Somali PM keeps his job

2006-07-31 08:20

Mohamed Olad Hassan

Baidoa - Somalia's prime minister has survived a no-confidence motion, but the close vote showed just how divided the government is over a leader who has watched helplessly as Islamic militants take over much of southern Somalia.

Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi kept his job even though only 88 members of parliament voted to keep him and 126 voted for his ouster on Sunday. The motion needed 139 votes against him to pass.

Gedi said: "All mistakes and doubts about my administration will be soon resolved." Just days earlier, 18 MPs resigned in disgust, saying his administration had failed to bring peace to this chaotic African country.

Gedi added that those who voted against him were "serving the enemy of Somalia", an apparent reference to the Islamic militants who had been accused of links to al-Qaeda.

Islamic militia seize Mogadishu

Somalia's government was formed two years ago with the support of the United Nations to help the country emerge from more than a decade of anarchy, but it had no power outside its base in Baidoa, 250km from the capital, Mogadishu.

Meanwhile, an Islamic militia had seized the capital and much of southern Somalia, imposing strict religious courts and raising fears of an emerging Taliban-style regime.

The United States accused the group of harbouring al-Qaeda leaders responsible for deadly bombings at the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

On Sunday, the first commercial flight departed from Mogadishu International Airport in more than a decade, illustrating the complete control held by Islamic militants.

Abdurahman Hassan Mohamud Mufo, a spokesperson for the airline, said the Jubba Airways plane was headed to the United Arab Emirates.

The news pleased Hussein Osman Kariye, a secondary school teacher in Mogadishu.

Somalia 'without an effective central govt'

Kariye said: "I remember in the older days, happier times, when I would welcome my relatives from abroad. The airport was very beautiful then, well-lit, decorated and green."

Somalia had been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and later turned on each other, carving much of the country into armed camps ruled by violence and clan law.

The chaos transformed Mogadishu, home to an estimated 1.2 million people, into a looted shantytown with no public services.

Before the airport re-opened on Sunday, local airlines operated from private airstrips outside the capital and passengers were forced to travel through roadblocks manned by armed warlords.

Abdi Nur Hassan, a longtime resident of the capital, said: "Mogadishu was like a huge prison, where no one could get in or out."

Deputy defence chief for the Islamic group Sheik Muqtar Robow said now, militiamen were guarding the airport for commercial passengers.

A passenger, Hawa Abdi Hussein, said: "This is a historic flight for me. I think we at last gained peace and security."

- AP