From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Mar 31 2009 - 11:30:02 EST
Somali opposition leader quits Eritrea for Sudan
Tue Mar 31, 2009 1:21pm GMT
* Opposition leader in Sudanese capital
* May go to Mogadishu to back new government
By Ibrahim Mohamed
MOGADISHU, March 31 (Reuters) - Somalia's hardline Islamist opposition
leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has quit self-imposed exile in Eritrea for
neighbouring Sudan and may return to Mogadishu soon, Somali media said on
Tuesday.
Aweys, 62, is on a U.S. list of terrorism suspects. He is a former chairman
of the Islamic Courts Union that ruled Somalia's capital in 2006 until being
ousted by Ethiopian troops.
He worked alongside his country's moderate Islamist president, Sheikh Sharif
Ahmed, in the Islamic Courts and they later founded the Alliance for the
Re-Liberation of Somalia.
Earlier this year, Ahmed was elected president by lawmakers at U.N.-hosted
talks in Djibouti.
Radio stations in Mogadishu said Aweys was in Khartoum and held talks on
Tuesday with two senior Sudanese officials. They said he was expected to fly
to the Somali capital later to offer his support to Ahmed's new
administration.
The endorsement of Aweys would be a boost for Ahmed, who faces the daunting
task of trying to establish a new national security force and persuade
heavily-armed Islamist guerrillas to back his government in the interests of
peace.
But it could prove difficult for the United Nations and Western countries,
which were once wary of Islamists being in power but now see Ahmed as the
best hope for bringing peace to the failed Horn of Africa state after 18
years of violence.
A close ally of Aweys in Mogadishu, who asked not to be named, told Reuters
Aweys was expected to arrive in the city within two weeks. The ally said
Awey's plans were not yet clear, but he denied he had met any Sudanese
officials.
One senior Somali source in Sudan confirmed Aweys was in the country, and
said it was possible Ahmed might travel to Khartoum to meet him there. He
gave no other details.
In a Reuters interview by telephone from Asmara earlier this month, Aweys
denounced Ahmed as just another Ethiopian stooge and said he was a traitor
to the Islamic faith. [ID:nL4915892]
Aweys is on the U.S. list of foreign terrorists, as is the hardline Islamist
insurgent group al Shabaab, which controls much of southern and central
Somalia. Ahmed has been pushing to have Aweys removed from the list.
Washington accuses Somalia's hardline Islamists of having ties to Osama bin
Laden's al Qaeda and fears the chaotic country could be used by foreign
groups to destabilise the region. (Additional reporting by Abdiaziz Hassan
in Nairobi; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Giles Elgood)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----