AP Interview: Top Islamic leader says peacekeepers will fuel unrest in Somalia

The Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya: One of Somalia's top Islamic leaders warned that the deployment of a foreign peacekeeping force will only fuel growing insecurity in the country.

Speaking to The Associated Press on Saturday, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said he wanted talks with the interim government to help foster peace in the anarchic African nation.

Sheik Ahmed, who was seen as a moderate within the Islamic movement that was ousted by Somalia's government with the help of Ethiopian military forces earlier this year, spoke by telephone from an undisclosed location in Kenya, where he sought sanctuary.

"Peacekeepers could not bring peace in Somalia," he said. "Their deployment will add to the already difficult security situation in the country.

"Only Somalis can bring peace if they are given the chance to do so," he said during a rare interview since being taken into Kenyan protective custody on Jan. 21.

Kenyan officials have sought to keep the cleric under wraps because he apparently feared for his safety. U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger met with him three days after he arrived in Kenya to ask him to renounce violence and join the reconciliation process in return for a role in Somalia's future.

The outcome of the meeting is unknown and Sheik Ahmed declined to give details.

Both the U.S. and the European Union believe the cleric is crucial to securing a long-term peace in Somalia, a country that has been without an effective government since 1991.

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf has pledged to convene a national reconciliation conference aimed at trying to end 16 years of conflict but as yet has not indicated if the peace initiative would include Sheik Ahmed or leaders from the Islamic movement.

The cleric said the Islamic movement leaders, some of whom are accused by the U.S. of having links to al-Qaida, are alive and in constant touch with each other.

"We are ready to talk with the government," he said. "We are seeking peace, reconciliation and Somalis to solve their own problems through dialogue."

On Friday the U.N. Security Council renewed its support for the African Union's decision to deploy peacekeepers in Somalia, stressing that such a force was needed to help restore peace and stability.

Violence has been spiraling in the capital, Mogadishu, where the Islamic movement has strong support. Sheik Ahmed said support for the Islamic movement was growing because of the worsening security situation in Mogadishu, a city of 2 million people. On Saturday, a senior police commander became the latest victim of the violence. He was shot dead by unknown gunmen on a public minibus.

Sheik Ahmed distanced himself from the violence in the capital, saying his movement was not behind any attacks. The cleric said the violence was part of a popular uprising against the U.N.-backed government and the Ethiopian troops who helped shoehorn them into power.

Somalia, a Muslim country, and Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population, fought a brutal war in 1977. Many Somalis are also deeply distrustful of a peacekeeping mission after a disastrous U.N.-led mission in the 1990s.

Sheik Ahmed said he planned to leave Kenya in the near future, heading for Yemen once he has received a formal invitation from the government.

He was the chairman of the Executive Council of Islamic Courts and shared the leadership with Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, who was chairman of the court's legislative council. Aweys is on a U.S. list of people with suspected ties to al-Qaida, though he has repeatedly denied having ties to international terrorists.

The group came to power in June 2006 after ousting U.S.-backed warlords from the capital. They then expanded control across much of southern Somalia, confining the interim government to a single farming town. Ethiopia then stepped in on Dec. 24 and the Islamic movement melted away in the face of tanks and warplanes.

The U.S. also launched two airstrikes against fleeing Islamic fighters, saying they were targeting known extremists. Few other details of the attacks are known.

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Associated Press Writer Salad Duhul in Mogadishu, Somalia, contributed to this report.
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