Guns Finally Silent In Somalia's Capital

[xiinfaniin]

Guns Finally Silent In Somalia's Capital

Islamic Militias Impose a Welcome Calm

 

By Craig Timberg

Washington Post Foreign Service

Saturday, June 17, 2006; A01

 

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia, June 16 -- The thugs manning the roadblocks are gone. The warlords are on the run. And the guns in a city long regarded as among the world's most heavily armed have fallen silent. Most, in fact, have disappeared from view.

 

Since Islamic militias took control of this city last week, U.S. and other Western officials have worried that Mogadishu's new leaders will impose a severe, Taliban-style government and harbor terrorists. But after 15 years of deadly chaos, residents interviewed here expressed nothing short of jubilation that somebody has made their city safe and that, for now, the daily crackle of gunfire is finally gone.

 

"Our ears are resting now," said Diiriye Jimcaale, 45, who has been unemployed since the onset of inter-clan warfare forced him to close his small clothing shop in 1991. "Now we hear nothing."

 

Anxiety remains, both about the militias' ability to maintain order and about the possibility that extremist elements within the movement will go too far in imposing Islamic rule. Residents speak of a wave of cinema closings in the first days after the militias took control of the city June 5. Rumors have circulated that public showings of the televised World Cup soccer tournament would be banned.

 

But on this Friday night in Mogadishu, sounds of the match between the Netherlands and Ivory Coast floated through the city. The streets bustled with activity. The city's largest market, near the site where two U.S. helicopters crashed in 1993, as depicted in the movie "Black Hawk Down," hummed with business.

 

Cabdriver Yusuf Ali Muhammed, 39, felt so safe that he left his longtime bodyguard at home, saving himself $5 in security fees, he said. Wielding an AK-47 assault rifle, as his guard did each night as they drove through the city, is now prohibited. Yet even without it, Muhammed said, he could now go anywhere in the city at any time. Before, he used to stick to the few neighborhoods he knew best.

 

"This is my mobile," Muhammed said, smiling as he held up a glowing Nokia handset. "If I'm called, straight I go -- without a gun."

 

Mogadishu, the oceanside Somali capital with a population of more than 1 million, remains an impoverished, devastated city of cracked pavements and ruined buildings. After the fall of the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, the city's warlords began fighting one another, creating a humanitarian disaster. With U.N. authority, the United States and other countries intervened militarily in 1992, but continuing violence led them to abandon it to its anarchy three years later.

 

Somalia became one of the world's most profoundly failed states, without a central government, public schools, a police force, a national army or laws.

 

Warlords set up roadblocks throughout the city to exact tolls. Murders, robberies, rapes and kidnappings became endemic. Every family of consequence and every major business armed its own militia, which traveled through the city flanked by pickup trucks mounted with antiaircraft guns. Pirates on speedboats hounded ships near the city's ports.

 

Out of this chaos grew the Islamic courts that now rule Mogadishu. They started as neighborhood tribunals that doled out often-harsh punishments but began to calm the city's notoriously rampant crime.

 

As a semblance of order took hold, residents said, the courts grew in popularity and political clout, even among moderate Muslims wary of strict Islamic law.

 

"When you are really sick, you'll try any kind of medicine," Ali Hussein Maalin, 56, a Somali businessman, said in an interview in Nairobi. "We have been sick for 15 years."

 

The courts expanded into Islamic militias strong enough to challenge the city's secular warlords, which had enjoyed the financial backing of the CIA, according to widely circulating reports.

 

The United States has neither confirmed nor denied these accounts but has acknowledged supporting the warlords as part of an effort to capture terrorists suspected in a string of attacks in East Africa, including the bombings of two U.S. embassies in 1998.

 

A series of clashes this year between the Islamic militias and the warlords left more than 300 people dead. But the militias have expanded their control to nearly all of southern Somalia.

 

So far, the militias have not moved into the town of Baidoa, where Somalia's transitional government is based. The government was created by a U.N.-backed conference in Nairobi and has little authority in Somalia.

