MOGADISHU, Somalia - About 10,000 opponents of Somalia's transitional government and its proposal for foreign peacekeepers demonstrated Friday in the capital, which is controlled by an Islamic militia accused by the United States of harboring wanted al-Qaida members.
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It was the second public protest in as many days against the transitional parliament's Wednesday vote supporting the deployment of Ugandan and Sudanese peacekeepers to help the government establish stability and authority.
The proposal was limited to Uganda and Sudan to allay fears troops from traditional rival Ethiopia would be included. But many Somalis believe any foreign troop mission could be an opening for Ethiopia, seen as an ally of transitional President Abdullahi Yusuf.
"We can form a government on our own!" protesters chanted at the demonstration organized by supporters of the Islamic Courts Union, the group directing the militias.
"No Ethiopia! No Ethiopian government!"
All the Islamic leaders from the Abgal clan attended the rally in central Mogadishu, where protesters also chanted, "America, open your eyes and ears!" and held signs reading: "We don't want the transitional government."
About a third of the crowd was women, dressed in veils covering their faces and standing in a separate area from the men. Some women held up copies of the Quran, and one carried a placard reading: "Democracy go to hell."
Sheikh Abdukadir Ali Omar, deputy chairman of the union, said parliament's vote was unacceptable.
"Now the members of parliament have only two options: to reverse their decision or to join Somalia's enemy!" Omar shouted.
Sheikh Ali Dhere, an influential cleric, added: "We want to work (as a group) on the basis of Islam. We are against a secular constitution and foreign intervention."
But there appeared to be some division with the union. Some moderate leaders advocated negotiating with Yusuf's government, while others appeared ready to form their own government.
Yusuf's government is supported by Somalia's neighbors, the United Nations, the United States and the European Union, so opposing it could mean regional and international isolation and possibly crippling sanctions for any administration the Islamic forces try to build.
Late Thursday, residents said unidentified gunmen shot a militiaman loyal to President Abdullahi Yusuf and wounded another when they drove through a checkpoint in Baidoa, which is the only major town Yusuf's government controls in southern Somalia.
In the past two weeks, Islamists have been consolidating their hold on the region, chasing U.S.-backed secular warlords from their former strongholds.
It is unclear why the militiamen forced their way through the checkpoint. The dead militiaman was a member of a nascent police force that Yusuf has been trying to form, with limited success, because his government has little control outside Baidoa, 155 miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu.
Residents in another southern town, Jowhar, said hundreds of Islamic militiamen drove out late Thursday in 35 pickups mounted with machine guns, but it was not known where they were going.
The Islamic militants, formally known as the Islamic Courts Union, captured Jowhar, 56 miles northeast of Mogadishu, on Wednesday. It was the last strategic town held by the warlords, and the Islamic fighters imposed an 8 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew, saying it would continue until they had stabilized the town.
The transitional government, whose military consists of little more than the president's personal militia, has watched from the sidelines as the Islamic forces overcame a coalition of secular warlords to take control of southern Somalia. The Islamic forces took Mogadishu June 6.
On Thursday, three more members of the warlord-led Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism said they had resigned. One of them, Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, told HornAfrik that he and the Islamic militia shared a common enemy because both of them opposed proposals for peacekeepers in Somalia. He also apologized for any mistakes he may have made as a leader of the alliance.
Thursday's resignations brings to seven the number of people who have left the alliance, which now has only four members.
The Islamic group's control over southern Somalia is a feat unmatched since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The country has had no effective central government since then.
The Islamic group, accused by the United States of harboring al-Qaida, portrays itself as free of links to Somalia's past turmoil and capable of bringing order and unity. Yet the future of a country accustomed to moderate Islam would be uncertain under hard-line Islamic rulers.
Somalia's south has seen the worst violence in the country over the past 15 years. The northern and central regions have experienced only sporadic violence.
Northeastern Somalia is run by an autonomous government allied to the president, and central Somalia, where some warlords have fled, is controlled by several groups.
U.S. officials have acknowledged backing the warlords against the Islamic group. In response to the Islamic militia's growing power, the Unites States convened a meeting on Somalia in New York on Thursday.
The New York meeting concluded with the U.S.-organized group of nations lending its support to the country's weak interim government and demanding free access so aid groups can help Somalia's impoverished people.
