Somalia warlords begin to surrender arms in Mogadishu

[SOO MAAL]

Somalia warlords begin to surrender arms in Mogadishu

Web posted at: 5/15/2005 2:9:19

Source ::: AFP

MOGADISHU: Powerful Somali warlords controlling the capital Mogadishu yesterday started surrendering weapons, for the first time in 14 years, in a major disarmament programme aimed at restoring stability in the lawless African nation.

 

The warlords gathered at a stadium in southern Mogadishu and handed over dozens of battle wagons — pick-ups with anti-aircraft artillery or machine guns mounted in their wells — and hundreds of machine guns to the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Mohamoud Abdullahi Jama.

 

“This is the beginning of a voluntary disamarment by the Somalis. It is a milestone for the relocation of the Somali government to the capital of Mogadishu,†Jama told the warlords. The warlords are also ministers in the transitional government exiled in Kenya.

 

“These are not our weapons anymore, they belong to the Somali people,†warlord Musa Sudi Yalahow told hundreds of Somalis who attended the ceremony.

 

“We handed over the weapons to the deputy prime minister of transitional federal government in order to make Mogadishu weapons-free, violence-free and make relocation here easy for the government,†said Mohammed Qanyare Afrah, another warlord.

 

They said it was the first time they were surrendering arms since 1991, when the toppling of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre plunged the whole east African nation into anarchy.

 

Repeated international attempts to broker peace in Somalia have failed, with both the UN and the United States dragged into inter-clan fighting in the mid 1990s that killed UN peacekeepers, US soldiers and thousands of Somalis.

 

Yesterday, in another step towards a return of the rule of law, warlords said their fighters would form joint patrol teams to promote security in Mogadishu.

 

“We will form joint patrol teams in which some of our militiamen will carry identification cards. Mogadishu will not be ruled by freelance gunmen,†according to warlord Botan Issa Ali.

 

In March, the warlords moved from Kenya to Mogadishu and started preparing for disarmament after a major dispute with President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on how to relocate and whether to deploy a regional peacekeeping force.

 

On Wednesday, the Somali parliament approved a government motion to move to the towns of Jowhar and Baidoa due to insecurity in Mogadishu. It also approved the deployment of up to 10,000 troops from the east African body, the InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

 

But the warlords insisted that Mogadishu remain the official Somali capital and that peacekeepers from IGAD, comprising of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and nominally Somalia, were not welcome.

 

Hardline Islamic clerics, who wield considerable influence in the country, have vowed to oppose the whole deployment with militants warning that they would attack the forces.