Somalia’s hard-line Islamist Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has not taken over the country’s exiled opposition, despite his claims to having become its new chairperson, a senior United Nations envoy said on Friday.
Earlier this week Aweys, who is on United States and UN lists of al-Qaeda associates, telephoned major media organisations from Eritrea and announced he had taken over as chairperson of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) from the moderate Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.
”He was not not elected,” UN special envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said in an interview with a small group of journalists at UN headquarters.
”The leadership of the ARS has left Asmara in May,” he said, adding that Sheikh Sharif remained the ARS’s recognised and legitimate leader.
Ould-Abdallah said Aweys’ claim was likely part of an internal media battle between him and others inside the ARS, an umbrella opposition alliance of the lawless Horn of Africa country. He said that the hard-line Islamist did not even have the support of 20% of the central committee of the ARS.
Somalia’s interim government and some members of the ARS initialed a deal in Djibouti last month calling for the deployment of UN peacekeepers and agreeing to a ceasefire after a month.
Aweys and other hard-line Islamists rejected the pact.
The Djibouti agreement has not been formally signed. The formal signing is to take place in Mecca, possibly this month.
Ould-Abdallah said holding the signing ceremony in Mecca complicated the situation, because it will have to be approved and supported by the Saudis. But it will also have immense symbolic value for the parties.
”If you swear in Mecca, it commits you,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ould-Abdallah said he has been negotiating with countries and UN officials about preparatory plans for a possible peacekeeping operation in Somalia. It was not clear yet which countries would be willing to send troops, though he said it was unlikely any Western forces would take part.
He said there was discussion of a force of between 8 000 and 10 000 troops. Among the potential contributors could be Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Turkey or Jordan, he added.
Amisom, the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, has authorised the deployment of 8 000 troops but has only 2 600 on the ground at present. The AU said earlier this week that it was not up to the task of stabilising the country and asked the Security Council to replace Amisom with UN forces.
While the 15 Security Council members all agree the situation is dire, most have been reluctant to send UN peacekeepers to Somalia, where warlords, Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian-backed Somali government forces are battling.
Talk of UN intervention is still coloured by memories of a battle in 1993 in which 18 US troops and hundreds of Somali militiamen died.
The Security Council is expecting Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s report on peacekeeping scenarios by August 15. – Reuters