SOO MAAL Posted June 7, 2005 Somalis to leave Kenya next week Somalia remains awash with guns Kenya says it is providing planes to fly home members of Somalia's government in exile, who have been in Kenya for nearly three years. Kenya's ambassador to Somalia told the BBC that final payments had been made to Somali MPs and they would be repatriated on Tuesday after a party. If the Somalis do leave, it will be the first time their government has been based inside the country since 1991. "Everything that begins has to end," said Mohammed Abdi Afey. President Abdullahi Yusuf was elected last October by the transitional parliament based in Kenya after two years of talks aimed at ending 14 years of warfare and anarchy. The government is split between Mogadishu warlords who want to keep Mogadishu as the capital and President Yusuf Ahmed, who want to base it in the towns of Baidoa and Jowhar. Checkpoints In Mogadishu, Somali warlords have dismantled more than 10 out of 43 checkpoints the national security minister has said. The roadblocks are the most visible evidence of the lawlessness and chaos Deputy PM Mohammed Jama Where the gun rules Mohamed Khanyare Afrah, a warlord turned cabinet minister, was the first to shut down his checkpoint and his militia vowed not to return. Correspondents say more than $40,000 are raised from tariffs paid to those manning roadblocks each day. It is the main source of income for some 20,000 militia in the city. "The roadblocks are the most visible evidence of the lawlessness and chaos," Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed Jama told the BBC's Network Africa programme after militia promised to remove them by mid-morning on Tuesday. A journalist covering protests against the roadblocks was shot dead at the weekend. Confidence According to the BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu, hundreds of people marched with Mr Jama and other ministers through the city's streets dismantling the checkpoints. Facts and figures about life in Somalia At-a-glance Despite uncertainties about whether all the militia would comply, one belonging to one of Somalia's most powerful warlords, Hussein Aideed - an ally of the president - was also removed, he says. The row over where to relocate the new administration is threatening to split the government. "It has a wider significance beyond Mogadishu," Mr Jama said. He said he had confidence that this time the mood was different and that the initiative would be successful "The will is there, the public demand is there. They're trying to create a climate for peace which will make security possible," he said. A monitoring group of 30 people, including the chief of police is overseeing the dismantling process. Last month three key Mogadishu warlords, who spent years fighting each other, began to merge their militias into a joint force. Some 1,400 men have been sent to training camps outside the capital, along with dozens of battle-wagons. Businessmen in Mogadishu have pledged $70 each month to militiamen as long as they are in the camps. Meanwhile, a delegation led by Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Ghedi arrived in Jowhar on Tuesday. The African Union has agreed to send some 1,700 troops to Somalia but said it would not send them unless it was safe to do so. Checkpoints dismantled in Somalia Somali warlords have dismantled more than 10 out of 43 checkpoints in the capital, Mogadishu, the national security minister has said. Mohamed Khanyare Afrah, a warlord turned cabinet minister, was the first to shut down his checkpoint and his militia vowed not to return. Correspondents say more than $40,000 are raised from tariffs paid to those manning roadblocks each day. It is the main source of income for some 20,000 militia in the city. "The roadblocks are the most visible evidence of the lawlessness and chaos," Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed Jama told the BBC's Network Africa programme after militia promised to remove them by mid-morning on Tuesday. A journalist covering protests against the roadblocks was shot dead at the weekend. President Abdullahi Yusuf was elected last October by a transitional parliament based in Kenya after two years of talks aimed at ending 14 years of warfare and anarchy. Confidence The Mogadishu warlords want Mr Yusuf's interim government to relocate to the capital when it leaves neighbouring Kenya. But President Yusuf, who has little support there, says Mogadishu remains too dangerous and wants to go to Baidoa and Jowhar instead. According to the BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu, hundreds of people marched with Mr Jama and other ministers through the city's streets dismantling the checkpoints. Despite uncertainties about whether all the militia would comply, one belonging to one of Somalia's most powerful warlords, Hussein Aideed - an ally of the president - was also removed, he says. The row over where to relocate the new administration is threatening to split the government. "It has a wider significance beyond Mogadishu," Mr Jama said. He said he had confidence that this time the mood was different and that the initiative would be successful "The will is there, the public demand is there. They're trying to create a climate for peace which will make security possible," he said. The decision was announced at a meeting on Monday at the Centre for Research and Dialogue at which most militia were represented. A monitoring group of 30 people, including the chief of police is overseeing the dismantling process. Last month three key Mogadishu warlords, who spent years fighting each other, began to merge their militias into a joint force. Some 1,400 men have been sent to training camps outside the capital, along with dozens of battle-wagons. Businessmen in Mogadishu have pledged $70 each month to militiamen as long as they are in the camps. Meanwhile, a delegation led by Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Ghedi arrived in Jowhar on Tuesday. The African Union has agreed to send some 1,700 troops to Somalia but said it would not send them unless it was safe to do so. