Warlord President Says Islamists Will Not Rule Country‎

ISSUE 234

The president of the Somali provisional government, Abdullah Yusuf

Mogadishu, July 14, 2006 – The president of the Somali provisional government, Abdullah Yusuf, said on Friday that "even if the Islamists now control the whole of Mogadishu and the city of Jowhar, this does not mean that we will allow them to rule over Somalia." "I am not the weak president of a weak government. At first I welcomed the Union of the Islamic Courts' (UIC) victory which wiped away the warlords, but now they are undertaking a path which is negative for the country," he added in an interview with the Arab London-based daily al-Sharq al-Awsat.

Following the seizing of Mogadishu's harbour by the UIC earlier this week, a key infrastructure for the commercial exchanges with and within Somalia, Yusuf stressed how his government is the only institution legitimised to rule over the country.

He said he fears that the UIC want to become a parallel government and added that his cabinet "is the only government which is recognised by the Somali people and the international community."

"They [the UIC] fought against the warlords with the support of the population, but they do not have statesmen among their leaders and cannot control a city such as Mogadishu," he explained.

Yusuf concluded that he will be ready to cooperate with the UIC only if they should accept the presence of international troops in the country. However, he said he will fight the UIC if they tried to conquer the town of Baidoa, where the headquarters of the Somali provisional government and parliament are situated.

Source: Ham/Aki