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Saturday, February 28, 2009
MOGADISHU (Xinhua) -- The Somali government on Saturday announced a cease-fire agreement with a Islamist insurgent group which has carried out deadly attacks on government forces and African Union peacekeepers in the Somali capital Mogadishu this week.
The cease-fire agreement between the new Somali government and the Hezbul Islam (Islamic Party) has been mediated by the influential elders of Hawiye clan, the largest in Somalia.
Speaking at a press conference in Mogadishu, Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said that his government has accepted a cease-fire agreement with the Islamist insurgent group.
Fighters of the group carried out attacks on African Union peacekeepers backing Somali government forces this week, killing about 50 people and injuring more than a hundred of others.
"We have just met Hawiye Elders and they told us that they have reached a cease-fire agreement with the other side and on our part we welcome it," President Ahmed told reporters at his residence in the Presidential palace in Mogadishu.
"We emphasize on our part once again that there will be no single bullet fired from our side," the president said.
Sheikh Muse Abdi Arale, spokesman for the Hezbul Islam said his group "cautiously welcomes the truce" proposed to them by the revered clan elders of Mogadishu. He declined to elaborate.
Spokesman for the Council of Hawiye clan elders, Ahmed Diriye, said both sides accepted their offer of peace and the Somali government and Hezbul Islam leaders agreed to the cease-fire proposal presented to them.
"We hope there will be peace in the capital because the leaders on both sides accepted what we asked of them which is to stop the fighting to give peace talks a chance," Elder Diriye told Xinhua.
The Somali president said that his government has not brought in the peacekeeping troops but are there because of a request from the government of his predecessor, Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed.
"The (peacekeeping) forces are not here to fight us but to help us make peace and if the Somali people see it that we can do without them we are ready to thank them and they will go home".
President Ahmed said that he has asked the AU peacekeeping forces to exercise self-restraint after they are attacked and that their "response be proportional" to the attacks they face.
The African Union peacekeepers have been accused of using excessive force after attacks from local insurgent groups opposed to their presence in the war-torn horn of Africa nation.
Source: Xinhua, Feb 28, 2009