Somalia's Islamic militia rebuffs U.N.'s plan for peace talks

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The leader of the Islamic militia that has taken hold of southern Somalia on Tuesday rebuffed a U.N. plan for peace talks with the government, saying he will not negotiate until the government expels all foreign troops.

"Until Ethiopian troops leave Somali soil, we will never negotiate with the government," said Islamic militia leader Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys.

Both Somali government leaders and the Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry have denied Ethiopian soldiers were in Somalia. However, many witnesses have confirmed their presence, in uniform.

Tuesday's statement by Aweys was the latest downward turn in a difficult international effort to negotiate peace between the powerful Islamic militants and the weak government, which has international support but no military.

It came as a U.N. envoy was in Somalia on Tuesday trying to arrange peace talks in Sudan aimed at avoiding more fighting in Somalia and a potentially bigger conflagration.

While Aweys, who has been accused by Somali secular leaders and the West of links to al-Qaida, ruled out any talks, a more moderate member of his Supreme Islamic Courts Council left open the possibility.

'Maximum restraint'

After meeting in Mogadishu with Francois Lonseny Fall, the U.N. special representative to Somalia, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said the group's "peace committee" still had to consider the United Nations' call for negotiations, which would be held next week in Khartoum.

In an apparent acknowledgement that Ethiopian troops were complicating peace efforts, Fall told reporters: "The U.N. is always calling on maximum restraint from neighboring countries and for them not to interfere at this particular moment in Somalia."

He also praised the Islamic union. After seeing the streets of Mogadishu without roadblocks or gunmen, he said it had "achieved great things in Mogadishu. I have seen it."

The troops from neighboring Ethiopia crossed into Somalia five days ago to protect Somalia's government at Baidoa, 150 miles northwest of Mogadishu, from advancing Islamic militants. The arrival of the Ethiopians heightened tensions among Somalis because Ethiopia, a largely Christian country, is the longtime enemy of Somalia, which is mostly Muslim.

A round of peace talks that had been scheduled Saturday fell apart when the government refused to attend and the Islamic group walked out. The government and the fundamentalist Islamic militias reached a "nonaggression pact" in June, but the Islamic group has made clear that it sees itself as the country's main authority.

The Islamic militia's seizure of power has prompted grave concerns in the United States, which accuses the group of harboring al-Qaida leaders responsible for deadly 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Fall also met with the government in Baidoa -- the only town controlled by the government -- where a top official said it was ready for the talks.

"We will go to Khartoum without any preconditions," Abdirizak Adam, President Abdullahi Yusuf's chief of staff, said after the meeting in the presidential compound, which was surrounded by hundreds of soldiers in mismatched uniforms. The meeting room had plush furniture, wall-to-wall carpet and heavy curtain blocking out almost all outside light.

A government spokesman said talks still could go on with moderate members of the Islamic militia, even if Aweys was rejecting them.

"Aweys is a terrorist, so it not surprising that he is refusing talks," Salad Ali Jeeley said. "We hope the moderate Islamists will attend the meeting."

Somalia has been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, carving much of the country into armed camps ruled by violence and clan law.

The government was established almost two years ago with the support of the U.N. to serve as a transitional body to help Somalia emerge from anarchy. But the leadership, which includes some warlords linked to the violence of the past, has failed to establish any power.