2006年VOA标准英语-Somalia's Interim Leaders to Meet With Islamic

By Alisha Ryu
Baidoa, Somalia
04 July 2006

  
  
Somalia's interim¹ government in Baidoa says it will send a senior-level delegation² to the capital Mogadishu in the coming days to meet with Islamic leaders, ahead of a second round of peace talks on July 15 in Khartoum, Sudan.

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The speaker of Somalia's Transitional Federal Parliament, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, tells VOA that he will lead the 15-member delegation to Mogadishu. 

A departure date has not been set.  But the speaker says the trip will take place because it is vital that each side knows what will be expected from the other before meeting again on July 15.

Aden says his delegation is committed to finding ways to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with the Islamic leadership in Mogadishu, so that a broad-based, permanent government can be set up in the capital without bloodshed.

The country's interim government, composed of members from two dozen major factions³ in Somalia, was formed 19 months ago in neighboring Kenya and is internationally recognized.  But it has not had enough security to enter Mogadishu.  For the past year, the government has been based in the town of Baidoa, 250 kilometers northwest of the capital.

Its authority has recently come under threat from the country's Islamic courts, whose militias⁴ seized Mogadishu from a self-styled, anti-terror alliance of factional leaders early last month.  

After its initial victory, the Islamists moved swiftly to take control of other towns in southern Somalia, alarming the transitional government, Somalia's neighbors and the United States.  The United States believes Muslim extremists inside the Islamic courts are harboring al-Qaida operatives, including those responsible for the 1997 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

To defuse rising tensions, the Arab League, led by Sudan, succeeded in arranging a meeting between the interim government and the Islamists.  On June 22nd in Khartoum, the two sides agreed to recognize each other and to meet again in July.

But soon after the agreement, the Islamic courts replaced their more moderate chairman Sheikh Sharif Ahmed with radical⁵ cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who vowed⁶ to extend the court's authority throughout the country.  Aweys said he would negotiate with the interim government, but is demanding that its constitution reflects Islamic laws called Sharia.

Former Mogadishu-based factional leader and current interim Minister of Interior, Hussein Mohammed Farah Aideed, tells VOA that he will travel to the capital, ahead of the delegation, to ask for clan⁷ elders' help in reining⁸ in the Islamists' ambitions.

"Everybody says Sharia courts control Mogadishu," he says. "That is false.  The sub-clans control.  When the Sharia courts said, 'We want to control Mogadishu,' the tribes sitting in Mogadishu blocked them.  I know that.  The control is with the tribes."

The interim government has ruled out negotiating with hardliners in the courts, but says it believes there are many moderate members, with whom it can work now and in the future.

1 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

2 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

3 factions   

组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gens also lives on in the "factions." 氏族此外还继续存在于“factions〔“帮”〕中。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• rival factions within the administration 政府中的对立派别

4 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

5 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

6 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

7 clan   

n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派

参考例句：

• She ranks as my junior in the clan.她的辈分比我小。
• The Chinese Christians,therefore,practically excommunicate themselves from their own clan.所以，中国的基督徒简直是被逐出了自己的家族了。

8 reining   

勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的现在分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理

参考例句：

• "That's a fine bevy, Ma'm,'said Gerald gallantly, reining his horse alongside the carriage. "太太！好一窝漂亮的云雀呀！" 杰拉尔德殷勤地说，一面让自己的马告近塔尔顿的马车。
• I was a temperamental genius in need of reining in by stabler personalities. 我是个需要由更稳重的人降服住的神经质的天才。