By Andrew Cawthorne

NAIROBI (Reuters) – A senior Somali Islamist leader said on Tuesday the Islamic Courts movement ousted from Mogadishu in a brief war at the end of 2006 remained unbroken and better-supported than before among the population.

“The movement is intact. The leadership is still there. Many of them are inside the country, in Mogadishu and elsewhere, in hiding. Others are abroad,” said Ibrahim Hussein Adow, foreign affairs pointman for the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC).

Adow, who has made Yemen his home in exile, said Somalis had seen the contrast between violence by the Ethiopian military backing Somalia’s interim government, and the stability the Courts brought during their six-month rule of the south in 2006.

“When the Islamic Courts came in, things changed. Tribes were united, the port and airport opened, weapons were collected, we even stopped piracy,” he said by telephone during a trip to Doha.

“The movement changed people’s lives for the better…The Ethiopians  Woyannes and Transitional Federal Government have created violence and genocide…So the support for the (Islamic Courts) movement is more than before.” Many in Mogadishu and elsewhere in south Somalia credited the Islamists last year for bringing peace to areas knowing little but warlord rule and anarchy since 1991, when the Horn of Africa nation descended into chaos with the fall of a dictator.

But Somalis, who are generally moderate Muslims, also complained of hardline practices by the SICC such as enforcing dress codes and banning public viewing of films.

Addis Ababa Woyanne sent thousands of troops into Somalia to help the interim government of President Abdullahi Yusuf drive the Islamists out of power at the New Year, scattering their fighters around the south and sending leaders into hiding.

But some Islamist fighters regrouped to spearhead an insurgency against the Ethiopian Woyanne troops and government.

“It is not the Islamic Courts organising this, but the population organising itself,” Adow said of the daily attacks.

“Ethiopians Woyannes killed so many people with their indiscriminate bombing and their tanks. Their violence is behind the problem, they have alienated the population.”

Adow said the recent National Reconciliation Conference in Mogadishu was a failure as it was run by the Ethiopians Woyanne and government, and never intended to bring opponents on board.

A U.S.-educated lecturer in education and international affairs, Adow, in his mid-fifties, said he advocated peaceful engagement of all the Somali factions at a neutral venue.

“We will go anywhere, provided talks are inclusive, there is an independent body present, and the place is safe,” he said.