Islamists reject troop deployment

AP | August 19, 2006

A young Islamist militia keeps guard outside the Isbaheysiga Mosque during Friday prayers in Somalia's capital Mogadishu August 18, 2006. REUTERS/Shabele Media (SOMALIA)

The leader of the Islamic courts that have taken over most of southern Somalia, Shaikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, said any peacekeeping mission in Somalia would fail.

He cited previous peacekeeping missions, indirectly referring to the United States and UN missions in Somalia in the mid-1990s.

At Friday prayers in the capital, Mogadishu, Shaikh Omer Eman Abu Kar, another top leader of the Islamic courts, urged thousands to reject any peacekeeping mission sent to Somalia.

Their statements followed a Thursday meeting of top African military officials in neighbouring Kenya to work out details of a possible peacekeeping mission.

Such a force would be sent under the auspices of the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development, which mediated the peace talks that led to the formation of Somalia's transitional government two years ago.

Somalia's transitional government in the past has called for peacekeepers to help it establish a hold on the country, with parliament endorsing a security plan drawn up by President Abdullahi Yousuf's government that includes a role for a regional peacekeeping mission.

On Thursday, Kenyan Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula told reporters on the sidelines of the military officials' meeting that such a mission would take time and money and would depend on the political situation in Somalia.

Aweys responded by calling Kenya "an enemy of Islam".

"I had respected the Kenyan government for its neutrality [in Somali affairs], but when I heard what the deputy foreign minister announced, I realised that Kenya is an enemy of Islam," Aweys said on Friday.