Somalia to fight terrorists

2001-10-02 21:13

Mogadishu, Somalia - Somalia's fledgling government has set up a committee to tackle terrorism after a Somali Islamic group was linked to international terrorism in the wake of suicide attacks in the United States, President Abdiqasim Salad Hassan said on Tuesday.

Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya or Islamic Union, which has followers in many parts of this troubled Horn of Africa nation, was one of the organisations named by President George W Bush in an executive order freezing the assets of suspected terrorist groups following the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington. The order was a "strike on the financial foundation" of terrorists, Bush said.

While declining to say what action, if any, Somalia's one-year-old transitional government would take against Al-Itihaad, Abdiqasim said his administration would support the international community's crackdown on terrorism.

"We support the international community's view against the terrorists and their organisations," Abdiqasim told The Associated Press. "The Somali government has never had any relation with Al-Itihaad or any other Islamic organisation in any way."

The national committee, set up following the September 28 UN Security Council resolution against terrorism, includes the ministers of defence, justice, culture and interior, as well as police chiefs, Abdiqasim said.

Little is known about Al-Itihaad's activities other than the attacks they periodically launch in neighbouring Ethiopia's southeastern Ogaden region which borders Somalia.

Favours Sharia

The group wants the region, which is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Somalis, to be reunited with Somalia. It also favours the introduction of Islamic law or Sharia in Somalia, a Muslim nation. But there is little information available on the organisation or structure of the group.

Al-Itihaad members in Mogadishu have refused to talk to reporters.

In the early 1990s, the group was relatively organised and had bases throughout the nation, but around 1993, it split into several factions after disagreements between moderates and hard-liners about what the organisation's goals should be, observers here say.

The group has not been mentioned in the annual list of terrorist organisations published by the US State Department.

Sources familiar with the region say the group has its largest presence in the extreme south of the country near the Kenyan border. However, it is not known whether it has an active military wing or is operating training camps.

It is also not known whether Al-Itihaad has links with Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida organisation, the sources, who did not want to be identified, said. Bin Laden is the prime suspect in last month's attacks on New York and Washington.

In the past, United Nations organisations and other international aid groups have worked in areas controlled by Al-Itihaad.

Before Abdiqasim and 245 legislators were chosen a year ago at a peace conference in neighbouring Djibouti, Somalia had been without a central government for a decade. The Horn of Africa nation descended into chaos after opposition leaders who ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 turned on each other.

Clan-based factional fighting

Clan-based factional fighting reduced the country of 7 million to battling fiefdoms controlled by heavily armed militias. UN agencies and aid groups have had to co-operate with whichever faction controls the region where they work.

"As far as we are concerned, we feel secure in areas we work (in Somalia). There may be representatives of Al-Itihaad there, but the basic point is we would not work in areas unless we felt safe," said Randolph Kent, the UN resident and humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia.

Meanwhile, the government says it has had new passports printed in a bid to tighten the country's immigration controls.

Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galaydh said the passports, printed in France, had "hard-to-forge" features and would be issued to Somalis immediately.

Since Siad Barre's ouster, Somalis and foreigners have been able to obtain Somali passports in Mogadishu's main market. - Sapa-AP

- SAPA