Somali Islamists Quell Protest

Somalia's Shariif Sheikh Ahmed, the chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, arrives at Mogadishu's airport September 26, 2006, after visiting African and Middle Eastern countries.

KISMAYO, Somalia, September 26, 2006 (- Somali Islamists put down a women's protest against their capture of Kismayo port on Tuesday, but the Western-backed government, now hemmed in on three sides, said it still hoped peace talks could work.

The Islamists have rapidly expanded their grip on Somalia since they captured the capital Mogadishu in June, leaving the interim government increasingly isolated in the small southern provincial town of Baidoa.

In a second day of anti-Islamist protests in Somalia's third biggest city, dozens of women and children took to streets now patrolled by Islamist fighters on pickups with machine-guns.

The Islamists quickly dispersed them, however, arresting several demonstrators including children, witnesses said.

"They are oppressing us," said Hawo Warsame, one of the women protesters.

"They have arrested some of us as well as our children ... These people are inhuman, they are refusing to let us protest peacefully."

The Islamists later imposed an overnight curfew.

Apart from the brief protest, Kismayo was calm on Tuesday with shops opening again after the previous day's much bigger and more violent demonstration.

One boy was shot dead on Monday when Islamists opened fire on a crowd burning tires and throwing stones.

The capture of Kismayo was a major advance for the Islamists. Their rise since June has challenged the aspirations of President Abdillahi Yusuf's Western and Ethiopian-backed interim government, the 14th attempt at effective central rule since warlords ousted a dictator in 1991.

Diplomats who met Somali interim Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi in Kenya on Tuesday said he was still committed to talks with the Islamists despite Kismayo's takeover.

The government views the port's capture as breaching a ceasefire agreement reached at peace talks in Sudan.

Gedi had cast doubt over future talks on Monday, calling the Kismayo takeover "an expansion of extremists and terrorists."

But "(Gedi) said the government is still committed to the peace talks in Khartoum," Mario Raffaelli, Italian special envoy to Somalia, told Reuters after Tuesday's meeting.

REGIONAL FEARS

Also visiting Nairobi, Somali Information Minister Ali Jama Jangali said the government had expressed concerns to donors over what he called "aggression by the Islamic courts".

The Islamists and government were due to next meet in Sudan's capital Khartoum at the end of October.

"We have never refused to attend the talks, in fact it was us who have always pushed for it," Jama told Reuters. "A peaceful environment is needed if the talks are to succeed."

Analysts fear the Islamist-government standoff could spark a major regional crisis in the Horn of Africa.

Neighboring Ethiopia, the biggest regional power, sent more troops into Somalia on Monday to bolster the militarily weak interim government, the Islamists and residents said.

But Addis Ababa on Tuesday dismissed the claim as a propaganda smokescreen by Islamist "extremists" to cover their own "illegal actions" such as the Kismayo takeover.

Islamist leaders have repeatedly urged Somalis to defend their country against an Ethiopian military presence.

In a further worry for the region, the United Nations warned that the growing tide of Somalis fleeing instability at home had raised the number of refugees in Kenya to the highest level in a decade and was threatening to exhaust food aid stocks.

(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Nairobi)

Source: Reuters

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