Somali embargo 'should stay'
2006-07-18 20:53
Mogadishu - The supreme leader of Somalia's increasingly powerful Islamist movement said on Tuesday that easing a 14-year-old United Nations arms embargo on the lawless nation would be a "fatal mistake".
A day after a US-created, international diplomatic body recommended "urgent" modifications to the embargo, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys warned the move would plunge Somalia into new chaos with new battles between Islamists and defeated US-backed warlords.
Aweys said: "What has been destroying Somalia is the presence of arms and it's awful to see the international community advocating the shipment of more arms to Somalia."
"Easing the embargo would be a fatal mistake," he said. "It is like allowing one group to arm itself.
"Others will follow and then we will have new problems in Somalia."
Aweys heads the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS), a group of sharia courts whose militia seized the capital, Mogadishu, in June from a US-backed warlord alliance after months of fierce battles and is now tightening its grip on the nation.
Fuelled fears
The rise of the Islamists has fuelled fears of a Taliban-style takeover, particularly as some, including Aweys, are considered extremists and accused of harbouring "terrorists" by the West. They deny the charges.
Their growing influence also threatens the authority of Somalia's weak transitional government, which has been appealing to the UN to ease the arms embargo to facilitate the deployment of foreign peacekeepers.
On Monday, the international contact group on Somalia, created by Washington after the defeat of the warlords, called on the UN security council "to consider with a sense of urgency modifying the arms embargo".
After pleas from government
The security council had endorsed the possibility of such a step last week, after hearing pleas from the government, the African Union and some of Somalia's neighbours. But, it has yet to take action.
The Islamists are fiercely opposed to the presence of foreign troops on Somali soil and, led by Aweys, have vowed to resist and fight them if they are deployed.
The issue has placed them at direct odds with the transitional government, which dropped objections on Monday to attending Arab League-sponsored peace talks aimed at easing tensions with the Islamists.
Aweys said: "Although we will continue the negotiations with the government, easing the weapons embargo is undermining the peace process."
"We are urging the security council not to accept the recommendations of the contact group."
- SAPA