 

Leaders of the Islamic militias have said repeatedly that they intend to negotiate with the government so that it can eventually move into Mogadishu and reunite the country. They have also said they will disarm their own forces, turn over any terrorists and not resort to extremist Islam.

 

"The only thing we would concentrate on is to bring peace and stability to this region," Abdulkadir Ali Omar, the second-in-command of the Islamic militias, told reporters here.

 

Within Mogadishu, the militias have already largely succeeded in their stated goal, though the toll remains high from the long years of violence.

 

The sidewalks of the city are a jumble of rusting shacks. Wandering goats graze on heaping piles of garbage. Wide boulevards are cracked and nearly treeless, the best timber having been cleared for firewood years before.

 

Moderates among supporters of the Islamic militias acknowledge a rising extremism within the country. More women than before cover their faces rather than just their hair. Strict Islamic justice is popular. City leaders warn that without massive and rapid rebuilding, anti-Western forces such as al-Qaeda are certain to expand their appeal.

 

After midday prayers Friday, several thousand demonstrators gathered in the city center to protest the national government's decision this week to invite foreign peacekeepers to Somalia. The move has been widely condemned here as an opportunity for Ethiopia, Somalia's historic enemy, to meddle in its affairs.

 

"We don't need foreign troops!" the demonstrators chanted, pumping their fists.

 

Several placards, handwritten in English, captured the mixture of political feelings coursing through Mogadishu.

 

"America Open Your Ears And Eyes," read one. Another exhorted, in broken syntax: "Democracy Go To The Hell."

 

Yet in interviews, Mogadishu residents expressed far more anger at the secular warlords than at the United States. Many said the foreign power they feared most was Ethiopia.

 

There was also palpable unease about the plans of the Islamic militias, which are by all accounts a fractured group split between moderates and extremists. The militias, the residents said, attempted to shut down a company that dubbed Indian movies in Somali, apparently because they regarded the films as too risque. Others recalled occasional moments of thuggish behavior by militia members.

 

One youth, Faisal Yacquub Ali, 17, took a break from watching the World Cup match to declare himself "fully against" the Islamic militias because he feared they would eventually turn against movies and soccer matches on television.

 

Yet Jimcaale, who after 15 years was considering opening another clothing store, was less certain of the future. As the sounds of the soccer match drifted from a nearby cinema into a hotel cafe nearby, he said, "I see now the cinema is still open."

[xiinfaniin]

Somalia Islamists, elders agree to administer militia-held areas

 

 

Somali Islamists promise to crack down on extremists

 

The Myth of Ayro: Islamist Chief and Bogeyman to the US

 

Somalian Islamist Urges U.N. Help

[Alle-ubaahne]

^mahadsanid awoowe, for feeding us the right info. pertaining to the current developments.

 

Diyaar ma nahay inaan iska dhicino gaala madowda?

[- Femme -]

Allah is always there to help those who turn to him. Alhamdulliah I'm so incredibly happy. I hope that Somalia truly changes into an Islamic State in every sense of the word.

 

Mashallah.

[Maf Kees]

^ Amin.

 

I have yet to see the ICU freeing Marka, Brava and Kismayo and spread governance to their territories. I will keep my reservations till then. But hopefully Somalia will become a country ruled by Sharia law. The way it's supposed to.

[Duufaan]

warsan

sawirkaa kuceebeeyey.

[- Femme -]

Duufaan, did you enlarge the image so u could make that comment? Ameen baa kugu filneed ninyahow.

[Duufaan]

no at all, I am so happy too about the islamic state!

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.~

[xiinfaniin]

Islamists Sow Calm, and Concern, in Southern Somalia.

 

Islamists who replaced warlords brought calm to the south. But some fear a religious iron fist.

By Robyn Dixon

Times Staff Writer

 

June 17, 2006

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Rolling along the sandy, yellow road from the seaport to a city that has been called the most dangerous place on Earth, the most telling sign of change is a candy-striped boom gate lying askew and half-torn from the ground.

