ASMARA, ERITREA — In the latest challenge to Somalia's weak transitional government, an eclectic, but potentially powerful, alliance of Islamic sheiks, former warlords and ousted lawmakers is regrouping in this quaint Horn of Africa capital.
For days, opposition leaders along with other exiled Somalis from across the world have been pouring into Asmara for what is being billed as a rival reconciliation conference to one in Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, that began in July and ended last week. That long-awaited event excluded most of the government's harshest critics, including clans believed to be behind an emerging insurgency.
Experts say the dueling conferences show how far apart Somalia's factions remain after 16 years of civil warfare. Somalia's transitional government, backed by Ethiopian troops, seized control of Mogadishu in December but has not been able to quell attacks by Islamic extremists.
The Asmara talks mark the reemergence of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union, the alliance of religious leaders that was chased out of Mogadishu last year.
U.S. and Somalian government officials, who accused the group of having links to terrorists, previously described the religious alliance as defunct. Yet among the approximately 300 delegates at Thursday's opening ceremony were two of the group's top leaders: Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, whom the U.S. alleges has had links to Al Qaeda, and Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a former teacher who is believed to be more moderate. Both men have kept low profiles since they fled Mogadishu, living in exile in various countries around the region.
Ahmed, speaking to delegates, denied that the Islamic Courts Union ever harbored terrorists and said such "fabrications" were used by Ethiopia, with U.S. support, to justify the occupation of Somalia, its longtime rival. He said he hoped the conference would "establish a political organization that liberates the country and ends the violence."
Aweys did not take the podium.
The Islamic Courts Union is one of four groups that have come together for the so-called Congress for the Liberation and Reconstitution of Somalia.
Organizers of the weeklong event said that by its end, they planned to elect leaders, approve a charter and announce a strategy for retaking power and driving out the Ethiopian troops that remain in Somalia at the invitation of the transitional government.
