Prominent Somali Businessman Denies Ties To Terrorism, Calls For New Government

AP Interview

NAIROBI, Kenya, February 18, 2007 – A wealthy businessman who supported Somalia's Islamic courts said Sunday that he has no ties to terrorism and called on the international community to help the Horn of Africa country create a new government supported by all segments of society.

Abukar Omar Aden, a Somali, told The Associated Press that allegations that he had links to al-Qaida and other international terror organizations were untrue and spread by his enemies.

Kenyan authorities dropped criminal charges against Aden and his son Thursday for immigration violations after they fled Somalia following the defeat of the Council of Islamic Courts.

Aden , who was paralyzed in a car accident in 2002 and is confined to a wheelchair, acknowledged that he provided the radical Islamic group with money and other goods when it first started. The United States has accused the Islamic group of ties to al-Qaida, and some Somali officials have accused Aden of being a conduit for al-Qaida financing. U.S. intelligence services have also shown an interest in Aden.

"In the early days, all the people in Mogadishu helped the Islamic courts," he said. "The reason I supported the Islamists was that they restored peace to Mogadishu. There is nothing beyond that. I'm not al-Ittihad, I'm not al-Islah nor am I al-Qaida. I'm only a businessman and a Muslim too."

Kenya had planned to deport Aden, 72, and his son to Somalia after they were arrested on the border, but the men fought the order in court claiming that they would be persecuted if returned to Somalia because of their past opposition to the current government.

The transitional government took control of the capital, Mogadishu, last month after Ethiopian troops intervened to defeat the Council of Islamic Courts, which was trying to establish an Islamic government. Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991.

Aden made millions of dollars (euros) importing goods from Saudi Arabia and Italy, including used automobiles. He has also worked with Saudi charities providing aid to Somalia.

Born in Mogadishu, Aden also owned the city's Ramadan Hotel, where Islamic leaders held their meetings. He is well-known in Somalia for personally intervening to save the lives of thousands of people from clan violence in 1993.

Aden said the Islamic courts began as a way to solve disputes peacefully in the absence of a government. The courts became popular among average Somalis and soon evolved into a political threat to Somalia's warlords, who had carved the country into warring fiefdoms.

One of those warlords, Bashir Rageh, had cooperated with the CIA in capturing terror suspects inside Somalia and turning them over to U.S. authorities, officials say. Aden said he had a land dispute with Rageh, who then allegedly began spreading rumors that Aden was an al-Qaida operative.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have acknowledged that the CIA financed Rageh and other Somali warlords to capture three terrors suspects hiding in Mogadishu and to destroy the Islamic courts that protected them. The operation backfired when the Islamic courts defeated the warlords and took control of Mogadishu in June.

But Aden said the courts were far from organized in the beginning, with some courts pursuing a moderate interpretation of Islam and others backing a radical agenda. He said he opposed the radicals, but could not speak out publicly because it could have sparked greater violence.

Eventually the radicals, known as the Shabaab, became the most influential faction of the courts and they began attacking the transitional government and their Ethiopian backers, Aden said. Ethiopian troops defeated the Council of Islamic Courts last month but that does not give the government, which includes many warlords, legitimacy, he added.

Since the Somali government returned to Mogadishu, insurgents have staged almost daily attacks. The only way to find peace in Somalia is to build consensus, Aden said.

"I don't think you can disarm people by force in Mogadishu," he said. "Only a willing heart can do that."

Source: The Associated Press