 

Up until a few weeks ago, you approached a place like this with fear. Or you hired a pickup truck bristling with automatic weapons and skinny young warriors, their torsos draped with belts of ammunition like pythons coiled around sapling trees.

 

But the roadblocks have been abandoned, and the militias that ran them have departed, at least for now. A murky alliance of Islamic militias has taken control of Mogadishu from the warlords who dominated Somalia's capital for 15 years. Residents say the change in atmosphere on the streets is striking.

 

"There are no guns," said Khadija Ossoble Ali, a PhD student in conflict resolution at George Mason University in Virginia who divides her time between her Somalian homeland and the U.S. She said no one had actually ordered people to stop carrying weapons. "People just did that themselves."

 

Sheik Abdukadir Ali Omar of the Islamic Courts Union, the alliance whose militias drove out the warlords, said Friday that there were still many guns in Mogadishu, but that after 15 years without a functioning government, people now felt safe enough to walk the streets unarmed.

 

"Now they have confidence, they can move without guns. If they see there is security, there is no reason to carry guns," Omar told foreign reporters who had been invited to the city by the Islamic militias.

 

The defeat of the warlords who ruled and quarreled over Mogadishu has also ushered in a seismic change in the nation's political landscape, and for the first time in years, some Somalis nurture a fragile hope for peace. Omar said the Islamic Courts Union considered the establishment of peace, stability and security its primary goals.

 

Despite the palpable relief, some Somalis chafe at the restrictions imposed by the city's new rulers and worry that a fundamentalist Islamic state may follow. Some members of the Islamic Courts Union have imposed punishments such as cutting off convicted thieves' hands or executing killers.

 

The rise of the ICU, a loose, clan-based alliance, has Western analysts puzzling over the divisions, power plays and rivalries within the group, and the potential for an extreme Taliban-style wing to emerge on top.

 

Under the warlords, Mogadishu was sliced into small fiefdoms divided by roadblocks just streets apart. The smallest imagined affront to Kalashnikov-toting teenagers, who had known neither peace nor a government, often led to deadly standoffs.

 

"Many people died by mistake, by misunderstandings and problems at roadblocks," said Abdulkadir Mohammed Nur, chairman of the Benadir Maritime Port Operation, a private beachfront facility an hour's drive north of Mogadishu.

 

Several businessmen said they supported the ICU and counted the benefits of the warlords' defeat in the piles of Somalian shillings that once went to pay a "tax" of about $50 per truck at every roadblock. Now the ancient, battered trucks that sit around the port like weary soldiers can ply the roads all the way to neighboring Kenya without being stopped.

 

ICU militias have taken control of much of southern Somalia and several key towns to the north.

 

The streets of Mogadishu have been shattered by years of war, decorated with the rusty metal lace of bullet-riddled signs and shipping containers. A dull layer of dust clings to everything, and shredded plastic bags are tangled on any stick or shrub, fluttering like ribbons in the wind.

 

On Friday, driving along roads lined with dense prickly pear into the once-stylish boulevards of the city, the atmosphere seemed relaxed, almost festive.

 

Women moved about gracefully in their traditional full-length garments, swaying like bright hibiscus flowers in a neglected garden. But a few have begun donning black Islamic full-body coverings, with only slits for their eyes.

 

At Friday prayers at the Kilometer Four mosque, considered one of the most hard-line, Sheik Hassan Awil protested a decision several days ago by Somalia's weakened transitional government — based in Baidoa to the northwest — to call for foreign peacekeepers, and urged the faithful to take to the streets in a mass protest being organized by the ICU.

 

"We shall never give in to the infidels and their stooges," he said, calling on followers to "fight the enemies of Allah."

 

"We will sacrifice our souls for our religion. For the sake of our religion, we will die," he said.

 

But even the noisy rally of several thousand protesters organized by the ICU was peaceful and free of guns, with only a small contingent of armed guards to usher the foreign journalists to the stage and then back to their cars.

