The government announced it was indefinitely postponing its disarmament program yesterday, as about 100 residents of the Somali capital burned tires and looted vehicles to protest the plans to forcibly take their weapons.
The protesters gathered at Tribunk Square in a southern neighborhood of Mogadishu, shouting "Down, down with Ethiopia," in reference to troops from the neighboring country that have been instrumental in the transitional government's takeover of the capital from Islamists who controlled it for six months.
"We don't want disarmament only in Mogadishu, we want all the people [of Somalia] and all the clans to be disarmed simultaneously," said Dahail Abukar, a protester.
PHOTO: EPA
"The prime minister has decided to postpone, disarming people by force until an unspecified time," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told reporters. He did not say why Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi had reversed his earlier decision to forcibly disarm Mogadishu residents.
Mogadishu teems with weapons, and some of the feared warlords of the past have returned to the city with their guns.
The ease with which Somalis can get weapons is a major problem. Thursday was Gedi's deadline for residents to voluntarily give up their arms, but only a handful were seen doing so. Gedi has said the disarmament program was working.
The Council of Islamic Courts militia were routed by Somali government and Ethiopian troops last week, driving them out of the capital and their strongholds in southern Somalia.
Al-Qaeda's deputy leader urged Somalia's Islamic militia to attack troops from Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population, according to Internet audio posted on Friday.
Three al-Qaeda suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa are believed to be leaders of the Islamic movement in Somalia. The movement's leaders deny having any links to the terror network.
A meeting in Kenya of US, EU, African and Arab diplomats on Somalia ended on Friday with a US pledge to provide US$40 million to Somalia in political, humanitarian and peacekeeping assistance, and a plan to ask more African nations to provide troops to help stabilize the country.
The EU said it would also help pay for a peacekeeping force envisioned at 8,000 troops.
Ethiopian soldiers, tanks and warplanes intervened in Somalia on Dec. 24 to defeat an Islamic movement that threatened to overthrow the internationally recognized government, which at the time controlled only the western town of Baidoa. But Ethiopia's government wants to pull out in a few weeks, saying its forces cannot be peacekeepers and it cannot afford for them to stay.
The Islamic movement has vowed to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war, raising the prospect of bloody reprisals against foreign peacekeepers. Somalia's interior minister said on Thursday that 3,500 Islamic fighters were still hiding in the capital.
Kenya closed its border amid fears militants would slip across. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement on Friday that armed militia were reported to be on the roads to Baidoa and other towns in southern Somalia, engaging in looting, banditry, extortion and harassment of civilians.
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