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June 27, 2006

Somalia: New Islamist Leader Is Al Qaeda Supporter

The head of the Union of Islamic Courts was, until this weekend, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed. Though a hardline fundamentalist, he nonetheless had some integrity and sense of justice, despite his viewing the Americans as "the devil's allies". The 42-year old was a former teacher of geography, Arabic and religious studies, before he was elected to be head of the Union of Islamic Courts. Something of his personality can be found in an interview with Asharq Alaswat last month, before the Islamic court militias took control of Somalia on June 5.

However, there was an election on Saturday, and the new leader of the Islamic courts is no longer the fairly devout and humble-living Ahmed, but the notorious Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is listed by the US as a supporter of Al Qaeda. The exact age of Aweys is unknown. He has been said to be anywhere from his sixties to 71.

Ahmed (pictured below left) will still wield some influence. He has been named as the head of an executive committee in charge of the Islamic Courts' administration. This will include implementing the directives of the courts. The Union of Islamic Courts will be superceded by the Council of Islamic Courts (CIC), which will effectively be a Muslim Parliament.

We reported on October 21 that the United Nations had claimed that Sheikh Aweys was busy building up and arming his own militia, to prevent the UN-brokered interim government from taking power. Last week, following talks brokered by the Arab League and held in Khartoum, Sudan, it appeared that the Islamic Courts would be working with the interim government, which is headed by Abdullahi Yusuf. Because of the violence and lawlessness which took place in the capital, the Interim Government has been located in Baidoa, northwest of Mogadishu.

The future of such an agreement is now more uncertain. The BBC states that next month, the Union of Islamic Courts, headed by Aweys will be meeting with the Interim government. The date for the meeting has been scheduled for July 15.

As we reported in October, Aweys was one of the founders of the terror group Al-Ittihad al-Islami, which last year was placed by Britain on its list of outlawed organizations. After the dictator Siad Barre was ousted from power in Somalia, Al-Ittihad al-Islami grew. CNN states that this group is top of the list of suspects believed responsible for the bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kikambala outside Mombassa in Kenya, which took place in November 28 2002, and which killed 10 Kenyans and three Israelis. A graphical account of those attacks, carried out by three suicide bombers, can be found here.

US Democratic senator Bob Graham said at that time of Al-Ittihad al-Islami: "It's a Somali-Kenyan group that's been in operation for about 10 years, with loose affiliations with al-Qaida." Al-Ittihad al-Islami had a presence in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, in Kenya and possibly Djibouti, according to the US Overseas Security Advisory Council.

Al-Ittihad al-Islami or "Islamic Union" has been held responsible for bombings in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia in 1996 and 1997, and the kidnapping of several relief workers in 1998. It has a charitable wing, supporting orphanages and schools. It was attacked by the Ethiopian army and has since operated in small cells. It is funded by Middle East financiers and Somali diaspora communities in Europe, North America, and the Arabian Peninsula.

During the 1990s, when it was headed by Sheikh Aweys (pictured below, right), the president of the Interim Government, Abdullahi Yusuf, drove out Al-Ittihad al-Islami from its base in Puntland, northern Somalia. Such a history is not likely to lead to a peaceful reconciliation between the two leaders.

Associated Press via Santa Barbara Newspress has a telephone interview with Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys who says: "Somalia is a Muslim nation and its people are also Muslim, 100 percent. Therefore any government we agree on would be based on the holy Quran and the teachings of our Prophet Muhammad."

In his usual manner, Aweys, speaking from his home in Galgudud region in central Somalia, conveyed his contempt for the West. "It is not compulsory for us to hate what the Westerners hate. Our relationship with the U.S. administration will depend on how the U.S. treats us. If it treats us well, we will also treat them well. If it behaves badly, it will be responsible."

Reuters via Khaleej Times and Agence France Presse via Turkish Press report that on Monday, Aweys declared that Sharia law would be imposed throughout Somalia.

He dismissed claims that he was a terrorist in an interview with AFP, saying: "It is not proper to put somebody on a list of terrorists who has not killed or harmed anybody." He called US allegations of his links to Al Qaeda "misplaced" and a "distortion of the truth".

"This is a mistake that should be rectified by those who compiled the list. I am not a terrorist. But if strictly following my religion and love for Islam makes me a terrorist, then I will accept the designation."

Speaking of the need to establish relations with the Interim Government, he said: "We will come together by following the commands of God and the teachings of the Koran. Those are the principles that will bring us together. By the will of Allah, we will come together. We will treat people the way they treat us."

He also said that if people did not show respect, they would in return not be treated with respect.

Yahoo News reports that yesterday (Monday 26), US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "Of course we are not going to work with somebody like that and of course we would be troubled if this (choice) is an indicator of the direction that this group would go in."

The US State Department will not be making contact with Aweys in the immediate future, but they have not ruled out future communication, dependent on how it appears that Aweys and his fraternity will try to push the direction of Somalia.

And yesterday, in a sign of things to come, the Islamic Courts will be enacting their first public stonings since the mid 1990s. They enacted hand amputations and stonings for about a year in their first year in which they were established, but had not carried out any death sentences for a decade, until May 2 this year.

On that date, in Bermuda (Permuda) district, Mogadishu, a public execution was carried out. A 45-year old teacher, Omar Hussein, had argued with Osman Moallim, the father of a teenage boy at the school, two months previously. In the argument, the teacher stabbed Moallim, killing him.

The result of the Islamic Court's ruling was that the teacher was tied to a large post, with his hands manacled behind his back, and his head covered in a cloth bag. The death sentence was carried out by 16 year old Mohamed Moalim, the victim's son, who repeatedly stabbed him in the chest, throat and head.

Siyad Mohamed, a militia leader connected to the Union of Islamic Courts, said to a Reuters correspondent: "Five men who raped four women on June 22 will be stoned to death today in accordance with the Islamic sharia. They have pleaded guilty to the crime and also have been identified by the victims."

The rapists will be executed in Jowhar. Reuters also reports from a source within the Islamic Courts that there is currently a split developing between the moderates and the hardliners, as represented by Aweys, who wants an Islamist state like that of the Taliban.

Apparently Aweys has a protege, called Aden Hashi Ayro. This individual trained in Afghanistan and while he was there he became linked to the killing of aid workers. Last year, he was responsible for the desecration of an Italian cemetery in Mogadishu.

The victory of the Islamic militias over the warlords came after months of fighting which had claimed the lives of at least 350 people. The warlords, and secular businessmen had formed a grouping calling itself the Counter-Terror Alliance in February. The first fighting between this Alliance and the Islamic Union happened on February 22. On March 13 the Union of Islamic Courts announced that that they would seize the capital, Mogadishu, by force. After numerous conflicts, ceasefires, and renewed battles, they succeeded in their aim of controlling the capital on June 5.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 27, 2006 12:51 AM

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