 

Women, most of them with their faces covered, stood on one side, with men on the other, waving their arms and shouting, "No foreign troops!" and "God is great!"

 

"Democracy go to the hell," a banner read in English. Another said, "America, open your ears and eyes."

 

The Bush administration, concerned that Somalia could become a stronghold for Islamic militants, has allegedly backed the warlords in an effort to keep the Islamic Courts Union from taking the city. On Thursday, it convened an international "contact group" to seek ways to stabilize the country and disarm the Islamic militias.

 

Although Friday was the Muslim sabbath, work at the Benadir port continued under the broiling sun. Hundreds of sweating men, bent under sacks of rice, toiled up the beach unloading barges.

 

At the other end of the beach, tractors offloaded Chilean lumber, to be put on trucks and driven to Mogadishu.

 

Piracy at sea and extortion on the roads used to add hundreds of dollars to the cost of each load. Ships were hijacked and kept hostage until huge sums of money were paid.

 

Ahmed Moalim, 52, head of the heavy cargo section of the port, said piracy had reached the point of nine or 10 attacks a day. Just over a month ago, the port set up its own maritime security force of 150 small, heavily armed boats to escort ships in and out of the port.

 

He credited the rise of the Islamic Courts Union for a sharp decline in crime.

 

"Because of the courts, the pirates are now scared of being captured. We have our own army, and they heard the courts were becoming active and they know what the punishment is if they're caught," Moalim said.

 

"I'm prepared to catch them and kill them," he added. Asked whether he was happy with the ICU, he replied, "One hundred percent."

 

A short way up the coast, an oil tanker was unloading gasoline via a pipeline to trucks lined up along a sandy stretch of beach.

 

Sayid Ali Moalim, 30, a slight figure with a cellphone earpiece dangling from one ear, bought his first truck at age 15 and now owns 10.

 

He said that he ships 10,000 to 12,000 metric tons of gasoline a month but that the constant fighting in Mogadishu had made it impractical to build up a supply, out of fear it could be taken or lost in war.

 

According to local accounts, the battle for the city that resulted in the defeat of the warlords began with a conflict over control of the road from the port. One warlord tried to seize it but faced resistance from the ICU. The resulting confrontation led to battle.

 

"They took down the roadblocks and now the trucks can travel freely," Moalim said. "We can get all the way to the Kenyan border."

 

In the past, the number of roadblocks on the 350-mile trip to Kenya was "unimaginable," he said, with a stop every six miles or so.

 

"Now our profits are high and the prices will go down. The people will benefit," he said.

 

The poor have their own reasons for supporting the ICU. For Roble Hassan, 14, shining the shoes of militiamen employed by the warlords was a terrifying ordeal.

 

"Once when I asked for the money, a gunman shot me in the leg. Once they raped my cousin. Now they've gone away, so we are happy to live with the system of the Islamic courts. We want everybody who comes to restore security," he said.

 

In the warlord era, getting up at dawn to trade tea on the streets was a frightening prospect for Halima Yusfu, 32, a single mother.

 

"I feel the security now, because I get up early and sometimes the militias used to rob me. But now I don't see them around the streets."

 

But one young man, Yusuf Mohammed, 22, said security and peace had come at a price. Ten days ago his area was taken over by an ICU militia that imposed Islamic law, or Sharia, and closed down the open-air cinemas, preventing people from watching the World Cup soccer games.

 

"The Islamic court already banned cinemas. They interfered with our haircuts. They interfered with our style of dressing, and we feel as if we are under unwanted pressure," he said. "Now we feel peace, but it's peace without freedom."

 

Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times.

 

More news

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Ethiopian troops reported crossing border to back president.

Islamic takeover seen good for Somalia business.

[Rahima]

Allah is always there to help those who turn to him. Alhamdulliah I'm so incredibly happy. I hope that Somalia truly changes into an Islamic State in every sense of the word.

Alxamdullilah and amiin.

