Divisions within Somalia's Eritrea-based opposition group have turned into an open conflict amid reports the faction headed by hard-line Islamist leader Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys is seeking to remove moderate Islamist Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed as chairman. Aweys supporters say the move is in response to Ahmed's acceptance of U.N. efforts to initiate peace talks with Somalia's Ethiopia-backed interim government. The deputy chairman of the Islamist-led opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, also known as ARS, tells VOA that he and many others in the group are supporting Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys' call to replace the current chairman. The deputy, Jamaa Mohamed Khalib, says Chairman Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed crossed the line when he sent a delegation to Djibouti earlier this month to participate in the U.N.-mediated peace talks, even though Ethiopia, which many Somalis view as an occupying power, has not withdrawn its troops from Somalia.
The pullout of Ethiopian troops had long been a key ARS condition for the start of any talks with Somalia's secular transitional federal government, which took power from the Islamists in late 2006 after a U.S.-supported Ethiopian military intervention.
Khalib says Ahmed had no right to begin negotiating openly without first forcing the Ethiopians to leave Somalia. Khalib says the opposition general assembly - made up of Islamists, former parliament members and members of the Somali diaspora - will vote on June 15 to remove Ahmed from his post.
Meanwhile, Ahmed and the leader of the ARS general assembly, Sharif Hassan Sheik Adan, are in Yemen, reportedly receiving advice from senior Yemeni officials about how best to proceed toward direct negotiations with the Somali government. Ahmed declined to speak to VOA about the growing rift within ARS, but earlier this week, Ahmed accused Eritrea of meddling in the group's affairs.
The two top Islamists in ARS, Ahmed and Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, had an uneasy alliance in the Islamic Courts Union before the movement was ousted after six months in power. The men fled to Eritrea, where they established the opposition group last September. From Asmara, the ARS has led a bloody 16-month, anti-Ethiopian, anti-government insurgency that has killed thousands of people and has displaced more than one million others.