Somalia warned against foreign troops

MOGADISHU – A senior Islamic judicial official warned Somalia’s interim government yesterday that talks on the anarchic country’s future would be broken off if its parliament invited in foreign peacekeeping troops.

Militia loyal to Islamic courts wrested control of the capital Mogadishu last week from warlords widely believed to be funded by the US government, after a three-month battle that killed at least 350 people, most of them civilians. The weak interim government, formed in Kenya in 2004, was quick to praise the Islamic courts for the victory in Mogadishu and has started talks with the courts to help it move there.But Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the Mogadishu Islamic courts chairman, said that if the talks were to continue, the government had to first abandon its request for foreign troops.Officials said parliament hoped to approve such a deployment during its session in the southern city of Baidoa yesterday.Even if parliament passes the motion, the proposed force of Ugandan and Sudanese troops cannot go unless the UN Security Council lifts an arms embargo in place since 1992.The weak government has repeatedly said it cannot operate in the lawless Horn of African country without the help of foreign peacekeepers to provide security to the interim leaders.- Nampa-ReutersThe weak interim government, formed in Kenya in 2004, was quick to praise the Islamic courts for the victory in Mogadishu and has started talks with the courts to help it move there.But Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the Mogadishu Islamic courts chairman, said that if the talks were to continue, the government had to first abandon its request for foreign troops.Officials said parliament hoped to approve such a deployment during its session in the southern city of Baidoa yesterday.Even if parliament passes the motion, the proposed force of Ugandan and Sudanese troops cannot go unless the UN Security Council lifts an arms embargo in place since 1992.The weak government has repeatedly said it cannot operate in the lawless Horn of African country without the help of foreign peacekeepers to provide security to the interim leaders.- Nampa-Reuters