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Somalia's speaker quits role in talks with Islamists

By Guled Mohamed
Sunday, October 15, 2006

 

Speaker of the Somali Parliament
         Sharif  Hassan Sheikh

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan has given up his role as the government's chief negotiator at talks with rival Islamists, a Somali legislator said on Sunday.

 

The speaker, who could not be reached for comment, left after a split with Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi who strongly opposed the power-sharing talks.

 

"I can confirm the speaker of parliament has resigned in his capacity as the chairman of the government committee that is negotiating with the Islamic courts," legislator Mustaf Duhulow told Reuters by phone from Nairobi.

 

The Arab League is mediating talks in the Sudanese capital Khartoum between the Mogadishu-based Islamists and the internationally recognised but virtually powerless interim government.

The rise of the Islamists, who have laid down strict sharia law as they have seized most of southern Somalia since taking Mogadishu in June, has eclipsed the fractious government and its plans to impose central rule on a land in anarchy since 1991.

 

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The legislator said Gedi, forced to publicly support the talks in a political deal cut after he narrowly survived a no-confidence vote, was working against the speaker.

"Ali Mohamed Gedi wrote letters to the international community telling them the speaker does not represent the government," Duhulow said.

 

Gedi could not be reached for comment.

 

A diplomat closely involved with Somalia, who is not authorised to speak to the press, confirmed the departure and Gedi's overtures to donors about the speaker.

 

The talks, due to resume for a third round later this month, have produced little other than a promise by both sides to recognize each other and not to make any military moves. Both accuse the other of violating the deal.

 

The government says the Islamists' advances on new territory constitutes a violation.

The Islamists accuse Ethiopia of invading Somalia with troops to prop up the government, with which Addis Ababa is closely allied. They have declared holy war against Ethiopia, which says the Islamists are led by terrorists.

 

Tightening their grip across the territory they control, the Islamists on Sunday closed down a Mogadishu radio station formerly owned by a U.S.-backed warlord they defeated in June.

 

"A militiaman was appointed its head immediately after we took over the city and since then it has been propagating lies against us," Islamist spokesman Abdirahim Ali Mudey said.

 

Critics accuse the Islamists of proposing draconian rules for the media, designed to muzzle critical reporting. They have shut down a number of radio stations and briefly arrested several reporters.

 

Source: Reuters, Oct. 15, 2006

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