Garowe Online (Garowe)
29 November 2008
The spokesman for Somalia' s Islamic Courts Union (ICU) has rejected a power-sharing deal signed between the country' s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the opposition faction, Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS).
Abdirahim Isse Addow, the ICU spokesman, read aloud to journalists a press statement issued Saturday in the capital Mogadishu.
"We have rejected the Djibouti Agreement because it is an agreement with the government that brought Ethiopian troops to the country [Somalia]," Mr. Addow said, adding: "We will continue the war until Ethiopians leave."
The statement demanded the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops and called for a "unity government" to be formed afterwards.
The ICU strongly condemned piracy and illegal fishing, which the statement blamed on unnamed foreign countries.
The press statement was signed by Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar, the ICU's chief ground commander and deputy executive chairman. Sheikh Abdulkadir visited ARS Chairman Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed when the latter visited Jowhar in October.
The rejection comes on the heels of a similar rejection issued by Muslim scholars, who have been working hard in recent months to restore relations between ICU leaders.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the ICU legislative head who lives in Eritrea, has also rejected the Djibouti Agreement and urged the continuation the anti-Ethiopia insurgency.
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