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UN Wants Taliban off Terror List |
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IslamOnline.net & Newspapers CAIRO – The UN wants Afghanistan to seek the removal of senior Taliban leaders from an international black list of terrorists so as to pave the way for talks with the emboldened group. "I think the time has come to do it," Kai Eide, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, told the New York Times. Eide said Afghan officials should seek the removal of some Taliban leaders from the UN’s black list of terrorists, which includes 144 Taliban leaders, including its supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. Under UN Resolution 1267, governments are obliged to freeze the bank accounts of those on the list and prevent them from traveling. Some believe the black list has prevented Taliban leaders from entering into negotiations because they would be arrested if they showed their faces. The request to remove the names from the UN list can only be made by the Kabul government. "If you want relevant results, then you have to talk to the relevant person in authority," Eide believes. Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until being ousted in the 2001 US invasion. Since then, they have been launching guerrilla warfare against the foreign troops and the West-backed Kabul government. A recent report by the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) said Taliban had widened its influence to cover almost all Afghanistan. Future Role Arsalan Rahmani, a former Taliban deputy minister, agrees that removing Taliban leaders from the UN terrorist list would help open the way for peace talks. "This would allow the Taliban to appear in public," Rahmani, who now lives in the Afghan capital, told the NY Times. "It would allow the possibility of starting negotiations in a third country." US General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, sees eventual Taliban peace deal. "As a soldier, my personal feeling is that there’s been enough fighting," he said in an interview with the Financial Times. McChrystal hopes the deployment of 30,000 additional US troops could bring a "negotiated peace" with the Taliban. He even accepts that Taliban can be part of the future Kabul government. "I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the future, and not the past." A plan to reach out to Taliban dominated talks between Afghanistan and Pakistan leaders Hamid Karzai and Asif Zardari during a summit in Istanbul on Monday. American, Afghan and NATO leaders are also preparing an ambitious program to persuade Taliban fighters to lay down arms in exchange for schooling and jobs. The plan, expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, will be the focus of an international conference on Afghanistan this week in London. But Eide, the UN representative in Afghanistan, doubts that the plan would be the answer. "I don’t believe it’s as simple as saying that these are people who are unemployed, and if we find them employment they will go our way," he asserted. "Reintegration by itself is not enough."
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Somali shelling kills 15, mostly disabled men |
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By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN Associated Press Writer MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) _ Mortars slammed into a home for disabled veterans in Somalia’s capital, killing at least 12 disabled men and wounding nearly a dozen, officials said Saturday. Islamic insurgents fired mortars Friday night toward Mogadishu’s port, but they landed in residential areas, including a home for former national army officers who lost limbs during the 1977 war with Ethiopia, said government spokesman Shiek Abdirisaq Qeylow. Three civilians in other areas also were killed. Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. A moderate Islamist was elected president in January in hopes that he could unite the country’s feuding factions, but the violence has continued unabated. The government and African Union peacekeepers hold only a few blocks of Mogadishu. A powerful insurgent group called al-Shabab, which has foreign fighters in its ranks, operates openly in the capital and seeks to overthrow the government and impose a strict form of Islam in Somalia. Mogadishu sees near-daily violence with both sides of the conflict accused of indiscriminate shelling. The Martini war veterans building is near the port _ one of the few areas in the capital controlled by the government and peacekeepers. ``It is a horrific and inhumane to shell civilian areas,’’ said Somali human rights activist Ali Sheik Fadhaa. Many experts fear the country’s lawlessness could provide a haven for al-Qaida, offering a place for terrorists to train and gather strength _ much like Afghanistan in the 1990s. The United States accuses al-Shabab of having ties to the terror network, which al-Shabab denies. Somalia’s lawlessness also has allowed piracy to flourish off its coast, making the Gulf of Aden one of the most dangerous waterways in the world. Somali shelling kills 15, mostly disabled men By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN Associated Press Writer MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) _ Mortars slammed into a home for disabled veterans in Somalia’s capital, killing at least 12 disabled men and wounding nearly a dozen, officials said Saturday. Islamic insurgents fired mortars Friday night toward Mogadishu’s port, but they landed in residential areas, including a home for former national army officers who lost limbs during the 1977 war with Ethiopia, said government spokesman Shiek Abdirisaq Qeylow. Three civilians in other areas also were killed. Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. A moderate Islamist was elected president in January in hopes that he could unite the country’s feuding factions, but the violence has continued unabated. The government and African Union peacekeepers hold only a few blocks of Mogadishu. A powerful insurgent group called al-Shabab, which has foreign fighters in its ranks, operates openly in the capital and seeks to overthrow the government and impose a strict form of Islam in Somalia. Mogadishu sees near-daily violence with both sides of the conflict accused of indiscriminate shelling. The Martini war veterans building is near the port _ one of the few areas in the capital controlled by the government and peacekeepers. ``It is a horrific and inhumane to shell civilian areas,’’ said Somali human rights activist Ali Sheik Fadhaa. Many experts fear the country’s lawlessness could provide a haven for al-Qaida, offering a place for terrorists to train and gather strength _ much like Afghanistan in the 1990s. The United States accuses al-Shabab of having ties to the terror network, which al-Shabab denies. Somalia’s lawlessness also has allowed piracy to flourish off its coast, making the Gulf of Aden one of the most dangerous waterways in the world.
