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Militia leader wants Qur'an-based rule
The radical new leader of Somalia's Islamic militia said he would only support a government based on the Qur'an, offering little hope that the cleric the US accuses of collaborating with al-Qaeda will bring moderate rule to his chaotic Horn of Africa nation."Somalia is a Muslim nation and its people are also 100% Muslim. Therefore any government we agree on would be based on the holy Qur'an and the teachings of our Prophet Muhammad," Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys said in an interview. The militia controls the capital and much of the rest of southern Somalia. Aweys's stance, a harder line than that taken by his predecessor, could steer the country towards a collision with the United States and the United Nations (UN). The militia's previous leader, a relatively moderate cleric, had been reaching out to the West and Somalia's largely powerless UN-backed government in recent weeks. The 71-year-old Aweys condemned any attempts to install a Western-style democracy and said he was under no obligation to abide by the West's wishes. "Our relationship with the US administration will depend on how the US treats us. If it treats us well, we will also treat them well. If it behaves badly, it will be responsible," he said. After the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, the United States put Aweys on a terrorist watch list because he and an Islamic group he founded - al-Itihaad - were believed to be linked to Osama bin Laden. Posted by: ryuge 2006-06-27 |
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