Djibouti agreement ARS and the Somali interim government
Intelligence reports from Eritrea say that President Isias Afawerki has got angry over the departure of Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to Djibouti to join in Djibouti peace talks sources in Eritrea said.Sources say that Isias Afwerki has phoned to Sheikh Sharif in Djibouti warning him from taking part the peace but Sharif rebuffed to accept.The sources say that Isias Afawerki has threatened to Sharif of premeditated killing against him.Some intelligence officers close to Eritrean president say that he warned the rest of the ARS members in Eritrea from taking part the talks.Its yet unknown how/why Isias Afawerki is doing this act."He is in assassination plan against Sharif "sources close to Eritrean president told " sheik Sharif has rubbished Afawerki's remarks..Sources say that if the peace agreed to withdraw Ethiopian troops from Somalia 
subsequently they would invade Eritrea that might be the foremost concern of Eritrea putting in pressure on Sheikh Sharif because no attack against Eritrea could take place if the Ethiopian troops are busy with the fighting of Somalia islamists leave from Somalia.Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and ARS chief Sheikh Sharif Ahmed signed the accord late Monday at the second of talks organised and mediated by the UN special envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdallah.While some Islamist leaders and influential clan leaders joined the talks, Aweys and other Islamists stayed away, saying they would not take part unless Ethiopian troops backing government forces pulled out of Somalia.According to the accord, Ethiopian troops would withdraw after the United Nations deployed peacekeepers from countries friendly to Somalia -- excluding neighbouring states -- within 120 days after the armistice takes effect.It said the government would meanwhile "act in accordance with the decision that has already been taken by the Ethiopian government to withdraw its troops from Somalia after the deployment of a sufficient number of UN forces."On May 15, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution opening the way to a gradual return of UN staff to Somalia and possibly resulting in the deployment of peacekeepers there, but did not set a timetable.But Aweys said the new truce did not set a deadline for the pullout of Ethiopian troops, who deployed at the end of 2006 and ousted Islamists from south and central Somalia."T
he agreement does not offer a timetable of the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces. It is not clear when they will leave," Aweys added.The Islamists have waged a guerrilla war since then, which according to international rights groups and aid agencies has left at least 6,000 civilians dead and displaced hundreds of thousands mainly from the flashpoint capital Mogadishu.The rivals also agreed to facilitate unhindered passage of humanitarian supplies to around 2.6 million Somalis in need of urgent food aid even though similar pledge on May 16 went unheeded.The figure is expected to reach 3.5 million by the year-end because of a prolonged drought and fast rising inflation.But the United Nations and aid groups have scaled down operations owing to increased insecurity.The country has been plagued by an uninterrupted civil war since the 1991 overthrow of president Mohamed Siad Barre. A string of previous peace initiatives and truce deals have failed.The African Union has deployed ome 2,600 peacekeepers deployed in Somalia -- short of the pledged 8,000 troops -- but have failed to stem the rising tide of insurgency in the nation of 10 million.This also comes as the Reliberation of Somalia alliance based in Eritrea will hold meeting next week to dismiss Sheikh Sharif.Zakariya Mahmud, ARS deputy chairman, has revealed that the ARS will hold a meeting next week to make a decision to dismiss ARS chairman Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad from his post and appoint a replacement to him.In a statement by telephone from Asmara, Mahmud said that "the ARS Central Committee will meet next week to put an end to Sheikh Sharif's betrayal of the ARS principles, cancel the unilateral decisions he has made, and reject the stances he has taken, which are opposed to the ARS policy."This is the first time a prominent official of the ARS has publicly confirmed the intention to dismiss Sharif from his post. It is to be recalled that Shaykh Hasan Tahir Oweys, a leading figure in the ARS and former leader of the Islamic Courts, told recently that there is an intention within the ARS to sever Sharif's link to the ARS. Sharif has not held any meeting with the ARS members for the past three months.He also levelled sharp accusations at Eritrean President Isaias Afworki of attempting to control the ARS and to use it to serve his country's interests in the Horn of Africa. Shaykh Sharif and Sharif Hasan Adam, the dissident [former] speaker of the Somalia parliament, are leading the ARS delegation to Djibouti, currently hosting indirect negotiations between the ARS and the Somali authorities under the auspices of Ahmad Ould-Abdallah, the UN special envoy to Somalia.Zakariya Mahmud, the ARS deputy chairman, pointed out that Shaykh Sharif has ignored demands that he return to Asmara to resolve differences and explain the stand he has taken.He noted that Sharif, who is leading the ARS delegation to the Djibouti negotiations under the auspices