Somalis Hopes Hi-jacked: an eye-opener article

[Abu-Salman]

Uganda: Somalia - Hell On Earth (8)

 

The New Vision (Kampala)

 

March 3, 2007

Posted to the web March 5, 2007

 

Kampala

 

The New Vision Chief-Editor, Els De Temmerman, shared with the Somali people the most dramatic events in their recent history. She was there when dictator Siad Barre was ousted and the country plunged into chaos. She was there when the US army intervened and retreated in defeat. She went back when the warlords were in full control and Mogadishu was dubbed the world's most dangerous city. And she returned when the Islamic Courts had taken over most of the country, restoring some kind of law and order by imposing Sharia. For the first time, her recording of a unique part of African history is published in English. This week we bring you the eighth part of her diary

 

Mogadishu, September 18, 2006

 

 

I am sitting in the restaurant of my hotel, waiting for the political leader of the Union of Islamic Courts. It is 7:00am and already hot. Sheikh Aweys is joining me for breakfast. This time, my friends tell me, I need to wear my scarf.

 

Aweys has been on the US list of most wanted terrorists since the attacks on the World Trade Centre in 2001. A former army colonel, he used to head al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, an Islamist militant group accused of having links with Al-Qaeda in the 1990s.

 

His group is also accused of being behind the terror attacks in East Africa. The US believes the Islamists sheltered, armed and trained those responsible for the bombing of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel near Mombasa in 2002.

 

But at that time, the warlords were in power, not the Islamists. And without central authority in Somalia, anybody could have purchased weapons in the open arms bazaar in Mogadishu, set up camp in one of the country's sparsely populated areas or bought their passage.

 

I am willing to give Aweys the benefit of the doubt, more so as I have been impressed by the Islamists' achievements. In the past four days, I toured the countryside, driving all the way to Brava, 250km south of Mogadishu. Two things struck me during the long hours and days that we battled with the country's ferocious roads, moving at such a snail's pace that the nomads with their herds of goats, cows and camels could easily overtake us.

 

The first was security. Wherever we went, the Islamists had removed road blocks, manned by the notorious militias, and brought back a sense of peace and relief. Trade had resumed. Trucks full of passengers and merchandise bypassed us, equally battling with the ferocious roads. And the guns and 'technicals', which had become an all too familiar sight in Somalia, had disappeared.

 

The second was beauty. The picturesque sand dunes, the magnificent beaches where herders led their camels to drink, the primitive dhows cleaving the Indian Ocean, the Arabic coastal towns where time had stopped centuries back, and the stunning women in their colourful dresses: they were like scenes from another world.

 

Even when our four-wheel drive vehicle got stuck on the beach in Brava and the sheikhs were sweating to pull us out, I was so taken up by the landscape that I wished we would be stuck forever. Ironically, Somalia, which has been hell for its trapped population for most of the past two decades, is also one of the most beautiful places on earth.

 

But it was the Islamists' commitment to get their country back on its feet that moved me most. In every town we stopped, the sheikhs would take me to a dilapidated building and beg me to open a school. Somali curriculum, English curriculum, Arabic curriculum, it did not matter as long as their children were off the street and on the school benches.

 

Illiteracy in Somalia is the highest in the world. Only 15.7% of all children go to school in the south and central part of the country, and only 11.7% of all girls. "We shall give you all the security you need," the sheikhs promised. "We shall mobilise funds to renovate and furnish the buildings." And, noticing my fascination with their coastal line, they added: "We can even give you a house on the beach!"

 

But then, upon my return to Mogadishu, that dream was shattered again. I was meeting a member of the transitional parliament in a restaurant in town when hell broke loose. The man had told me interesting things: how the CIA had paid the Mogadishu warlords $1.8m per month between January and June to have the sheikhs arrested and how the militias of the warlords refused to obey the orders and defected in great numbers.

 

He also told me about the manoeuvres that had been going on in Nairobi to have Yusuf elected as President and Gedi appointed as Prime Minister.

 

Reluctant MPs, he said, had been paid between $5,000 and $10,000 each to vote for Yusuf, while one MP had been bribed to step down and give way for Gedi. The money had been provided by Ethiopia, Kenya and Italy.

 

But our conversation was interrupted by heavy machinegun fire. It took us a while to find out what was going on. Some youth on their way to the cinema had thrown stones at a passing vehicle of the Islamic Courts militia, thinking they would close their cinema. The militiamen fired in the air to disperse the crowd, and later did close the cinema.

 

In the evening, news of another incident reached me. An Italian nun and her bodyguard were shot dead in broad daylight, most probably in retaliation for the Pope's remarks about Islam. In a speech in Germany, the Holy Father had cited a Byzantine emperor criticising some teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhumane".

 

Considering that I had not seen any other white woman in five days, and presuming that I was now the only one left, I dreamed of angry militias invading my hotel room and making me pay for the Pope's remarks.

 

But Sheikh Aweys reassures me. "We will provide you with all the security you need," he says after taking his place across me at the breakfast table. The declared international terrorist is not the kind of man one would expect.

 

He does not seem in any way aggressive or imposing. Instead, he is a soft-spoken and friendly elderly man, smiling a lot through his red, henna-stained beard.

 

"The killing of the Italian sister was a purely criminal act," he explains as he invites me to serve myself. "We have arrested the culprit and are establishing the motive. It could have been an internal dispute, a politically motivated act to demonstrate that we are not in charge, or a reaction of individuals to what the Pope said. When the verdict is out and it is proven that the killing was intentional, the perpetrators will be executed or ordered to pay blood compensation, depending on the family's decision."

