MOGADISHU, Somalia — From the gates of Villa Somalia, the hilltop presidential palace, this ruin of a city almost looks peaceful.After nearly two decades of civil war, there is very little pollution, since just about all of Somalia’s industry has been razed. A clean breeze lifts off the ocean and stirs the bougainvillea. Few cars remain in the city and relatively few people, because hundreds of thousands have recently fled. It is surreally quiet, except for the occasional crack of a high-powered rifle.President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed sits behind his desk in a pinstriped suit, pray
er hat, designer glasses and a chunky, expensive-looking watch. He is ringed by enemies and guarded around the clock by Ugandan soldiers who literally camp outside his door and, for the rare occasions he leaves the palace, drive him to the airport in an armored personnel carrier. The few glimpses he gets of Mogadishu’s deserted streets are through two-inch-thick bulletproof glass.“This government faced obstacles that were unparalleled,” said Sheik Sharif, a former high school teacher, who became president in February. “We had to deal with international terrorist groups creating havoc elsewhere. Their plan was to topple the government soon after it arrived. The government proved it could last.”The odds against Sheik Sharif are still long, but his moderate Islamist government is widely considered to be Somalia’s best chance for stability in years. For the first time in decades — including 21 years of dictatorship and the 18 years of chaos that followed — Somalia’s leader has both widespread grass-roots support inside the country and extensive help from outside nations, analysts and many Somalis say.“This government is qualitatively different from the governments that came before it,” said Rashid Abdi, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. “But we shouldn’t fool ourselves; they need to act quickly.”
Much of the world is counting on Sheik Sharif to tackle piracy and beat back the spread of militant Islam, two Somali problems that have flared into major geopolitical ones. Al Qaeda appears to be drawing closer to Somali insurgents in an effort to turn this country into a launching pad for global jihad. Just this week, American commandos killed a Qaeda agent in southern Somalia in a daylight helicopter raid.After years of ambivalence about Somalia, the United States is playing an increasingly active role here, and recently shipped 40 tons of weapons to Somalia to keep Sheik Sharif’s government alive. But his armed forces are like sieves. Many of his commanders still have ties to the Shabab, the Islamist insurgents working with Al Qaeda to overthrow Sheik Sharif’s government, and several government officers here conceded that a large share of the American weapons quickly slipped into Shabab hands. If not for the 5,000 African Union troops guarding the port, airport and Villa Somalia, many Somalis believe Sheik Sharif’s government would quickly fall...more..http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/world/africa/17somalia.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
A Talk With Somalia’s President
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