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Somalia: Yemen to Hold Mediation Talks for Asmara, Djibouti Based Opposition
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Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
30 June 2008
Posted to the web 30 June 2008
Abdinasir Mohamed Guled
Since the end of May this year, there have been apparent divisions among members of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia ARS the Yemeni government has for the first time embarked on efforts to reconcile ARS factions particularly those in Djibouti and Asmara, Eritrea.
Sheikh Hasan Dahir Aweys who is among the leaders of the ARS faction in Asmara told Shabelle radio they are preparing to depart to Sana'a, Yemen where they have been invited by the Yemeni President, Ali Abdallah Salah.
Hasan Dahir Aweys said they are going to Yemen in a bid to resolve the difference in opinion regarding reconciliation with the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. The ARS official expressed optimism in the talks.
Reports from Djibouti also indicate that ARS Djibouti based faction is also preparing to travel to Yemen to go hold talks with the Yemeni leader.
Among those leaving for Yemen from Djibouti are said to be Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad and Sharif Hasan Sheikh Adan.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the spiritual leader of the former Islamic Courts Union and now a member of the opposition group, has rejected the agreement signed Monday between Somali transitional government and the opposition in Djibouti, local media reported Tuesday.
Aweys earliert told Shabelle radio by phone from Asmara, the Eritrean capital, that he was against the agreement between the transitional government and some leaders of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), of which he is a member." The talks ended with what we have been warning the Somali people all along," Aweys told Shabelle Radio in Mogadishu." Previously there were no delegates representing the ARS to Djibouti. We saw no developments from those so called peace talks. The jihad will carry on," Aweys said. "We will not recognize what they said that they've achieved."
He called on the Somali people not to support the peace agreement.
"Somali people want wide-ranging conformity, two gathered persons cannot accomplish solution," he angrily said. The Somali government and members of ARS lead by the chairman, Shiek Sharif Shiek Ahmed, late Monday agreed on the cessation of hostilities for 90 days and the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops with 120 days following the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces. The ARS split into two factions over the talks with the transitional government. The hard-line members opposed to any talks with the government as long as Ethiopian troops are in Somali.
Another armed Islamist group, the Al-shabaab movement, which did not take part in the peace talks, has not made any comments on the cease-fire deal. The leaders of Al-Shabaab have maintained that they will not negotiate with the transitional government as long as troops from Ethiopia, Somalia's eastern neighbor, are in Somalia.
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Somalia has been without a strong central government since the ouster of former Somali leader Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.
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