Garowe Online (Garowe)
22 August 2008
A spokesman for Somalia's al Shabaab insurgent group has rejected a peace agreement signed between the country's interim government and the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS).
Muktar Robow "Abu Mansur," the al Shabaab spokesman, told local radio stations that "the Djibouti Agreement does not concern us [al Shabaab]."
While pledging to continue the insurgency, Abu Mansur said: "The Agreement is false because it cannot stop the bullets."
He indicated that United Nations peacekeepers or African Union peacekeepers are "no different than Ethiopian troops," while promising to "continue the jihad until the country [Somalia] is ruled by Islamic law."
Delegations from Somalia's interim government and the ARS are currently in Djibouti, where they have established a Joint Political Committee and a Joint Security Committee, which would oversee implementation of the UN-brokered Djibouti Agreement.
In March, the U.S. government designated al Shabaab a terrorist organization, a development the group's spokesman said he welcomed.
Meanwhile, fighting continues in much of south-central Somalia, including the strategic port town of Kismayo, which was seized by Islamist militias on Friday.
Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a military dictator and plunged the country into year of civil war.
The Ethiopian-backed interim government is facing a bloody insurgency led by Islamists, including al Shabaab, who have vowed to continue fighting until all foreign troops withdraw from Somali soil.
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Mr. Robow he is the one who mislead the youth by using a political ware he has no right to talk Somalis affairs otherwise must have recognize the peace agreement in Djabuuti, Somalis society mostly are well experienced his strategy, he should have to obey his farmer leader Sheikh Sharif,the agreement is very important hop and the population of Somalia are delighted,so all the stakeholders must take part the implementation, the hop depends on how world community is honesty.