Another Islamist Leader Snubs Peace Talk's Upshots

Mogadishu, Somalia, 11 June 2008 - One of the Somalia's islamist leaders who leads hundreds/thousands of Islamic fighters in Somalia Sheikh Hassan Mohamed Mohamud Aka turkey has declared that the peace talks jointly signed by Somali government and the opposition groups ended in Djibouti was barren.

Speaking to Shabelle radio by telegram telecommunication from unknown location in Somalia Hassan turkey added that as far as the Ethiopian troops in Somalia talks with the government is unattainable.

"If enemy occupied your holy land, you can never sleep as able-bodied except to drive them out from your country" Turkey angrily said with low voice" we will not allow our enemy to take pleasure in our land"

He noted that articles of Djibouti's Agreements are not included the withdrawal of the Ethiopian troops from Somalia.

"Our capital Mogadishu is under Ethiopian (enemy) occupation, we can merely recapture it by fighting and so called agreement is not added with their withthrawal" he said.

He made for instance on 1991s war between armed Somalis and the UN and US troops that reasoned to get rid of of the foreign troops from Somali capital.

He described the ARS' members took part the talks as those fled from their brothers to their foes as he put it.

Hassan turkey becomes the second islamist leader rejected the results of the peace talks stuck between Somali government and the opposition.

Earlier senior Somali Islamist leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, on Tuesday rejected a three-month truce reached between Mogadishu and its main political foes at UN-sponsored peace talks in Djibouti a day earlier.

"I do not believe that the outcome of this conference will have any impact on the resistance in Somalia. We shall continue fighting until we liberate our country from the enemies of Allah," Aweys told Shabelle radio.

"The aim of the meeting was to derail the holy war in the country," added Aweys, a hardline cleric designated a terrorist by the United States for suspected links to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) chief Sheikh Sharif Ahmed signed the accord late Monday.

Aweys is a member of the ARS, an opposition umbrella group dominated by Islamists and based in the Eritrean capital Asmara.

While some Islamist leaders and influential clan leaders joined the talks, Aweys and other hardline Islamists stayed away, saying they would not participate unless Ethiopian troops backing government forces pulled out of Somalia.

They also insisted the conference was biased.

According to the accord, Ethiopian troops would withdraw after the United Nations deployed peacekeepers from countries friendly to Somalia -- excluding neighbouring states -- within 120 days after the armistice takes effect.

On May 15, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution opening the way to a gradual return of UN staff to Somalia and possibly resulting in the deployment of peacekeepers there, but did not set a timetable.

But Aweys said the new truce did not set a deadline for the pullout of Ethiopian troops, who deployed at the end of 2006 and ousted Islamists from south and central Somalia.

"The agreement does not offer a timetable of the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces. It is not clear when they will leave," Aweys added.

The Islamists have waged a guerrilla war since then, which according to international rights groups and aid agencies has left at least 6,000 civilians dead.

The country has been plagued by an uninterrupted civil war since the 1991 overthrow of president Mohamed Siad Barre. A string of previous peace initiatives and truce deals have failed.

Source: Shabelle Media Network