Somalia's Islamist boat people head to Yemen

Christian Science Monitor:

Under cover of darkness, exhausted Somali refugees stagger onto Yemen's southern beaches at the end of a grueling and dangerous journey across the Gulf of Aden.

"We were loaded onto the boats like animals," says Adil Mokhtar Mohammed. "We were forced to squat for three days and we were tightly packed together in rows. The smugglers don't even allow you to open your bag for food and water. If you try to move, they beat you."

Since the outbreak of Somalia's civil war in 1991, each new cycle of turmoil has generated a fresh flow of refugees to neighboring Yemen. But during this past year's rise and fall of Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), tiny fishing vessels carried 26,000 men, women, and children – a record number – from Somalia to Yemen.

Among the latest wave of refugees are rank-and-file members of Somalia's defeated Islamists, and now ousted moderate UIC leaders are also seeking refuge in Yemen, sparking concern from Yemeni officials and Western diplomats that Al Qaeda-linked radical Islamists are also using these well-worn human-trafficking routes to escape from Somalia to the Arabian Peninsula.

"We are concerned that terrorist operatives will try to escape Somalia and establish safe haven elsewhere," says one Western diplomat in Yemen's capital, Sanaa. "Governments in the region, including Yemen, share that concern. They are doing what they can to prevent suspected terrorists from setting up a base in their country."

Last month, Yemen's Interior Minister, Rashid al-Alimi, stepped up maritime security against possible infiltration from Somalia by radical Islamists and Al Qaeda fighters. But Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is currently hosting four senior UIC moderates, who, observers say, could hold the key to a future political settlement in Somalia, which could help stem the flow of refugees.

The latest arrival, deputy UIC leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, flew from Nairobi, Kenya, to Sanaa last Thursday, as a guest of the Yemeni government. Sheikh Sharif joins the UIC's foreign affairs spokesman, Ibrahim Adow, and two other UIC moderates who have been living under Yemeni protection in the southern port of Aden for more than a month.

One month after Somali and Ethiopian troops ousted Somalia's Islamists in a two-week offensive, groups tied to the Islamists are stepping up deadly guerrilla attacks across Somalia. And while an insurgency appears to be gathering steam, the US and its regional allies are hoping to co-opt individual leaders from within the ranks of the UIC's diverse and scattered leadership to bolster the weak and faltering transitional government. Washington is targeting popular figures without links to terrorism who still command a strong following among many Somalis – and chief among them is Sheikh Sharif.

"The inclusion of the UIC moderates is the only way to stabilize Somalia," says François Grignon, director of the International Crisis Group's Africa Program.

...

"Islamic Courts Moderates" do not exist. They are extremest religious bigots by definition. Including them in a government, if they would participate is a recipe for a dysfunctional government. They and their movement will eventually have to be destroyed.

This map shows the area where the crossings are made.