The first meeting of the International Somalia Contact Group was one of the few major international initiatives toward the nation in the years since U.N. peacekeepers withdrew in 1995.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060616...jLner.swcpvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-
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It was the second public protest in as many days against the transitional parliament's Wednesday vote supporting the deployment of Ugandan and Sudanese peacekeepers to help the government establish stability and authority.
The proposal was limited to Uganda and Sudan to allay fears troops from traditional rival Ethiopia would be included. But many Somalis believe any foreign troop mission could be an opening for Ethiopia, seen as an ally of transitional President Abdullahi Yusuf.
"We can form a government on our own!" protesters chanted at the demonstration organized by supporters of the Islamic Courts Union, the group directing the militias.
"No Ethiopia! No Ethiopian government!"
All the Islamic leaders from the Abgal clan attended the rally in central Mogadishu, where protesters also chanted, "America, open your eyes and ears!" and held signs reading: "We don't want the transitional government."
About a third of the crowd was women, dressed in veils covering their faces and standing in a separate area from the men. Some women held up copies of the Quran, and one carried a placard reading: "Democracy go to hell."
Sheikh Abdukadir Ali Omar, deputy chairman of the union, said parliament's vote was unacceptable.
"Now the members of parliament have only two options: to reverse their decision or to join Somalia's enemy!" Omar shouted.
Sheikh Ali Dhere, an influential cleric, added: "We want to work (as a group) on the basis of Islam. We are against a secular constitution and foreign intervention."
But there appeared to be some division with the union. Some moderate leaders advocated negotiating with Yusuf's government, while others appeared ready to form their own government.
Yusuf's government is supported by Somalia's neighbors, the United Nations, the United States and the European Union, so opposing it could mean regional and international isolation and possibly crippling sanctions for any administration the Islamic forces try to build.
Late Thursday, residents said unidentified gunmen shot a militiaman loyal to President Abdullahi Yusuf and wounded another when they drove through a checkpoint in Baidoa, which is the only major town Yusuf's government controls in southern Somalia.
In the past two weeks, Islamists have been consolidating their hold on the region, chasing U.S.-backed secular warlords from their former strongholds.
It is unclear why the militiamen forced their way through the checkpoint. The dead militiaman was a member of a nascent police force that Yusuf has been trying to form, with limited success, because his government has little control outside Baidoa, 155 miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu.
Residents in another southern town, Jowhar, said hundreds of Islamic militiamen drove out late Thursday in 35 pickups mounted with machine guns, but it was not known where they were going.
The Islamic militants, formally known as the Islamic Courts Union, captured Jowhar, 56 miles northeast of Mogadishu, on Wednesday. It was the last strategic town held by the warlords, and the Islamic fighters imposed an 8 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew, saying it would continue until they had stabilized the town.
The transitional government, whose military consists of little more than the president's personal militia, has watched from the sidelines as the Islamic forces overcame a coalition of secular warlords to take control of southern Somalia. The Islamic forces took Mogadishu June 6.
On Thursday, three more members of the warlord-led Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism said they had resigned. One of them, Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, told HornAfrik that he and the Islamic militia shared a common enemy because both of them opposed proposals for peacekeepers in Somalia. He also apologized for any mistakes he may have made as a leader of the alliance.
Thursday's resignations brings to seven the number of people who have left the alliance, which now has only four members.
The Islamic group's control over southern Somalia is a feat unmatched since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The country has had no effective central government since then.
The Islamic group, accused by the United States of harboring al-Qaida, portrays itself as free of links to Somalia's past turmoil and capable of bringing order and unity. Yet the future of a country accustomed to moderate Islam would be uncertain under hard-line Islamic rulers.
Somalia's south has seen the worst violence in the country over the past 15 years. The northern and central regions have experienced only sporadic violence.
Northeastern Somalia is run by an autonomous government allied to the president, and central Somalia, where some warlords have fled, is controlled by several groups.
U.S. officials have acknowledged backing the warlords against the Islamic group. In response to the Islamic militia's growing power, the Unites States convened a meeting on Somalia in New York on Thursday.
The New York meeting concluded with the U.S.-organized group of nations lending its support to the country's weak interim government and demanding free access so aid groups can help Somalia's impoverished people.
The first meeting of the International Somalia Contact Group was one of the few major international initiatives toward the nation in the years since U.N. peacekeepers withdrew in 1995.
___
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060616...jLner.swcpvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-