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Witnesses: Foreign troops kill 2 in Somali town |
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By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN Associated Press Writer MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) _ Foreign troops in helicopters strafed a car Monday in a Somali town controlled by Islamist insurgents, killing two men and wounding two who were then captured and flown away, witnesses said. The commando-style action comes amid growing fears that al-Qaida is gaining a foothold in this lawless nation. It was not clear who was behind the attack in a village near Barawe. Foreign nations have conducted airstrikes in the past to capture or kill suspected militants. Last year, U.S. missiles killed reputed al-Qaida commander Aden Hashi Ayro _ the first major success after a string of U.S. military attacks in 2008. Many experts fear Somalia is becoming a haven for al-Qaida, a place for terrorists to train and gather strength _ much like Afghanistan in the 1990s. The U.N.-backed government, with support from African Union peacekeepers, holds only a few blocks of Mogadishu, the war-ravaged capital. Like much of Somalia, Barawe and its surrounding villages are controlled by the militant group al-Shabab, which the U.S. accuses of having ties to al-Qaida. Al-Shabab, which has foreign fighters in its ranks, seeks to overthrow the government and impose a strict form of Islam in Somalia. Eyewitness Abdi Ahmed said six helicopters buzzed the village before two of the aircraft opened fire. After the helicopters fired, white foreign soldiers in military fatigues got out and left with the two wounded men. ``There was only a burning vehicle and two dead bodies lying beside it,’’ said Mohamed Ali Aden, a bus driver who drove past the burnt-out car minutes after the attack, some 155 miles (250 kilometers) south of Mogadishu. Somalia’s weak government has very few resources and does not have helicopters or other modern equipment. One witness, Dahir Ahmed, said the helicopters took off from a warship flying a French flag, but that could not be confirmed. French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck denied the attack was a French operation. ``They are not French helicopters,’’ he said. France has previously launched commando raids to rescue French nationals. The U.S. government, haunted by a deadly 1993 U.S. military assault in Mogadishu chronicled in ``Black Hawk Down,’’ is trying to neutralize the growing terrorist threat without sending in troops. In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman would not comment on the operation or on any potential U.S. involvement. Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other. A moderate Islamist was elected president in January in hopes that he could unite the country’s feuding factions, but the violence has continued unabated. Mogadishu sees near-daily battles between government and insurgent forces. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed. Somalia’s lawlessness also has allowed piracy to flourish off its coast, making the Gulf of Aden one of the most dangerous waterways in the world.
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Somalia Wants Help Against Foreign Fighters |
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By IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
MOGADISHU – As the country is sinking into the abyss of deadly violence, Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed appealed, for help against what he termed an ‘invasion’ by foreign fighters.
“Somalia is being invaded by foreign fighters, whose main purpose is to turn the country into an Afghanistan or an Iraq,” Sharif said at a rare news conference in his office, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“We call on the international community and the Somali people to help us in fighting against them.”
Somali security officials and foreign intelligence sources estimate that there are up to 500 foreign fighters in Somalia.
Most of the foreign fighters are believed to be fighting along Al-Shabaab militant group in its offensive to unseat the Somalia government.
Al-Shabaab currently controls much of southern and central Somalia.
Together with its Hizbul Islam allied militia, they have been battling government forces and African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu since May 8.
At least 208 people have been killed and 700 wounded by the deadly fighting between the militants and government forces.
“I can tell you that 80 percent of the people killed and injured are civilians who were caught in the crossfire,” said Humanitarian Affairs Minister Mohamoud Ibrahim Garweyne.
“The clashes have also displaced 8,367 families, who have reached temporary camps outside the capital where their livelihoods are very precarious,” the minister said.
Over the weekend, the United Nations put the number of people displaced by the latest fighting at 57,000.
Freedom Fighters
Sharif said that the foreign fighters are seeking to undermine efforts to stabilize the violence-doomed Horn of Africa country.
“Wherever they come, they fuel violence,” he said.
The Somali government accuses neighboring Eritrea of fueling violence in Somalia.
The African Union has called for UN sanctions on Eritrea, accusing it of supporting Somali militants.
The pan-African body also wants an aerial exclusion zone in Somalia and the blockade of ports and airports to prevent the entry of foreign fighters and weapons shipments into the country.
Asmara rejected the accusations, blaming the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which groups Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, for the chaos in Somalia.
“The Somali people cannot and should not accept that their countries should be a launching pad for these militants to attack,” said Sharif.
The Somali leader praised Somalis fighting against the militants, describing them as “freedom fighters”.
“We welcome the efforts by Somali freedom fighters in some of the regions to fight against the culprits and the foreign fighters they brought the country.”
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