 

I can’t imagine how any decent Somali could possibly at this point be opposed to the events and the victory of the courts. Opposition is only of one of two camps as I see it- Islam/Islamic state haters (very few in this forum) or the revolting tribalists who hate any positive developments for the people of Mogadishu. The latter of the two seem to be in full force lately, victory has just come; the courts have yet to deal with the problems of Mogadishu itself, yet they expect changes in an unrealistic timeframe. Inshallah further positive developments will be made, however as with all such matters time will be required. Almost two years since good old adeer CY and Co came to power- we still wait for any sort of progress other than moving around like nomads.

 

I pray that the courts continue their wave of victory and make all the necessary changes especially as with regards to Mogadishu and its residents. I doubt that they will be left alone in peace to do so, but nevertheless I hope that they succeed.

[Xoogsade]

Originally posted by Rahima:

quote: Allah is always there to help those who turn to him. Alhamdulliah I'm so incredibly happy. I hope that Somalia truly changes into an Islamic State in every sense of the word.

Alxamdullilah and amiin.

 

I can’t imagine how any decent Somali could possibly at this point be opposed to the events and the victory of the courts. Opposition is only of one of two camps as I see it- Islam/Islamic state haters (very few in this forum) or the revolting tribalists who hate any positive developments for the people of Mogadishu. The latter of the two seem to be in full force lately, victory has just come; the courts have yet to deal with the problems of Mogadishu itself, yet they expect changes in an unrealistic timeframe. Inshallah further positive developments will be made, however as with all such matters time will be required. Almost two years since good old adeer CY and Co came to power- we still wait for any sort of progress other than moving around like nomads.

 

I pray that the courts continue their wave of victory and make all the necessary changes especially as with regards to Mogadishu and its residents. I doubt that they will be left alone in peace to do so, but nevertheless I hope that they succeed.

You should listen to the last BBC interview given by Sheekh Shariif(I will help you with the translation if you don't understand somali sis if I find the transcript by posting it here).

 

There is nothing to worry about. Xamar is safe and surrounding areas. The objective of the courts is not to invade where there have no relations and all changes in other towns were locally driven. If A/Y and his government want peace and to rule the country, they will have to negotiate by sitting with the courts who represent people. If talks fail, to each his own and surely, no one can come to Muqdisho or to other towns seeking to rule it by force. Once again, Somalia will be devided till men of honour come who are willing to negotiate on good faith.

[Xoogsade]

Originally posted by Warsan:

Duufaan,

did you enlarge the image so u could make that comment? Ameen baa kugu filneed ninyahow.

The problem was not your avatar per se. It is just that anyone with positive attitude towards the obvious good changes in Somalia gets to be intimidated by those who feel they have lost and are bound to lose their clan war and their warlords.

[Alle-ubaahne]

Originally posted by Rahima:

quote: Allah is always there to help those who turn to him. Alhamdulliah I'm so incredibly happy. I hope that Somalia truly changes into an Islamic State in every sense of the word.

Alxamdullilah and amiin.

 

I can’t imagine how any decent Somali could possibly at this point be opposed to the events and the victory of the courts. Opposition is only of one of two camps as I see it- Islam/Islamic state haters (very few in this forum) or the revolting tribalists who hate any positive developments for the people of Mogadishu. The latter of the two seem to be in full force lately, victory has just come; the courts have yet to deal with the problems of Mogadishu itself, yet they expect changes in an unrealistic timeframe. Inshallah further positive developments will be made, however as with all such matters time will be required. Almost two years since good old adeer CY and Co came to power- we still wait for any sort of progress other than moving around like nomads.

 

I pray that the courts continue their wave of victory and make all the necessary changes especially as with regards to Mogadishu and its residents. I doubt that they will be left alone in peace to do so, but nevertheless I hope that they succeed.

Dear aunt Rahima,

 

Where were you when we were celebrating for the victory of our brothers and sisters in Somalia over the despicable warlords?

 

Where were you when it was "on that day, the believers will rejoice= Wayowma'idin yafraxul mu'minuun"?