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By Sahal Abdulle
02 February 2007
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed -- seen by Washington as a potential key to reconciliation in post-war Somalia -- was out of custody in Kenya on Thursday and reported to be leaving soon for Yemen.
"It's true that I'm heading to Yemen," he was quoted as saying on the Web site of the London-based ONKOD news agency, which is run by a Somali journalist.
Contacted by Reuters at an undisclosed location in Nairobi, Ahmed, who is the highest-ranking Islamist leader to turn himself in after defeat in a war over the New Year, said he was in good health but declined to confirm his future plans.
"I am 100 percent fine," he told Reuters.
"But there are no questions I can answer at this time."
Several Islamist leaders have taken refuge in Yemen since their movement's defeat over the New Year in an offensive by Somali government forces backed by the Ethiopian military.
Ahmed, widely perceived as a moderate compared to other senior Islamists, was one of the two main leaders of the movement that took Mogadishu in June and ruled a swathe of south Somalia until the end of the year.
Ahmed surrendered to Kenyan authorities on the border with Somalia about 10 days ago. Since then, he has met the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, who also has responsibility for Somalia.
Washington views Ahmed as a potential player in possible reconciliation between the interim government and the Islamists, whose fighters have largely scattered to remote corners of south Somalia or fled across the border to Kenya.
"Sheikh Sharif now has an opportunity as an individual to demonstrate his willingness to work toward a positive and long-term solution in Somalia by urging his supporters to eschew violence and extremism," a recent U.S. statement said.
REGIONAL SOLUTION
The ONKOD site (www.onkod.net) said Ahmed may be going to Yemen specifically for reconciliation talks with the government.
Under pressure from abroad to be more inclusive, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf called this week for a broad conference of clan and religious leaders to discuss the future of a nation in chaos since 1991.
European aid chief Louis Michel, on a visit to the Horn of Africa, said a regional approach was the only way to ensure lasting peace in Somalia, which is strategically placed on the east coast of Africa with Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden coasts.
"The idea is to open political dialogue with all the countries in the region about common problems which need common solutions," Michel told reporters in Eritrea.
Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki's government was accused before the war of sending arms and men to aid the Islamists in what analysts say as a way for Asmara to get back at its arch-foe Ethiopia, which backed the Somali government.
Asmara always denied that.
Michel, however, steered clear of that controversy. "(Isaias and I) both agreed that a truly inclusive dialogue between all parties is the key to lasting peace in Somalia," he said.
African leaders are struggling to raise an 8,000-strong peacekeeping force for Somalia. Such a mission is widely seen as vital to prevent a dangerous power vacuum when Ethiopia exits.
Uganda, Nigeria and Burundi have pledged most of the troops so far, but many other African nations are nervous about sending soldiers to one of the world's most dangerous countries.
Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika said his country had not offered to send troops to Somalia, contrary to an announcement by his defense minister.
"It is not true that Malawi has offered to send troops to Somalia and we have not discussed this in cabinet," he told state Malawi Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi, Jack Kimball in Asmara, Paul Majendie in London and Mabvuto Banda in Lilongwe)