State of emergency in Somalia
2007-01-13 21:25
Baidoa - Somalia's parliament
declared on Saturday a three-month state of emergency amid fears
of a return to clan violence after weeks of war ousted
Islamists.
Members of parliament in the government's interim seat of
Baidoa - its home until Ethiopian and Somali troops defeated
Islamists who controlled much of the south - voted 154 to two to
ratify Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's plan to restore order.
The government, which is seeking to install itself in the
capital Mogadishu, faces a huge challenge to bring peace and
security to the Horn of Africa nation, which has been without
effective central rule since the 1991 ouster of a dictator.
"A three-month state of emergency has been passed. If the
need arises for the government to extend the period then the
president will have to ask parliament for approval," second
deputy speaker Osman Elmi Boqore told parliament.
The law prohibits demonstrations and bans possession of
weapons. "The president has powers to announce a decree on how the state of emergency can be implemented," a parliamentary statement said.
President Abdullahi Yusuf called on clan elders and warlords
to hand over militia for a new national army. The warlords had
already agreed to merge their forces into such a force.
"You have to hand them over to the government and we will
train them as government security officers, such as police and
military," he said.
"As we can see the guerrilla war that the Islamists talked about is starting."
Some fleeing Islamists have vowed to continue fighting and
Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu have been attacked several times.
Anarchy
Residents fear Mogadishu could slide back into the kind of
anarchy that gripped the city since 1991.
On Friday, warlord gunmen tried to force their way inside
the presidential palace and fought troops. The shoot-out which
killed a handful of people was the kind of clash that used to be
commonplace in Mogadishu.
Fighting between two sub-clans over grazing land near the
central town of Jowhar on Friday raised fears of more clashes.
Residents said on Saturday 10 people had been killed.
"Since the country is facing a hard time, we believe the
emergency law will play a crucial role in bringing back peace
and in the reconstruction of our country," government spokesperson Abdirahman Dinari told Reuters.
But some residents, waiting to see whether the government
can impose the relative stability experienced under the
Islamists' sharia rule, did not welcome the vote.
"It gives the government the power to take everything from
the people, therefore at this time it is not suitable," resident Mohamed Rombe said.
The vote came after government forces captured a southern
Islamist stronghold and Ethiopian planes pounded the area. Many
fugitive Islamists were believed to be in the coastal village of
Ras Kamboni near the Kenyan border after fleeing south.