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Somali deputy Speaker meets Eritrean leader

Somalia: Deputy Speaker reportedly leaves government, meets Eritrean leader
BBC Monitoring Service – United Kingdom
Published: Apr 09, 2007

Text of report by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat website on 9 April

[Report by Khalid Mahmud in Cairo: “Somali Government Admits Deputy Prime Minister’s Split and Accuses Asmara of Plotting To Overthrow it. Aidid Met Afwerki, Told Cairo of his Desire to Make it Base for Oppositionists and it Refused To Receive him”]

In a noticeable development, Somalia’s Transitional Government admitted that Mohammed Hussein Aidid, the deputy prime minister and labour and housing minister who is at present in the Eritrean capital Asmara, had split from it. Hussein Mahmoud Ahmed, the government’s official spokesman told “Al-Sharq al-Awsat” that Aidid does not represent the government in this visit and he was not officially authorized to hold any contacts with the Eritrean government.

Speaking by telephone from the Somali capital Mogadishu, the spokesman said Aidid represents only himself and not the government. But he refused to say if Aidid had split for good and joined the deposed parliament Speaker Sharif Adam who is also in Asmara.

Somali sources hinted that Aidid resigned from his posts following disagreements with President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Gedi due to Aidid’s continued dismay for being moved from his previous post as interior minister. Information circulated yesterday that the Egyptian authorities refused to receive Aidid after he informed them of his split from the government and his desire to make Cairo the base for gathering the elements opposed to the Somali government.

Egyptian officials involved in the Somali dossier refused to confirm or deny this information and merely said that the Egyptian authorities refrain from getting involved in any inter-Somali disagreements as these are better dealt with within an internal framework.

Aided met yesterday with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, a development that prompted the Somali government’s spokesman to accuse Asmara of preparing a scheme to overthrow his government and install an agent one loyal to Eritrea in its place. The Somali official told “Al-Sharq al-Awsat” that his government is worried by these Eritrean moves and pointed out that this front aims to impede the government’s efforts to achieve security and stability in Somalia. He added that Eritrea is seeking to play a negative role in the Somali crisis by adopting elements rejected by the Somali street and accused it of trying to incite seditions and launching a false propaganda campaign against the Transitional Government. The spokesman was referring to Asmara’s hosting of Shaykh Sharif Adam, the parliamentary speaker who was deposed in January because he was sympathetic to the Islamists. Aidid caused an argument inside government when he suddenly called for achieving immediate union between Somalia and Ethiopia following the success of the latter’s forces in expelling the Islamic Courts from the capital Mogadishu at the end of last year.

Aidid, one of the most prominent warlords during the past two wars who was regarded as the protege of Ethiopian prime Minister Meles Zenawi and was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the Ethiopian forces’ entry into his country, went suddenly to Eritrea last week, contrary to his past hostile stands towards Asmara.

Shaykh Sharif Shaykh Ahmed, the Islamic Courts’ second strongman and chairman of its executive council who arrived in Asmara before two days on a sudden visit too, joined Adam and Aidid in what appeared to be an attempt to form a coalition front opposed to the Transitional Government that is led by President Abdullahi Yusuf and to the Ethiopian military presence in Somalia.

It is recalled that Shaykh Ahmad was detained for some time in Kenya before going to Yemen and from there to Qatar. The Somali Government refused to comment on whether it holds these two countries’ officials responsible for his involvement again in political activities opposed to it.

Authoritative Eritrean sources told “Al-Sharq al-Awsat” that the three Somalis met to put the final touches to an opposition front seeking to consider the Islamic Courts a principal force in any future reconciliation in the country. This front will include around 50 members of Somalia’s parliament who are sympathetic to the Islamist group and who constantly opposed the Ethiopian military presence in the country.

(Al-Sharq al-Awsat website, London, in Arabic 9 Apr 07

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