From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sun Jun 07 2009 - 16:38:24 EDT
Somali leader blames govt for civilian deaths
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AFP
Sun Jun 7, 8:30 am ET
MOGADISHU (AFP) - Somalia's top opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys
on Sunday blamed pro-government forces for civilian deaths in the latest
month of intense fighting.
"We are urging the foreign troops and the self-appointed leadership to stop
killing and displacing the people in Mogadishu," he told AFP by phone from
the capital.
Aweys is the head of the hardline Hezb al-Islamiya group and a key figure in
the insurgency that launched a massive offensive a month ago against the
internationally backed government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
"Those resistance groups that are engaged against the occupation forces are
doing all they can to avoid civilian casualties," he said.
Sources in the Somali government claimed Saturday that Aweys had been killed
or seriously wounded in intense battles near the border with Ethiopia on
Friday.
Aweys did not comment on the reports but said he would hold a press
conference in Mogadishu on Monday to give his assessment of the latest
fighting and outline his plans.
Hezb al-Islamiya and the hardline Shebab armed group are the two main
factions in the insurgency bent on toppling Sharif and ousting African Union
peacekeepers from the country.
Aweys and Sharif were two of the Islamist leaders who took over most of
Somalia in 2006 before being ousted by an Ethiopian invasion in support of
the transitional federal government.
Sharif eventually joined a UN-sponsored reconciliation process based in
Djibouti which Aweys, who returned from two years in exile in Eritrea in
June, has always rejected.
Aweys demands the departure of the peacekeepers, whom he describes as
invaders bent on corrupting Somalia's Islamic culture.
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