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Somali parliament fires speaker Aden

The Somali parliament stripped the speaker position from a top lawmaker who was closely associated with the recently ousted Islamic movement, and the US and the EU said the move could hurt reconciliation efforts in the restive country.

Diplomats said the fired speaker, Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden, was capable of pulling together moderate elements in Somalia's Islamic movement. Wednesday also saw the government's disarmament efforts receive a boost with three major warlords handing over vehicles and men.

Deputy Speaker Osman Ilmi Boqore announced the move against Aden in a live broadcast on HornAfrik Radio. Lawmakers cited his public criticism of a proposed African peacekeeping mission that parliament had endorsed and his meetings with Islamic movement leaders without authority from parliament.

Boqore said only nine of the lawmakers present voted against the motion. Voting in favor were 183 lawmakers -- 44 more than required -- in the 275-member parliament

Aden's actions have been in "total violation of our transitional charter," lawmaker Mohamoud Begos told the press by phone from Baidoa, where parliament is based.

Speaking from Rome, Aden said the lawmakers who voted against him were not acting freely.

"They have been ordered to vote me out by the president, Abdullahi Yusuf, who wants to rule Somalia through Ethiopian forces and through this parliament. The president wants to crack down on all those who are against him," Aden said in a telephone interview. "I have been seeking reconciliation all over the world and this vote tries to destroy the very thing we have been looking for: reconciliation."

Aden had made several freelance peace initiatives with Somalia's Islamic movement before government forces -- backed by Ethiopian troops -- ousted them in December from the capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern Somalia.
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