[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