 

Aweys strongly denies his organisation is harbouring or training terrorists. "We don't have those people. We don't have those links. We don't train Al-Qaeda," he says firmly.

 

"But I understand their concerns. Because we are devout Muslims, they suspect us to be bad guys. The problem is that they don't know us. They have no communication with us. Yes, we want to protect our religion. Our religion is our culture. But we also want good relations with the rest of the world and do business with them. We need the international community to help rebuild our country."

 

When suggested that people in the West might be abhorred by the Sharia, the Islamic court which orders stoning people for adultery, stabbing people to death for killing and chopping off people's hands for theft, Sheikh Aweys defends this kind of penal system.

 

"The objective is not only to punish, but to send a strong message to the masses that we shall not tolerate killing or stealing. It is meant as a deterrent, to restore law and order and to save the society. As the head of prisons in the former army, I have experienced that secular laws cannot fully stop criminality. One person can kill up to 100 people and he cannot be stopped. Each community has its own ways of dealing with crime. In Kenya, they lynch thieves. In Saudi-Arabia, where the Sharia is in place, people can go to the mosque for prayers and leave their shops open."

 

Asked if they would agree to power-sharing with the transitional government, holed up in the town of Baidoa, or continue their advance, Sheikh Aweys smiles. "If we have restored law and order, what is the problem with us extending our rule to other areas? Why does the international community not want that? What is there to share, anyway, with a government which is sitting in a small enclave and has done nothing for the people in its two years in power?"

 

"On a more serious note," he continues, "for us it is not about power but about principles. Our country has been undermined and cut into small fiefdoms by the political elite, by neighbouring countries and by the international community. Our demands are unity, security, no foreign interference and a principle-oriented programme. We don't even mind the transitional government being in charge as long as we agree on these principles."

 

The Islamists are strongly opposed to the deployment of a peacekeeping force. "Our reaction is no to foreign troops. I really don't see the need for them. We have been against the deployment of foreign troops even when the situation was much worse. Now that most of the country is secure, there is no reason for it. If they come, we will have no choice but to fight them. We will consider it an invasion."

 

He believes Ethiopia and the US are pushing for the peacekeeping force. "Because of their fears of us supporting terrorists. Ethiopia has its own interests: to have access to the sea and to solve the problem of the ******. Our neighbour does not want a strong, united Somalia. The transitional government is just a small baby in Ethiopia's pocket."

 

Asked how they managed to push out the heavily armed warlords, he concedes that it even took them by surprise. "The warlords were so powerful. They were supported by the US to arrest us, the sheikhs, and hand us over to the Americans. We were basically defending ourselves. When we engaged Kanyere, we only had seven rusty 'technicals', but captured 35 from him in just one day. Our swift victory was because of the support of the population and Allah's power."

 

He stirs his tea. "The militias of the warlords did not know what they were fighting for," he goes on. "This was not another clan attacking them. No, they were ordered to capture their own sheikhs. The warlords could not convince them. Many of their militiamen joined us. They are currently undergoing training and will be merged into the Islamic Court militia within 40 days."

 

It is almost 11:00am when Aweys leaves me. We have been talking for almost three hours. His aide hands him his mobile phone: "17 missed calls," he notes.

 

When I arrive at the airport, the bearded men with Palestinian shawls are glued to their radios. President Yusuf has just survived a bomb attack in Baidoa, I am informed. A suicide car hit his convoy and exploded, killing his brother and four bodyguards and wounding 18 others.

 

The international community is quick to blame the Islamists. And I wonder: would their leader be leisurely taking breakfast with a white woman while a plot to kill the president is being carried out?

 

As I get up at Mogadishu Airport, I realise with painful certainty that the present peace is only a temporary relief. The Islamists will never be allowed to rule this strategic country in the Horn of Africa, bridging Africa and the Arab world. For its trapped population, it will be back to the warlords and the anarchy and the powerless government, back to hell on earth

[Abwaan]

That is a nice article with lots of truth in it. Thanks for sharing this with us sxb

[BiLaaL]

The truths pointed out in the article were self-evident to all. Many thanks to the poster.

[Alle-ubaahne]

This article is so sincere that the human face of it says everything in truth about the Movement of UIC.

 

Thanks to her!

[Abu-Salman]

President Gelleh:

 

"No al-Qaida terrorists or sophisticated weapons had been found[...]

There was a possible justification (for the ousting of the Islamic group), but we have not seen the evidence yet,".

 

 

(Source: AP, Mar 05, 2007)

 

..........................................................................................................................

 

 

Sudanese, Eritrean and Qatari leaders during a three-ways summit:

 

On the situation in Somalia, the three leaders agreed on the necessity that feuding Somali factions should settle their differences through peaceful means without the intervention of any other party so that peace, security and stability would be attained in the country for the good of the brotherly Somali people.

 

 

(Source ::: QNA, 3/7/2007)

[Hunguri]

DJib, and why your so called president gave a heaven base to the US forces to attack the ICU, that he supports???

 

PS:-

 

We know, that Geelle always oppose the progress of Somalia, a good example is the little, that shown by S-land. He is always jelouse about it . This dude, should remain glued to his little gold chair, and stay away from the affair of Somalia. We have a goverment and the turning point of the Old Somalia is aproaching. Dawlad diidoow dillaac