of the UN between the ARS and the interim Somali government, led by Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, is no longer the ARS chairman due to his betrayal of the trust of the ARS members and because he held talks with the enemies of Somalia under US auspices.He added:"The ARS will not recognize any agreement signed by Sharif with the Somali authorities because he has, in effect, lost both his post and the trust of the ARS members, and so he no longer represents them. We do not recognize him as the ARS chairman any more and we will overthrow him, because he has betrayed the trust and has failed to honour our constants of rejecting any peace talks with the Somali interim government or any Ethiopian official before the withdrawal of the Ethiopian forces from Somalia." The Ethiopian forces invaded Somali towards the end of 2006 to enable the Somali authorities to overthrow the Islamic Courts, which then were in control of several areas in Somali, including Mogadishu, for six months." Zakariya Mahmud pointed out that the US ambassador to Nairobi played a key role in arranging the current Somali reconciliation meetings in Djibouti after unpublicized contacts with Sheikh Sharif without the knowledge of the ARS.He disclosed that, according to unofficial information that the ARS received from the Ethiopian ambassador to Djibouti, Sharif and some members of the ARS to the Djibouti negotiations met in secret [with the Ethiopian ambassador to Djibouti].He said this represents "an unforgivable betrayal and an attempt to establish suspicious relations with representatives of the Ethiopian regime." It is to be recalled that the ARS delegation had walked out of the Djibouti negotiations because the Ethiopian ambassador was present at the venue of the negotiations, something that Zakariya described as "an exposed theatrical ploy to cover up the suspicious contacts between the two sides." He added:"As far as we are concerned, we will not contact or meet with collaborators (in reference to the Somali authorities), or the occupiers (in reference to the Ethiopian forces) before Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has withdrawn his military forces from Somalia."Arab and Western sources concerned with the Somali issue expect that the overthrow of Sheikh Sharif from his post as chairman of the ARS would impact the efforts being exerted by Ahmad Ould-Abdullahi, the Mauritian diplomat and the UN special envoy to Somalia, to bring about direct negotiations between the ARS and the Somali interim government.According to the Asmara Alliance Charter, which was established last year and which comprises of Somali Islamists, secularists, parliamentarians, and dissidents, the deputy chairman of the ARS will temporarily assume the ARS chairmanship if Sheikh Sharif is actually toppled and dismissed from his post.Sharif, the former chairman of the Executive Council of the Islamic Courts, is viewed as a moderate among the hawks of the Islamic Courts, though in the past year he held controversial talks with representatives of US President George Bush's administration in the capital Nairobi under the auspices of the Kenyan authorities.
subsequently they would invade Eritrea that might be the foremost concern of Eritrea putting in pressure on Sheikh Sharif because no attack against Eritrea could take place if the Ethiopian troops are busy with the fighting of Somalia islamists leave from Somalia.Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and ARS chief Sheikh Sharif Ahmed signed the accord late Monday at the second of talks organised and mediated by the UN special envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdallah.While some Islamist leaders and influential clan leaders joined the talks, Aweys and other Islamists stayed away, saying they would not take part unless Ethiopian troops backing government forces pulled out of Somalia.According to the accord, Ethiopian troops would withdraw after the United Nations deployed peacekeepers from countries friendly to Somalia -- excluding neighbouring states -- within 120 days after the armistice takes effect.It said the government would meanwhile "act in accordance with the decision that has already been taken by the Ethiopian government to withdraw its troops from Somalia after the deployment of a sufficient number of UN forces."On May 15, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution opening the way to a gradual return of UN staff to Somalia and possibly resulting in the deployment of peacekeepers there, but did not set a timetable.But Aweys said the new truce did not set a deadline for the pullout of Ethiopian troops, who deployed at the end of 2006 and ousted Islamists from south and central Somalia."T
