Mayor of Somali capital sworn in amid calls to disarm
May 04, 2007 (MOGADISHU) — Mogadishu’s new mayor used his swearing-in ceremony Friday to make a call for residents to disarm, trying to build on a fragile peace carved out by clan politicking and a fierce military crackdown on Islamic insurgents.
“No weapons are allowed in the city,” Mayor Mohamed Dheere, a man who spent 16 years as a warlord struggling for power in this Horn of Africa nation, said at his inauguration ceremony. “Anyone who violates this directive will be punished.”
The new police chief, Abdi Qeybdiid, also called for residents to disarm Friday, and said cars with blacked-out or tinted windows also must go.
“Anyone who fails to abide by these rules will be brought before the court,” he said, a surprising assertion in a shell-shocked city that has seen little more than chaos for more than a decade.
The current calm came after some of the worst fighting. Aid groups say 1,670 people were killed between March 12 and April 26 and more than 340,000 of the city’s 2 million residents fled for safety as the government, backed by Ethiopian troops, pressed to wipe out an Islamic insurgency.
It was not clear how long the calm would last; extremist Islamic leaders have vowed their forces would rise up again. But the violence was also spurred by a struggle for power among Somali clans, and that element may have subsided because of efforts to appease the clans, including the weekend appointment of Dheere as mayor. Dheere’s powerful clan, the Hawiye, had complained of being ignored by the government.
Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned against each other. The current government was established in 2004, but has failed to assert any real control.
With the crucial aid of troops from neighboring Ethiopia, Somali forces ousted a militant Islamic group known as the Council of Islamic Courts over the New Year. But the group promised to launch an Iraq-style insurgency, and the capital was soon enduring weeks of artillery battles and shelling between the warring sides.
The relentless violence is among the reasons many Somalis have been reluctant to give up their arms in this notoriously gun-infested city. Weapons are readily available here, with the Bakaara Market in downtown Mogadishu selling Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and hand grenades.
In a hopeful sign for the government, however, several members of the powerful business community in the capital handed over 25 boxes and 20 sacks filled with weapons, saying they would now depend on government forces to protect them.
But violence and crime continues to be a challenge. Thursday, gunmen seized three boats off Somalia’s coast semiautonomous Puntland region, said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program. Mwangura had no update on the situation Friday.
(AP)