UN Urges World Support For Somalia's Sharif

UN Urges World Support For Somalia's Sharif

By Abdirahman Yusuf Jabril (IOL)

"I call on the international community to give him the strongest support to help him (Sharif) stabilize the country," Ould-Abdallah said. (Reuters)

BRUSSELS/MOGADISHU — Decrying years of neglect of the Horn of African country, the United Nations has called for global support to Somalia's new president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to rebuild the war-torn nation.
"The president was elected in a transparent manner and has legitimacy," UN Envoy to Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah told Reuters on Thursday, February 19.

"I call on the international community to give him the strongest support to help him stabilize the country."

Sheikh Sharif, the moderate leader of the Islamic Courts Union, which ruled Somalia for six months before the 2006 Ethiopian invasion, was elected president last month.

His elections won plaudits from the United States and Ethiopia, Somalia's traditional Christian rival.

However, the Eritrea-based opposition and the Shebab group, a splitter of the ICU, denounced Sheikh Sharif's election as an illegitimate "puppet" administration.

The UN envoy warned that neglecting Somalia harms the credibility of the international community as a whole.

"To avoid double standards, we cannot have this presence in Afghanistan and Iraq and neglect Somalia," Ould-Abdallah said.

He said that foreign governments, the UN and non-governmental organizations should re-establish permanent missions in Somalia.

"Somalia is the only country on earth with no effective international presence -- no diplomats, no large NGOs, no large UN presence," he said.

"People are crying out for it."

Somalia has been without effective government since the ouster of former president Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

More than 14 attempts to restore a functional government have since failed.

Shari`ah



"This version of Shari`ah should be a moderate version, not the one sought by Shebab fighters," Salad said.
The UN call comes as Sheikh Sharif won support from Somali scholars, who backed the enforcement of a moderate version of Islamic Shari`ah in Somalia.
"The Somali parliament should meet within 120 days to announce the enforcement of Shari`ah in Somalia and amend Constitution articles that clash with Shari`ah," Sheikh Ahmed Salad, the chairman of the Council of Somali Scholars for Reform and Reconciliation, said in a statement following a meeting of more than 100 scholars.

"This version of Shari`ah should be a moderate version, not the one sought by Shebab fighters."

Sheikh Sharif's election platform calls for enforcing the rules of Shari`ah in Somalia.

It says Somali scholars will be the main source to explain how to enforce Shari`ah and that the government, not the armed groups, will be the only party responsible for implementing it.

The platform also calls for restoring security, order and rule of law to help bring about peace in Somalia.

"Dialogue and understanding are the bases for dealing with those who did not take part in the political process and that shedding the Somali blood is forbidden," it says.

Somali scholars also called for the withdrawal of 3,500 African peacekeeping forces from Somalia within three months.

Extra troops must not be sent to Somalia and the foreign troops can not be attacked with in the period mentioned above, they said

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