Posted on 07/04/2006 7:59:02 PM PDT by Flavius
Radical militias take over Somalia's capital
By Craig Timberg, Los Angeles Times - Washington Post
Somali: A group of largely moderate Muslim leaders who took control of Somalia's capital a month ago has been pushed aside in recent days by radicals determined to create a strict Islamic state there, according to Somali and other political analysts.
Leading the drive has been Hassan Dahir Aweys, whom the United Nations and the United States consider a terrorist with ties to Al Qaida. Aweys's June 24 appointment as head of the militias ruling Mogadishu, the capital, has been followed by the installation of like-minded lieutenants in other key posts and the demotion of moderates such as the previous leader, Sharif Ahmad, analysts say.
Among those losing clout is Abdul Rahman Osman, a Somali-born US citizen who emerged last month as a spokesman for the militias and a moderate face toward the outside world.
He arranged for Western journalists to visit Mogadishu and met on behalf of the Islamic militias with Jendayi Frazier, a US assistant secretary of state, in Nairobi last month.
Osman resigned last week, two days after Aweys took charge of the militias. On Monday, he booked a plane ticket home to Minnesota.
"I have nothing to do with those people now. I've been so depressed the last three nights I'm almost out of my mind," Osman said from Nairobi.
On June 5, Mogadishu fell to Islamic militias affiliated with neighbourhood religious courts and backed by a moderate coalition of businessmen, civil society activists and elders from the city's leading families. Ousted was a group of secular and widely hated warlords who benefited from US financial support in exchange for capturing suspected terrorists.
Many people in Mogadishu cheered the change, because the Islamic militias provided the first semblance of a government since 1991.
Street crime plummeted. Shops stayed open past dark for the first time in years.
Many residents said they welcomed the idea of Sharia, or religious law, in a society where Islam has traditionally been practised moderately. Few women wear veils in Mogadishu, and schools have typically mixed girls and boys in the same classes.
The first hints of change came when militia members forced the closure, in some neighbourhoods, of cinemas showing the World Cup and films they deemed too sexually explicit.
Some young women opted for more conservative head coverings, some young men for shorter hair.
The fatal shooting on June 23 of a Swedish journalist, Martin Adler, appeared to signal the growing power of Mogadishu's most extreme elements. Aweys took control the following day and soon announced that he intended to extend his interpretation of Islamic law to all of Somalia.
He also announced that five alleged rapists would be stoned to death, in accordance with Sharia.
"The radicals won. The radicals got the upper hand in this movement so they can impose their vision of Islamic Sharia," said Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Centre in St Paul, Minnesota. The situation has grown more charged over the past few days, some Somalis say.
On Friday, Osama Bin Laden released an audiotape touting the success of Islamic forces in Mogadishu.
On Sunday, the 53-country African Union announced plans to send peacekeeping troops into Somalia, over the vehement objections of the militias in Mogadishu
Street crime plummeted. Shops stayed open past dark for the first time in years.
and all were merry
Indeed. Why do I get the feeling that they were doing a lot of glossing over at that point.
Wow - Timberg has me convinced. I'm booking my next vacation to Somalia. You betcha.
I have so many fond memories of Somalia at night...such great trips.....oh, things change I guess... (/sarcasm)
Let the sorry radicals have the pathetic little country. Gets more of em in a concentrated area and makes for better targeting.
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