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SOO MAAL Posted June 7, 2005 Somalia - where the gun rules By Joseph Winter BBC News, Mogadishu "Somalia is ruled by the gun," I was told by Bashir, a militiaman. And as I was interviewing him, I was reminded just how cheap that has made life in Somalia. One of Bashir's colleagues started causing trouble, presumably because he wanted some money. A row ensued with one of the six armed bodyguards I had to travel with whenever I left the hotel. A machine gun was soon picked up and I threw myself to the ground, prompted by my natural cowardice backed up by my training on dealing with dangerous situations, as the weapon was wrestled out of the gunman's clutches. No-one was hurt and we immediately left but in a land awash with guns and no neutral security forces to settle disputes or to take complaints to, a minor row can easily become fatal. While I was in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, there were three high-profile assassinations of senior officials from various factions, and a former top military officer. Alert levels Driving around Mogadishu, I constantly wanted to take out my camera, as there were so many amazing sights - ruined buildings, old telephone posts straining under new wires, and countless examples of how people are managing to get by without a government. However my guards warned me to be careful - the city is full of roadblocks manned by militias who do not like being photographed. It turned out there were three levels of danger: Green - take your time, get out of the car and take as many photos as you want Amber - be quick, the driver will slow down to let you take a snap out of the window Red - don't even think about it Weapons are even used as a way to break up the horrendous traffic jams which partly result from a lack of police. Whenever our pick-up came to a halt, gunmen would get down from the back and point their weapons at the drivers of the minibus taxis who had stopped in the middle of the road to pick up passengers, causing gridlock further down the line. The minibus drivers did not seem shocked at the sight of the barrel of an AK-47 sticking through their window, but it did prompt them to speed up the boarding of their passengers. There are at least three functioning hotels in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, clean and with air-conditioning, and they all lay on security as a matter of course. My six armed guards mostly looked as though they were in their 20s and so would have grown up with the gun after the height of the civil war in the early 1990s. Not stealing The one time my bodyguards did cause a stir was in a refugee camp - a former school. As I was speaking to one of the camp leaders, I noticed a woman, who had presumably fled her home because of fighting between militias, stop and blanche at the sight of six armed men standing in the path between the makeshift tents which have sprung up in the school grounds. I felt awful but she was soon told that the gunmen had not come to steal her belongings this time and she carried on her way. Guns have become a part of everyday life in Somalia and changing this is the new government's first - and biggest - task. If it can disarm the militias, running schools and hospitals will be easy. But despite the preponderance of guns and the shocking sight of refugees living in former ministry buildings, the extent to which life carries on is astonishing. The latest mobile phones handsets, running water and electricity are all available to those who can afford it. Coming home There are regular international flights, albeit on rickety Russian planes to dirt runways well outside the capital. On the flight to Mogadishu, I got chatting to two young Somalis who had grown up in Europe. They were as worried as I was about their native country's reputation for lawlessness. After more than a decade abroad, they were returning to see their families. In fact, they had even more reason to be afraid, as someone might try to steal their valuable European passports and hope that a tired immigration officer could not tell one Somali from another, leaving them stranded. One was so worried that he had left his travel documents in Kenya and was using his Somali papers which are only accepted on that journey. 'Family business' And the huge number of Somalis living abroad is one sign of hope for the country. I met another young Somali who spoke perfect English with a Canadian accent. He was working in a dingy office across a dirt road which had become a swamp after a two-hour downpour of rain from a ruined shell of a building. He cheerfully told that me swapped life in orderly Canada for this to help out with "the family business". If he, and many others like him, take their training back home to boost the well developed Somali entrepreneurial spirit, the country should at least be able to make money. Bashir the militiaman told me he needed his gun to feed his family but that he would prefer to do something else. If the guns can be removed from the streets and alternative sources of income provided, maybe his next argument could be solved amicably, or even in the courts - the rule of law replacing the rule of war. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
