Last month Somali MPs elected Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, leader of the Djibouti-based Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), as the country's new president. Sharif was previously chairman of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which briefly ruled Somalia in 2006 before the United States-backed Ethiopian invasion forced the UIC into exile in Eritrea.
Ethiopia began pulling out troops in 2008, having succeeded in uniting Somalia's various Islamic and clan-based militias against it. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi complained that the West had not given Ethiopia enough political and financial support. Washington had backed the stooge Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of warlords, which recently collapsed following the Ethiopian withdrawal. after Ethiopia withdrew, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), comprising around 3,400 Ugandan and Burundian troops, remained in Mogadishu, though Uganda is considering pulling out citing lack of money, equipment and troops.
Whilst the new Obama administration has made no official comment on Sharif's election, the US embassy in Kenya issued a statement welcoming it, which is something of a policy turnaround with Washington having previously denounced the UIC as an affiliate of Al-Qaeda. Other western governments have also been supportive of Sharif and his new government.
Sharif for his part has welcomed the coming to power of Barack Obama and glossed over the brutal actions of the US/Ethiopian intervention. Early in 2008 the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) facilitated talks in Djibouti that sought to bring the "moderate" elements of the ARS opposition into negotiations with the rump TFG and Ethiopia. This split the ARS into two factions: ARS-Djibouti, led by Sharif, which took part in the talks and agreed to a ceasefire; and ARS-Asmara, led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir ‘Aweys', which called for Sharif's expulsion and refused to negotiate with foreign elements whilst Ethiopia remained in the country.
In June 2008 Sharif's faction and the TFG signed an accord in Djibouti on the cessation of hostilities, Ethiopia's withdrawal, plans for a government of national unity, and the establishment of a 10,000-strong national security force comprising both ARS and government troops.
The Djibouti Agreement set out that the new parliament would be comprised of 550 seats, up from 275, with the new MPs being drawn primarily from the ARS-Djibouti faction. Consequently 149 new opposition members from the ARS were sworn in to parliament just before the recent presidential election, which was subsequently won by Sharif.
The US now tacitly welcomes an Islamist government that is not markedly different from the one that the US/Ethiopian invasion of Somalia ?????? helped to overthrow, with so much loss of life from the subsequent violence and chaos. An estimated 1.2 million Somalis have fled their homes, and 16,000 civilians have been killed in the ensuing Iraq-style insurgency that plunged the country into chaos, where warlords and pirates flourished...more..http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/soma-m25.shtml
they.. flourished after Ethiopian pullout moron...they are flourishing now..big-time .. we have them on the run,"
No comments:
Post a Comment