Somali warlords will disarm militia – official

Jan 12, 2007 (MOGADISHU) — Somalia’s warlords have agreed to disarm and join a new national army, a government official said Friday.

But violence in the capital the same day brought home the challenge of restoring order and establishing real authority in this fractious and heavily armed country.

The announcement followed a meeting between President Abdullahi Yusuf and clan warlords that proceeded even as, just outside, clan gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade and briefly exchanged gunfire with government troops. The fighting, which one fighter said was sparked by a dispute over where to park an armored car, left at least six dead and 10 wounded.

The rout of the Islamic fundamentalist movement, which had controlled most of Somalia for the past six months, by Somali government troops baked by Ethiopian soldiers allowed the country’s weak U.N.-backed transitional government to enter the capital, Mogadishu, for the first time since it was established in 2004. Besides clan divisions, resentment of Ethiopia’s intervention and remnants of the Islamic movement also were likely to bedevil the government for some time to come.

“The warlords and the government have agreed to collaborate for the restoration of peace in Somalia,” said government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari.

Yusuf had met with three top Somali warlords and two other faction leaders, the spokesman said.

“The agreement means they have to disarm their militia and their men have to join the national army,” Dinari told The AP.

There are believed to be around 20,000 militiamen in Somalia and the country is awash with guns. Rival clan fighting and warlords have already been the undoing of 13 other attempts at government in Somalia since the country collapsed into chaos in 1991. The government’s call last week for countrywide disarmament went unheeded.

One of Somalia’s most powerful warlords, Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, told the AP after the meeting the war lords were “fed up” with guns and ready to cooperate with the government.

However, another warlord spelled out a warning.

“If the government is ready to reconcile its people and chooses the right leadership, I hope there is no need to revolt against it,” said Muse Sudi Yalahow, whose fighters control north Mogadishu. “If they fail and lose the confidence of the people, I think they would be called new warlords.”

The U.S., U.N. and the African Union all want to deploy peacekeepers to stop Somalia from returning to clan-based violence and anarchy.

Since Tuesday there have been at least three attacks against government forces and their Ethiopian allies, killing five people, witnesses in the capital said. Gunmen threw a grenade into a hotel late Thursday, killing a government soldier, Somali lawmaker Jini Boqor, who saw the incident, told The AP. The hotel is used by Somalia’s police chief.

“Deploying an African stabilization force into Somalia quickly is vitally important to support efforts to achieve stability,” U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger said in an opinion piece in Kenya’s Nation Newspaper Friday.

But so far no one on the continent has responded to the call for 8,000 African peacekeepers for Somalia, although Uganda has indicated it is willing to deploy 1,500 peacekeepers as part of a wider mission.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki said in a statement on a government Web site Friday that U.S. involvement in Somalia is creating turmoil in the Horn of African region and would “incur dangerous consequences.” Eritrea and Ethiopia are bitter rivals.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the Horn of Africa nation of 7 million people into chaos.

Ethiopia sent troops in on Dec. 24 to attack the Somali Islamic fundamentalist movement. Most of the Islamic militiamen have dispersed, but a few hardcore members have fled south toward the Kenyan border and the Indian Ocean, and others in hiding in the capital have threatened to wage guerrilla war.

The U.S. has repeatedly accused the group of harboring three suspects wanted in connection with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

(AP)