US-wanted cleric gets top post
By Mohamed Ali Bile
June 25, 2006

Hardline Muslim cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys was named head of the Council of the Islamic Courts, what the Islamists call a parliament for the group whose militia took Mogadishu from secular warlords on June 5 and moved into the hinterland.

The moderate face of the courts, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, was named head of an executive committee in charge of the courts administration, which will implement the parliament's decisions.

"Consultations are going on. It is not final," Abdirahim Isse, an aide to Ahmed, told Reuters, adding other appointments would be made in restructuring the Islamic Courts Union (ICU).

"It will ... prevent future disagreements over power."

The ICU leadership has tried hard to present a moderate image, including inviting Western journalists to Mogadishu, to offset accusations that it harbours al Qaeda linked extremists.

The killing of a Swedish cameraman at a Mogadishu protest on Friday was a blow to the ICU, which says it has brought relative law and order to the capital after 15 years of anarchy.

Aweys was appointed just days after the Islamists and the interim government, formed in 2004 but too weak to move to Mogadishu, agreed to recognise each other, stop military campaigns and hold more talks in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

The agreement was welcomed as a step forward by diplomats worried about the worsening ties between the Islamists and Somalia's weak but internationally recognised government.

But the rise of Aweys will alarm the West, worried that the Islamists want to establish Taliban-style rule in Somalia, despite repeated denials by the ICU's Ahmed.

"DISTURBING"

"It's clearly disturbing. It raises all kinds of questions about whether what happened in Khartoum was just for show and the real nature of the Islamic courts," one diplomat said.

"It's not an entity that wants to play within the existing structures," the Western diplomat added.

Reaction in Mogadishu was mixed, some saying the Aweys appointment could hurt the Khartoum deal, while resident Malayko Mohamed disagreed: "It's a good step because he can handle security issues in Mogadishu."

Aweys said in a March interview with Reuters that the interim government could not be supported because it was organised along secular lines.

A former army colonel, Aweys was decorated for bravery in the war with Ethiopia in 1977. He vanished amid heightened U.S. scrutiny after the September 11 attacks but resurfaced in 2004.

He helped establish the Islamic Courts Union and wants Somalia ruled by sharia law. A May U.N. report said Aweys had begun military training for his militia in early 2005.

------
(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed and Katie Nguyen)

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.