Cleric sought by U.S. takes over Somalia opposition

Wednesday, July 23, 2008:- A fiery Muslim scholar and former army colonel that the United States has accused of having links to al-Qaeda said Wednesday he has taken over leadership of Somalia's opposition alliance.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys — who denies any links to violence — said he deposed the former chairman, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, because Ahmed had signed a UN-brokered peace deal with the government.

"From now on I will be the leader," Aweys told the Associated Press by telephone, adding that the opposition decided to remove Ahmed as chairman "because of his misuse of the leadership."

Analysts say Ahmed was seen by Somalia’s government and other countries as a religious moderate and more accommodating to compromise than Aweys.

2 have contested power before

This is not the first time that the two men have jockeyed for power. Both were top leaders of Somalia’s Council of Islamic Courts, which ruled the capital and much of southern Somalia for about six months in 2006 before troops from neighbouring Ethiopia arrived to push them out.

Aweys, who led the group at the height of its rule, advocated a strict Islamic government to end more than a decade of anarchy in Somalia.

But since being driven out in late 2006, the Islamic group launched a deadly insurgency with frequent attacks on government forces and civilian targets.

Ahmed, speaking by telephone from neighbouring Djibouti, denounced the decision to remove him.

"I only performed my duty, which is to help my people and my country get a lasting peace by all means," Ahmed said.

The United States considers Aweys and members of the military wing of the Council of Islamic Courts as terrorists and has issued a warrant for his arrest.

Arid, impoverished Somalia has not had a functioning central government since warlords overthrew a socialist dictator in 1991 and then turned their clan-based militias on each other.

The current administration was formed in 2004 with the help of the UN, but it has failed to assert any real control or protect its citizens from violence and poverty.

Adding to Somalia's violent insecurity, the country is in the grip of a humanitarian emergency, with more than two million people dependent on aid. The UN has issued an appeal for about $645 million in aid for Somalia, but so far has gotten about a third of that.

Responding to the crisis in Somalia is particularly dangerous because violence against aid workers has dramatically increased this year, with at least six workers killed and several others kidnapped for ransom.

see links:- http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/07/23/somalia-opposition.html