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Islamic militiamen surrounded
05/01/2007 08:41 - (SA)
Mogadishu - Somali and Ethiopian soldiers on land and US troops at sea surrounded hundreds of Islamic movement militiamen on the southern tip of Somalia, authorities said.
A US diplomat said she hoped peacekeepers from the region could be in place by month's end in the Horn of Africa country, where the Council of Islamic Courts, which wants to rule by the Quran, was driven from the capital and much of the country's south last week.
The 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 thousands of Islamic fighters are still hiding in the capital.
"There are 3 500 Islamists hiding in Mogadishu and in the surrounding areas and they are likely to destabilise the security of the city," said Interior Minister Hussein Aideed.
Far to the southwest, about 600 militiamen fought on Thursday against Ethiopian and Somali troops near the border with Kenya.
"We hope they will either surrender or be killed by our troops," Somali government spokesperson Abdirahman Dinari told The Associated Press. He said some militants were trying to escape by sea, but that US Navy forces were deployed in the area to stop them.
Three al-Qaida suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa are believed to be leaders of the Islamic movement. The Islamists deny having any links to al-Qaida.
Kenya closed its border amid fears militants would slip across the frontier. The UN said thousands of refugees are also near the border, unable to seek safety in Kenya.
Residents of this ruined seaside capital have been on edge since the government took over with the crucial military aid of neighbouring Ethiopia. The city is still teeming with weapons, and some of the feared warlords of the past have returned to the city with their guns.
Ethiopia can not stay
Ethiopian MiG fighter jets and tanks were vital to helping the weak Somali military rout the Islamists. Now, though, Ethiopia wants to pull out in a few weeks, saying its forces cannot be peacekeepers and cannot afford to stay.
Jendayi Frazer, assistant US secretary of state for Africa, said on Thursday that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had promised US President George Bush in a recent phone call that he could supply between 1 000-2 000 troops to protect Somalia's transitional government and train its troops.
"We hope to have the Ugandans deployed before the end of the January," Frazer told journalists after meeting with Museveni in the Ethiopian capital.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said after meeting with Frazer that they supported an African Union resolution to put peacekeepers in Somalia as soon a possible.
Since January 2005, the seven-nation Intergovernmental Authority on Development has offered to send a peacekeeping mission to Somalia, but it has not been taken up because of a 1992 arms embargo on Somalia. The UN Security Council partially lifted the arms embargo in December to allow such a mission.
There have also been divisions within Somalia's transitional government and parliament over such a move and there have been demonstrations in Mogadishu against any foreign peacekeepers.
"Dark" history with foreigners
And Somalia's history with foreigners - particularly Americans - has been dark.
A UN peacekeeping force, including US troops, had arrived in 1992, but the experiment in nation-building ended the next year when fighters loyal to clan leader Mohamed Farah Aideed shot down a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and battled American troops, killing 18 servicemen.
Hassan Ali, a truck driver whose vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade at an illegal checkpoint overnight, said on Thursday that peacekeepers will face unpredictable violence.
"It's always the same thing, always," Ali said, standing by the smoldering shell of his truck. He said the militiamen were demanding roughly $40 (R283) for him to pass, but blew up the truck when he couldn't pay. Three people were wounded, he said.
The ease with which Somalis can get weapons is a major problem. Thursday was Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's deadline for residents to voluntarily give up their arms, but only a handful were seen doing so.
The Bakaara arms market, meanwhile, was doing brisk business in Kalashnikov rifles and machine guns.
But Gedi said the disarmament program was working, and that his forces will be seizing large arms caches located around Mogadishu this week. He said a house-by-house search will follow, without offering a timeline.
Internal rifts
Somalia's last effective central government fell in 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other. The current government was formed two years ago with the help of the United Nations, but has been weakened by internal rifts.
Mogadishu resident Musse Ali, 41, said any peacekeepers will have to fight those in the country who are only out for their own interests: the warlords who ruled by the gun, the Islamic fighters, or freelance militiamen.
"The peacekeepers will be targets for terrorists," Ali said. "They will have to face them."
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