From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Tue Feb 03 2009 - 15:28:42 EST
President denies he is seeking military aid
Posted: 2/3/2009 8:02:00 PM
Shabelle: SOMALIA
ADDIS ABABA (Sh. M. Network)-The office of Somali's president Sheik
Sharif Sheik Ahmed strongly denied media reports saying that the
president demanded foreign troops to fight "extremists," an official
told radio Shabelle on Tuesday.
Media reports said president Sheik Sharif demanded foreign, military
forces to fight against extremism.
Ahmed Moalin Fiqi, the spokesman of the president said that the
president has not demanded any foreign troops.
"This is absolutely false and it is an attempt to detract the efforts of
the president and the ongoing peace process," said Ahmed Moalin Fiqi.
The Somali president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed was speaking to the
reporters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and insisted that he was not planning
to demand foreign forces, but he said that he was going to build Somali
national security forces.
President Sheik Sharif told to the reporters during his press conference
in Addis Ababa that he will try his best to negotiate with those who
rejected to be part of the peace process, especially Sheik Hassan Dahir
Aweis, the leader of a wing from the Alliance of the Re-liberation of
Somalia based in the Eritrean capital Asmara.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, an Islamist cleric who was elected president
by Somalia's transitional parliament on Saturday, called for
international assistance to help rebuild the country's army in order to
stop pirates organizing attacks.
The problem of piracy off Somalia's shores "is not on the sea, it's on
the land," Ahmed told reporters today at the African Union summit in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. "Only the Somali government can deal
with those who are on the land."
The spokesman said the president is flying back to Djibouti tomorrow
where he is expected to form his government.
By: Ahmednor Mohamed Farah
<http://www.shabelle.net/images/Hogaamiyaha_Dalka_Shiikh_Shariif.jpg>
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