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| Africa Horn |
| Somali Islamist head rejects UN-sponsored pact |
| 2008-06-11 |
| A hardline Islamist leader rejected on Tuesday a UN-brokered peace pact signed in Djibouti by the Somali government and some opposition figures, and vowed that war would continue. “We don’t see that as a peace deal, we see it as a trap,” Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys told reporters by phone from Eritrea. “We encourage the insurgents and the Somali people not to be tired of combating the enemy.” Somalia’s interim government and some members of the exiled opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) signed a deal late on Monday calling for the deployment of UN peacekeepers and agreeing to a ceasefire after one month. “The people have been waiting a long time, so we have a weight of responsibility on our shoulders,” Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein said at Monday’s ceremony. He shook hands with ARS chairman Sheikh Sharif Ahmed in the first face-to-face contact between the two delegations during two rounds of talks in Djibouti. |
| Posted by:Fred |