Somalia’s dominant Islamic movement on Tuesday launched intensive military training for hundreds of its gunmen under a plan to create instruments of statehood in areas where it holds sway.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a hard-line cleric who heads the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, said trained Islamic forces will disarm civilians, restore law and order and defend the Horn of Africa nation from internal and external aggression.
”You are going to be trained to defend Somalia from internal and foreign aggressors,” Aweys told 600 gunmen in Hilweyne military camp, about 20km north of the capital Mogadishu, before they started training.
”You are not going to kill people like the former warlords’ gunmen killed indiscriminately,” added Aweys, who is designated a terrorist by the United States for suspected links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network and other extremist groups.
The Islamists, who control a vast portion of southern Somalia including the capital Mogadishu, defeated Washington-backed warlords in four months of clashes that erupted in February and claimed at least 360 lives and wounded more than 2 000 people, mostly civilians.
After declaring victory, they started imposing Islamic theocracy and continued to expand the territory under their control towards central Somalia.
”This is the beginning, but thousands of other gunmen will be trained. You are the ones who will disarm civilians, restore law and order and help enforce [strict Islamic] Sharia law,” he said at the camp, once a garrison under the regime of the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, who was ousted in 1991.
”Do not get concerned so much about payments and opportunities, but I ask you to sacrifice for the betterment of Somalia. This is a responsibility that has been given to you by the Islamic courts, the people of Somalia and Allah,” he added.
The Islamists have opposed the deployment of Ethiopian troops in the south-central town of Baidoa to protect the weak government.
Somalia has been without a functioning central authority since Barre’s ousting plunged the Horn of Africa nation of about 10-million into a round of anarchic bloodletting and deadly jostling for power.
The existing government was created two years ago with international support after a reconciliation conference in neighbouring Kenya, but has been riddled by infighting and unable to assert control over much of the country.
Its appeals for peacekeepers have been rejected by the Islamists, who have moved to fill the power vacuum and rapidly expanded their territory since taking Mogadishu.
Last week, East African military chiefs set plans for the deployment of the first elements of a proposed nearly 7 000-strong peacekeeping force despite major logistical hurdles and the Islamists’ vehement objections. — AFP
