Allegations mount, despite ceasefire agreement

Hiiraan Online
Saturday, June 14, 2008

Mohamed Omar Habeb -also known Mohamed Dheere- tossed the responsibility of recent ambushes on the (ARS) after Ethiopian troops and government stations were targeted by groups. “If they (ARS) can’t end the hostility, why did they sign the agreement?” asked the mayor who enjoys close relationship with the Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu.

Sheikh Sharif, the head of ARS, who is principal signatory to the ceasefire agreement did not speak to the mayor’s allegations as he was the guest for BBC’s Friday call-in show, elaborating key aspects of the agreement.

Early yesterday, the spokesman for the Al-shabab movement, has vowed to intensify “attacks” against Ethiopian troops who ousted the Islamists from the capital Mogadishu on December 2006 after a brief six-month reign.

Speaking about the Monday agreement signed in Djibouti, Shiekh Mukhtar Robow called the agreement “a bogus deal that will not be implemented in Somalia” aligning himself with the official position taken this week by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a senior leader in Islamic Courts.

The Al-shabaab network, which spearheads an Iraqi-style insurgency in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the south, has been accused to have links with al-Qaeda by the U.S. government. In late March, the U.S. designated the group on the list of terrorist organizations.

However, the timing of the mayor’s allegations can have a serious consequence on the agreement as no one enforces it on the ground, said an expert who requested anonymity.

In a letter dated on yesterday, the U.N. special envoy to Somalia, Ahmadou Ould-Abdallah, has expressed “high hopes” for the prospect of the deal, but glancing at Somalia’s quest for peace in the past 17 years, the warring factions had quashed more than 14 major peace pacts.

Currently, much of Somalia is at grim humanitarian disasters, including acute hyperinflations, food shortages, and high malnourishment rates for children under five, according to recent U.N. surveys.

More than 1.5 million people were internally displaced due to fighting between the insurgency forces and the government troops backed by Ethiopian military.

Hiiraan Online