 

Member of parliament Mohamed Isak Fanah, who opposed the motion, said it would foster conflict. "What happened in the parliament today is a new problem for Somalia. Somalia needs a reconciliation process," he said.

 

The speaker, who had close ties to the Mogadishu businessmen who financed the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC), made several attempts to strike peace deals between the government and the Islamist movement when it controlled most of the south.

 

But his manoeuvres incurred the wrath of Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, who said the power-sharing deal he cut did not have any government authority. Adan's overtures preceded the late December offensive against the Islamists.

 

The speaker, who has not been in parliament for months and was in Brussels on Tuesday to meet EU aid chief Louis Michel, could not be reached for comment. Local media reports said he was in Djibouti, but that could not immediately be confirmed.

 

Ibrahim Adan Hassan, one of 31 members of parliament (MPs) who proposed the no-confidence vote, blamed Adan for rifts in the administration. "The speaker was at the head of the conflict in parliament for the last two years," Hassan said.

 

PEACEKEEPERS WANTED

 

Officials said a new speaker would be appointed in 15 days.

 

Somali sources close to the government said Yusuf's office had also ordered a reshuffle on Wednesday to trim the cabinet.

 

But government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari, speaking by telephone from the capital Mogadishu, dismissed that.

 

"The government is busy disarming Somalia, and MPs are in parliament impeaching the speaker, so those reports are absolutely not true," he told Reuters.

 

Yusuf and Gedi are trying to bring the volatile nation of 10 million to heel after the routing of the Islamists, who have fled to the south near Kenya. Police in Kenya are checking rumours some top Islamists want to surrender at the border.

 

The Somali government wants an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force -- approved by the U.N. Security Council before the war -- in Somalia by the end of the month.

 

Though some momentum seems to be gathering for such a mission, that timetable looks highly optimistic, given that most analysts believe it will take far longer to organise.

 

Ethiopia wants to pull out its soldiers in weeks.

 

In South Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said the continent would be unable to move in quickly to replace Ethiopian troops. "We are overstretched," Pahad said of South Africa, which Gedi has mentioned as a probable contributor.

 

Pahad also criticised a U.S. air raid on suspected al Qaeda targets last week in south Somalia, saying it added "oil to the fires that are burning in Africa and the Middle East".

 

Even if an African force does move into Somalia, it faces a mammoth task to tame a nation which has been in anarchy since the 1991 ouster of a dictator and which defied the best efforts of U.S. and U.N. peacekeepers in the early 1990s.

 

As well as the threat of a guerrilla war from Islamist remnants who are hiding in the south, other security threats include the return of warlords, the prevalence of weapons across the country and long-running clan feuds. (Additional reporting by Bryson Hull, Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi, Sahal Abdulle in Mogadishu, Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa, Sarah McGregor in Pretoria)

 

Source: Reuters, Jan 17, 2007

[Castro]

Michael E. Ranneberger, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, told reporters in the Kenyan capital Wednesday before the vote that Aden was "the kind of person who could pull people together."

LOL. Either the Ambassador will retract these words, or the the TFG will find a way to "embrace" the Speaker.

 

Disarmament, no disarmament. Negotiations, no negotiations. Media ban, no media ban. No speaker of the parliament, .....

[-Nomadique-]

Zenawi to TFG: "Dance puppets Dance!!"

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

Speaker voted out, My morning could not have started off better. It is a sign of good thinks to come. I fully support the desmissal of this big headed, divisive and ignorent member of government.

[Allamagan]

The guy was such a big opportunist!

[Sky]

Good news upon good news these days. Ethiopians are gradually pulling out, preparing themselves to be replaced by AU peacekeepers. Sharif Hassan voted out. Shaikh Sharif captured today.

 

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

sky, you forgot to add that warlords started to disarm today.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

we may not even need those african peace keepers after all.

[Che -Guevara]

Shaikh Sharif captured today

Source Pls

[Sky]

NN I wasn't even aware of that. We'll see how the disarmament goes.

 

Source Pls

Here you go.

[Castro]

This orgy of good news has been there for days now. How you figured it suddenly turned to good news is beyond me.

 

Originally posted by Sky:

NN I wasn't even aware of that.

Apparently, neither was Yeey. LOOL.

 

Che, notice how all the news headlines in western media is emphasizing "linked to Islamist" or "with ties to Islamist"?

[Che -Guevara]

I guess that's all it takes to discredit a man.

I wonder who is gonna be his replacement, obviously someone from da Bay/Bakool area.

[Gabbal]

The Sharif was not anymore linked to the "Islamic movement" then Hussein Aydiid! He has proved to be nothing but a political opportunist and his ousting should have long come!

[General Duke]

^^^Well said brother, this man was against everything and nothing, he was not a member of the courts, he was a stooge of Qaynyare not long ago.. Good buy dear Sharif.