Somalia: President Ready to Practice Sharia Law

Mogadishu — Somalia's newly elected president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told Monday Islamist leaders and commanders of government forces that he was ready to practice the Sharia law.

Somali's president Sharif Sheik Ahmed was attending a large meeting in former Police Traffic Center in Mogadishu on Monday, and encouraged peace and forgiveness to the Somalis.

Sheik Abdulqadir Ali Omar, the leader of the Islamic Courts Union and Gen. Abdi Hassan Awale (Qeibdid), the commander of the Somali police forces shook hands and said they made up and reconciled.

Said Dhere, the commander of the Somali military forces and some caretaker government ministers attended the meeting.

"We consider the role of every Somali citizen who can help bring peace to the nation," said President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

Mr. Ahmed called for international aid and urged civilians uprooted by two years of fighting to return home.

The president said he would build the national security forces and called for the opposition to join his government to safe the country.

The newly-elected leader had said he would form an inclusive government and extend a hand to armed groups still opposed to the UN-sponsored reconciliation effort.

Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the young cleric and former opposition leader, was elected as Somali's president in Djibouti, but he faces a daunting task of bringing change to the war- torn nation of Somalia, which has not had a central government for eighteen years.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200902091418.html.