Top Islamist Blames U.S. For Somali Mayhem

By Somalilandtimes network

By Guled Mohamed

MOGADISHU, March 4, 2006 – The United States has funded a new "anti-terror" coalition to fight Islamists in Mogadishu to avenge the killing of American soldiers there in the 1990s and to ensure anarchy persists, a leading Islamist has alleged.

In a rare interview, Sheikh Dahir Uweys, 61, who is on a U.S. list of most wanted terrorists, said Washington was still bitter over the deaths of 18 soldiers in lawless Somalia during a U.N. mission in the early 1990s that went sour.

That incident was depicted in the film "Black Hawk Down".

"Americans were killed and dragged here, they have a grudge against the Somalis," the military officer-turned-cleric told Reuters late on Friday.

Uweys said a newly formed Somali political group -- calling itself the Mogadishu Anti-Terrorism Coalition and comprising many of the city's major warlords -- was behind a recent flare-up in violence, with U.S. support and funding.

In the worst fighting of recent times in Mogadishu, at least 37 people died and scores were injured in mid-February when pro-coalition fighters clashed with Islamists, residents say.

"The fighting was started and is being funded by the Americans... and supported by Ethiopia," Uweys said.

"U.S. diplomats in Nairobi said they had no comment on the allegations. Members of the coalition could not be immediately reached in Mogadishu for comment.

Ethiopia is the regional power-house in the Horn of Africa, and Islamists have long accused it of trying to interfere in Somalia with U.S. support.

"We have fought with Ethiopia previously. We know they have assassins around who eliminate any bright Somali man they think can help the people," he said.

"I FEAR NOTHING"

Somalia has been without a central government since clan militia ousted former strongman Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991 ushering in a decade of anarchy. A new government formed in Kenya in late 2004 is yet to take control of the country.

The soft-spoken, bespectacled Uweys is chairman of one of Somalia's powerful sharia tribunals, the Ifka Halanka Islamic court in north Mogadishu. The courts are the only source of justice for the nearly million people in Mogadishu.

"According to them, what I am trying to say about promoting Islamic government is terrorism," said Uweys.

"They (Americans) are perturbed by things they don't believe in... They take Islam to be worse than communism."

He said it was hypocritical of Washington to support warlords who create havoc in Somalia and yet fight the Islamic courts seeking to bring harmony among Somalis. He also said he was untroubled by being on the most wanted list.

"I have escaped two assassination attempts. I don't fear anything. Even if I die here I don't care," he said in one of his houses in north Mogadishu. "They don't care if the Somali people continue to be in a state of anarchy."

Somalia honored Uweys for bravery in 1977 after fighting against Ethiopia. He is married to four wives and has 20 children. His Mogadishu residence is heavily fortified and is guarded by several armed militia.

"They view me as worse than a person who is killing people because I want to change my community," he said, clad in a simple black suit. "This is the danger they see in me."

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