From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Oct 27 2008 - 11:36:16 EST
Somalia: Opposition Leader Rejects Peace Pact
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
27 October 2008
Mogadishu
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the spiritual leader of the former Islamic Courts Union and now a member of the opposition group based in Asmara, has rejected the agreement signed Sunday between Somali transitional government and the opposition in Djibouti.
Aweys told Shabelle radio by phone from Asmara, the Eritrean capital, that he was against the agreement between the transitional government and some leaders of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), of which he is a member.
" The talks ended with what we have been warning the Somali people all along, and will not effect the Jihad against the enemy of Allah and people," Aweys told Shabelle Radio "we saw no developments from those so called peace talks. The jihad will carry on," We will not recognize what they said that they've achieved."
He called on the Somali people not to support the peace agreement as well he further said that the " Jihad" would carry on until one Ethiopian soldiers is in Dolow town near Ethiopia border..
The Somali government and members of ARS lead by the chairman, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, late Sunday agreed on the cessation of hostilities withdrawal of Ethiopian troops with 10 days from Mogadishu's residential areas.
The ARS split into two factions over the talks with the transitional government the hard-line members opposed to any talks with the government as long as Ethiopian troops are in Somalia'.
Another armed Islamist group, the Al-Shabaab movement, which did not take part in the peace talks, has not made any comments on the cease-fire deal. The leaders of Al-shabaab have of maintained that they will not negotiate with the transitional government as long as troops from Ethiopia.
Somalia has been without a strong central government since the ouster of former Somali leader Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.
The fighters are waging a campaign, similar to those in Iraq and Afghanistan, of roadside bombings, ambushes and assassinations.
The violence has triggered a humanitarian crisis that aid workers say may be the worst in Africa, with at least a million people displaced.
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