From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Tue Mar 31 2009 - 19:10:30 EST
Somali opposition leader ends exile
Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:01:57 GMT
Somalia's opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys might soon return
to Mogadishu after quitting self-imposed exile in Eritrea.
Local Somali media reported on Tuesday that Aweys was now in the
Sudanese capital Khartoum and held talks with two senior Sudanese
officials.
They added that he was expected to leave Khartoum for Mogadishu later to
offer his support to President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's new administration.
As a former chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, Aweys worked alongside
with Ahmed and they later founded the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of
Somalia.
Somali lawmakers convened in Djibouti in January and elected Ahmed as
president to succeed embattled Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who failed to end
conflicts in the violence-ravaged nation.
Reuters quoted a close ally of Aweys in Mogadishu as saying that he was
expected to arrive in the Somali capital within two weeks.
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.
Aweys is on the US list of foreign terrorists. However, he has
categorically denied the US claims that he has links to al-Qaeda and is
opposed to Ahmed's government.
AKM/DT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=90120
<http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=90120§ionid=351020501>
§ionid=351020501
<http://cultureofsoccer.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/hassan_dahir_awey
s.jpg>
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