he agreement does not offer a timetable of the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces. It is not clear when they will leave," Aweys added.The Islamists have waged a guerrilla war since then, which according to international rights groups and aid agencies has left at least 6,000 civilians dead and displaced hundreds of thousands mainly from the flashpoint capital Mogadishu.The rivals also agreed to facilitate unhindered passage of humanitarian supplies to around 2.6 million Somalis in need of urgent food aid even though similar pledge on May 16 went unheeded.The figure is expected to reach 3.5 million by the year-end because of a prolonged drought and fast rising inflation.But the United Nations and aid groups have scaled down operations owing to increased insecurity.The country has been plagued by an uninterrupted civil war since the 1991 overthrow of president Mohamed Siad Barre. A string of previous peace initiatives and truce deals have failed.The African Union has deployed ome 2,600 peacekeepers deployed in Somalia -- short of the pledged 8,000 troops -- but have failed to stem the rising tide of insurgency in the nation of 10 million.This also comes as the Reliberation of Somalia alliance based in Eritrea will hold meeting next week to dismiss Sheikh Sharif.Zakariya Mahmud, ARS deputy chairman, has revealed that the ARS will hold a meeting next week to make a decision to dismiss ARS chairman Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad from his post and appoint a replacement to him.In a statement by telephone from Asmara, Mahmud said that "the ARS Central Committee will meet next week to put an end to Sheikh Sharif's betrayal of the ARS principles, cancel the unilateral decisions he has made, and reject the stances he has taken, which are opposed to the ARS policy."This is the first time a prominent official of the ARS has publicly confirmed the intention to dismiss Sharif from his post. It is to be recalled that Shaykh Hasan Tahir Oweys, a leading figure in the ARS and former leader of the Islamic Courts, told recently that there is an intention within the ARS to sever Sharif's link to the ARS. Sharif has not held any meeting with the ARS members for the past three months.He also levelled sharp accusations at Eritrean President Isaias Afworki of attempting to control the ARS and to use it to serve his country's interests in the Horn of Africa. Shaykh Sharif and Sharif Hasan Adam, the dissident [former] speaker of the Somalia parliament, are leading the ARS delegation to Djibouti, currently hosting indirect negotiations between the ARS and the Somali authorities under the auspices of Ahmad Ould-Abdallah, the UN special envoy to Somalia.Zakariya Mahmud, the ARS deputy chairman, pointed out that Shaykh Sharif has ignored demands that he return to Asmara to resolve differences and explain the stand he has taken.He noted that Sharif, who is leading the ARS delegation to the Djibouti negotiations under the auspices of the UN between the ARS and the interim Somali government, led by Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, is no longer the ARS chairman due to his betrayal of the trust of the ARS members and because he held talks with the enemies of Somalia under US auspices.He added:"The ARS will not recognize any agreement signed by Sharif with the Somali authorities because he has, in effect, lost both his post and the trust of the ARS members, and so he no longer represents them. We do not recognize him as the ARS chairman any more and we will overthrow him, because he has betrayed the trust and has failed to honour our constants of rejecting any peace talks with the Somali interim government or any Ethiopian official before the withdrawal of the Ethiopian forces from Somalia." The Ethiopian forces invaded Somali towards the end of 2006 to enable the Somali authorities to overthrow the Islamic Courts, which then were in control of several areas in Somali, including Mogadishu, for six months." Zakariya Mahmud pointed out that the US ambassador to Nairobi played a key role in arranging the current Somali reconciliation meetings in Djibouti after unpublicized contacts with Sheikh Sharif without the knowledge of the ARS.He disclosed that, according to unofficial information that the ARS received from the Ethiopian ambassador to Djibouti, Sharif and some members of the ARS to the Djibouti negotiations met in secret [with the Ethiopian ambassador to Djibouti].He said this represents "an unforgivable betrayal and an attempt to establish suspicious relations with representatives of the Ethiopian regime." It is to be recalled that the ARS delegation had walked out of the Djibouti negotiations because the Ethiopian ambassador was present at the venue of the negotiations, something that Zakariya described as "an exposed theatrical ploy to cover up the suspicious contacts between the two sides." He added:"As far as we are concerned, we will not contact or meet with collaborators (in reference to the Somali authorities), or the occupiers (in reference to the Ethiopian forces) before Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has withdrawn his military forces from Somalia."Arab and Western sources concerned with the Somali issue expect that the overthrow of Sheikh Sharif from his post as chairman of the ARS would impact the efforts being exerted by Ahmad Ould-Abdullahi, the Mauritian diplomat and the UN special envoy to Somalia, to bring about direct negotiations between the ARS and the Somali interim government.According to the Asmara Alliance Charter, which was established last year and which comprises of Somali Islamists, secularists, parliamentarians, and dissidents, the deputy chairman of the ARS will temporarily assume the ARS chairmanship if Sheikh Sharif is actually toppled and dismissed from his post.Sharif, the former chairman of the Executive Council of the Islamic Courts, is viewed as a moderate among the hawks of the Islamic Courts, though in the past year he held controversial talks with representatives of US President George Bush's administration in the capital Nairobi under the auspices of the Kenyan authorities.
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