Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Hard-line Muslims seek Islamic empire in Horn of Africa Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 17:03:26 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Hard-line Muslims seek Islamic empire in Horn of Africa \BY Jonathan Clayton \CR REUTERS NEWS AGENCY \DT ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Muslim fundamentalists are taking advantage of chaos in the Horn of Africa to try to fulfill an age-old dream of an Islamic empire stretching from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. From Djibouti and northern Somalia down through the Ogaden desert to northern Kenya, aid workers, diplomats and government officials say Islamic groups are operating behind the cover of relief groups to promote conservative Islam. The sources say that the groups are financed by Saudi Arabian businessmen operating out of Djibouti and that Sudan's Muslim fundamentalist government is also involved. The groups are finding fertile ground among the starving masses in refugee camps spread along virtually meaningless borders. "There's no doubt in my mind that the people spreading Sharia law in camps along the border are the same people delivering aid," said a United Nations official. He said hard-line Muslim groups have appeared along Kenya's lawless frontier with Somalia since the arrival of aid groups from the Persian Gulf. Diplomats and officials in the Gulf say many Gulf businessmen finance and arm fellow Muslims abroad. They said the groups of businessmen are not officially linked to any Gulf government to avoid embarrassing the region's conservative regimes. The Ethiopian government, seeking to rebuild after three decades of civil war, has asked Washington to pressure the Saudi Arabian government to stop financing the groups. "We have also taken up the issue with Sudan and have given the government of Djibouti a list of people involved in this business," said an Ethiopian government minister who asked not to be named. Since the collapse of authoritarian regimes, formerly propped up by the superpowers, much of the Horn of Africa has slipped into anarchy. "The absence of any central authority in Somalia and southern Ethiopia has created a vacuum which these groups have exploited," an independent analyst said. Somalia has been carved into clan-based fiefdoms loosely controlled by warlords. The strongest group, known as Ittahad, is based in the north. Hundreds of people were killed in June when the group attacked the port of Bossaso and was repulsed by fighters of the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF). The SSDF is made up of members of the Majerteen clan who have taken refuge in the Las Koreh mountain chain. A Western ambassador who recently visited the area said Ittahad is linked to groups now operating in Ethiopia and along the Kenyan border. He said fighters of the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromia, which is active around the southern Ethiopian town of Dire Dawa, took part in the attack on Bossaso. Egyptian diplomatic sources in the region are concerned by the arrival of Sudanese relief organizations that they say are fronts for fundamentalist groups linked to Iran. The sources say Egypt offered to send troops under U.N. auspices to Somalia nominally to protect relief supplies but also to keep an eye on the growing Sudanese influence. Cairo was angered by the decision to send Canadian troops to the north and Pakistani troops to the capital, Mogadishu. U.N. workers say a new group, the Ogaden Islamic Union, with clear links to Ittahad, sprung up in the area a few months ago. Local relief officials say the group appeared to have limited popular support because it attacked food convoys and added to insecurity, but they fear it could gain strength quickly. Last week, six Hollywood screen writers were briefly prevented from leaving a run-down border town in Somalia by gunmen who accused them of taking photographs of the local sheik. The gunmen were installed by the sheik, who arrived only recently saying he would look after the security of the large refugee population along the border. Previously unknown in the town, he now wields considerable power in the area despite opposition from local people who are liberal Sunni Muslims. "Since the sheik arrived we've been told we can't smoke in public and women have to cover up," one resident complained. "It's ridiculous." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM