[lbo-talk] Full circle in Somalia

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Tue Feb 3 04:42:16 PST 2009


[Except of course that things are much worse for our intervention]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/world/africa/01somalia.html

February 1, 2009

Somalis Cheer the Selection of a Moderate Islamist Cleric as President

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and MOHAMMED IBRAHIM

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Pumped-up mobs poured into the scarred streets of

Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, once again on Saturday, but this time

they were demonstrating in support of the government, not against it.

Thousands of cheerful Somalis sang, whistled and hoisted up posters of

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, the moderate Islamist cleric who was just

selected as the beleaguered country's new president. There was even a

pro-government rally at a Mogadishu soccer stadium.

"It's good to give a chance to the Islamists," said Mohamed Wehlie, a

teacher in Mogadishu. Sheik Sharif, he said, "is the sort of man who

can make a change, and we really need a change."

To many Somalis who have survived relentless cycles of rebellion,

displacement, famine and war, Sheik Sharif's victory was the best news

they had heard in years.

<snip>

With the selection of Sheik Sharif, Somalia has come nearly full circle

to where it was in the summer of 2006, when an Islamist alliance seized

control of Mogadishu and pacified it for the first and only time since

the country's central government imploded in 1991. Sheik Sharif was one

of the leaders of that alliance, which was a mix of moderate and

hard-line elements, including the Shabab.

Many people still credit Sheik Sharif for those days of peace, which

proved cruelly short.

"That peace was like a daylight dream that will never come true," said

Mohamed Ghedi Awale, an engineer in Mogadishu who said he fully

supported Sheik Sharif.

The Islamist experiment came to a violent end when Ethiopian troops,

with American backing, stormed into Somalia in the winter of 2006 and

drove the Islamists underground. That set the stage for a bitter

guerrilla war that has killed thousands of civilians.

<end excerpt>

Full at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/world/africa/01somalia.html

Michael



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