Sep 26, 2009
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Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was the head of the Islamic Courts Union in the fall of 2006 when the Star interviewed him inside a heavily guarded Mogadishu villa.
The soft-spoken teacher turned politician had done what no other leader could —bring order to the anarchic city.
A former Toronto grocer, Abdullahi Afrah, was among his closest advisors.
But two months after that October 2006 interview, fears that the ICU would become the "new Taliban" pushed Ethiopian tanks over the border as the U.S. administration propped up a new government. Months of warfare ensued, thousands were displaced and hundreds killed, including Canadian leader Afrah.
He's wearing a dark blue suit with a crisp white shirt and a pin of Somalia's flag secured to his lapel. Glass bottles of Evian sit on the table beside a tropical fruit tray and flower arrangement of orchids, proteas and roses.
President Ahmed came to the U.S. to address the United Nations Assembly with other world leaders. Last month, he met privately with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Nairobi where she told reporters his government was "the best hope we've had in quite some time."
Same man. Same vision. Different times.
Ahmed laughs when asked if he has changed.
"This is an obvious question," he said in an interview with the Star Saturday morning.
"The challenges people were facing before were kidnappings, rape, violence, all kinds of problems. No one at that time believed change could come but I had a lot of hope.
"I find myself in the same spot now where we have a lot of serious challenges and people saying this is not going to work. But I'm full of hope."
He doesn't answer the question directly. So maybe he has changed slightly — further along in his transformation from teacher to politician.
Ahmed is a unique leader for Somalia because he isn't a warlord with a bloody past or beholden to a clan —factors that have turned Somalis against past governments and each other in the last 18 years. It is one of the reasons Ahmed briefly had success in 2006 and is why all hopes are pinned on him today.
The problem is that challenges may be bigger now than they were three years ago.
Ethiopia's invasion attempted to quash a militant offshoot of the ICU known as al Shabaab (the Youth). But as a longtime rival, Ethiopia's presence only unified Somalis, attracted foreign fighters and bolstered al Shabaab's ranks.
"The world could have moderated the behaviour of the ICU through engagement. At the time the moderate wing was more powerful," notes Canadian Afyare Abdi Elmi, who received his PhD from the University of Alberta and is now teaching at Qatar University's International Affairs Department.
"In fact, the occupation radicalized the whole population."
Ethiopian forces withdrew in January and Ahmed was appointed president a month later with blessing of the international community.
But despite this diplomatic nod, he still struggles for control and most believe without the support of 5,000 African Union troops in Mogadishu his government would collapse.
Ahmed conceded Saturday that the mandate of the AU troops might expand from that of peacekeepers —only able to react if attacked — to a more offensive role.
"That is something we are working on," he said.
Al Shabaab formally pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda in a widely circulated online statement last week and orchestrated twin suicide bombings on an African Union compound this month that killed 21. Using stolen UN vehicles, the attacks showed a new level of planning and sophistication.
Ahmed said that he believes al Shabaab (which has been designated a terrorist group in most countries, including Canada) remains unpopular inside Somalia. Without Ethiopia as a common foe, most Somalis do not adhere to the strict interpretation of Islam or support the global fight against the West that the group preaches.
But with an impoverished and desperate generation that has grown up on war, young Somalis might not need to ideologically support the group to join its ranks if al Shabaab becomes a better paying, or more secure option.
And the group appears to be successfully appealing to disenfranchised youths outside of Somalia as well. Up to 20 Somalia-born young Americans have disappeared from the Minneapolis area —one of whom authorities say died a suicide bomber. The FBI is also reportedly using DNA samples to determine if Seattle teenager Mohamed Mohamud was responsible for detonating explosives in the AU attack.
There are reports, but no confirmed cases, of Canadian youths also travelling to Somalia after being lured by jihadi Internet sites.
Links between Canada and Somalia have always been strong, since Toronto is home to one of the world's largest Somali diasporas. Thousands of Somalis sought refuge in Canada following their government's collapse in 1991 and Somalia's prime minister and several high-ranking ministers in Ahmed's government are well-educated Canadian citizens.
Ahmed encouraged more Canadians to return to their birthplace or support those who have, and he called on the Canadian government to provide humanitarian assistance for thousands of displaced Somalis facing starvation and drought.
He also expressed regret and sadness about the kidnapping of Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout, who along with Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, has been held hostage near Mogadishu for 13 months.
"There was an opportunity at one point to win her freedom where we got very close in negotiations," he said, but was unable to offer a current assessment.
"We are still involved in her case."
As the interview ends, Ahmed stands and shakes hands with his female visitor —something he didn't do in Mogadishu three years ago.
In 2006, Ahmed told the Star he defied expectations by pacifying Mogadishu. "People were not anticipating there would be light at the end of the tunnel," he said.
After 20 years of rule under a dictatorship and almost 20 more now of war, being optimistic about Somalia's future is difficult.
But Ahmed says he is.
Source: Toronto Star, Sept 26, 2009