Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia

Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) is an organization created in September 2007 when Somali Islamists and opposition leaders meeting in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, joined forces to fight the Transitional Federal Government and the occupation of Somalia by Ethiopian forces.

Roughly 400 delegates, including former Islamic Courts Union Shura chairman Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, ICU Executive chairman Sharif Sheikh Ahmad former TFG Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden and the former TFG Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Mohamed Farrah, have approved a constitution and central committee. It aims to remove the Ethiopian-backed government by negotiation - or war.

The Alliance has a 191 member Central Committee chaired by Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, and a 10 member Executive Committee chaired by Sharif Sheikh Ahmad. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys explicitly stated he did not hold any formal position in the alliance.

Islamists hold 45% of the seats, ex-MPs hold 25%, and the rest of the seats are held by representatives of the diaspora and civil society.^[1]

In May 2008 the Alliance suffered internal splits and in-fighting between the hard-core and the moderate islamists over the holding of peace talks with the official Somalian government.^[2]

The Djibouti peace agreement

The representatives of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) participated in a peace conference in Djibouti between May 31 and June 9, 2008. This was mediated by the United Nations Special Envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah. The conference ended with the announcement on June 9, 2008 that they have signed an 11-point peace agreement paving the way for "the cessation of all armed confrontation" across Somalia. The peace agreement called for a 90-day ceasefire and set a withdrawal timetable for the Ethiopian troops protecting the TFG. According to the agreement, the two sides agreed to terminate "all acts of armed confrontation" and to "request the United Nations...to authorize and deploy an international stabilization force from countries that are friends of Somalia" excluding the neighboring countries. The peace pact also called for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops present in Somalia within a period of 120 days of the signing of this agreement. Both Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and ARS Chairman Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad welcomed the peace agreement as a "historic opportunity" to end Somalia's long conflict. But Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys rejected the agreement. According to him, "no one authorized" the ARS delegates to participate at the Djibouti conference.^[3]

Notes

External links

• New Somali alliance threatens war (BBC)