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Somalis riot against government, Ethiopia
Plan to disarm nation awash in guns ignites anger in tense capital
- Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times
Sunday, January 7, 2007
(01-07) 04:00 PST Kismayo, Somalia -- Hundreds of Somalis stormed into the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, Saturday to hurl rocks at Ethiopian soldiers allied with the government and to chant anti-government slogans in another burst of violence that further destabilized the already unsteady city.
Meanwhile, near Kismayo, a southern port city, Ethiopian-led forces continued to hunt down the last remnants of the army of Somalia's Islamists, who controlled most of the country until Ethiopia intervened last month. The Islamic Courts Union lost control to the transitional government, which the United Nations helped form two years ago to rule until proposed elections in 2009.
According to Abdul Rashid Hidig, a government official in Kismayo, Ethiopian-led forces blew up several of the Islamists' armed pickup trucks, leaving hundreds of fighters cornered in a remote jungle with their backs to the Indian Ocean and no way to escape. "I think it will be over very soon," Hidig said.
Despite that tactical success, Somalia's transitional government appears to have failed its first leadership test: the formidable task of disarmament. Somalia, after 16 years of murderous anarchy, is so awash in weapons that the street price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle is $15.
On Monday, after Ethiopian troops helped defeat the Islamist forces, Ali Mohammed Gedi, a veterinarian who is Somalia's interim prime minister, demanded that all Somalis surrender their weapons. The disarmament attempt not only failed, it also led to the violence Saturday. With Gedi threatening house-to-house searches, riots exploded.
In fact, officials in the transitional government had decided at the last minute to scrap the disarmament program, at least temporarily. By the time the government got the word out Saturday afternoon, hundreds of people had poured into the streets.
According to residents of Mogadishu, the demonstrations were organized by the defeated Islamist movement. Women in a kaleidoscope of colored shawls shook Qurans in their hands and shouted "Down, down, Ethiopia!" and "The infidels must die!" Ethiopia is a country with a long Christian history, though it is about half Muslim.
The demonstrators surged through Mogadishu's neighborhoods, burning tires, throwing rocks at cars and punching fists through windows. They reached a military camp used by Ethiopian and government troops and began to attack it with sticks and stones.
Hospital officials said one teenage boy was killed.
By midday, the violence had subsided, and the demonstrators had gone home. Government officials announced over the radio that the riots had been unnecessary because the disarmament policy had already been changed.
"We have postponed the disarmament until an unspecified time," said Salad Ali Jelle, deputy defense minister. "We are now talking with clan elders about how to proceed."
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