Saturday, June 10, 2006; 2:41 PM
NAIROBI, Kenya — Islamic militants in Somalia have succeeded where the United Nations, the United States and a gallery of warlords and clan elders failed: They have, for now, brought peace to Mogadishu.
But having defeated a U.S.-backed alliance of secular warlords, they must unite a country whose political, religious and clan divisions have rendered it lawless, destitute and a hideout for al-Qaida terrorists and criminals for 15 years.
 A Somali man stands in front of a machine gun mounted truck supporting an alliance of warlords, Thursday, June 8, 2006 during a rally against the Islamic courts in Karan in northen Mogadishu. Islamic leaders who seized Somalia’s capital after weeks of bloody fighting began talks Thursday with the U.N.-backed government that has so far failed to assert any real control over this lawless Horn of Africa nation. (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor) (Mohamed Sheikh Nor – AP) |
Success may depend on who prevails among the victors themselves: religious moderates who want to restore traditional Somali society or those seeking a strict, Taliban-like Islamic republic.
“These guys are battling internally to decide whether to go for a draconian, sharia law-based administration or whether they’re going to be generally laissez faire,” said John Prendergast, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, which monitors conflict zones.
“If they come down hard on social and political rights, you’re going to see a backlash against them.”
The country they are fighting over is in dire shape.
Mogadishu _ the capital where an estimated 1.2 million people live and made famous by the book and movie “Black Hawk Down” _ has degenerated into a huge, looted shanty town since the last effective central government collapsed in 1991.
Public buildings have been dismantled brick by brick, and people live in improvised tents on the old foundations after being driven from their homes by often senseless violence.
Most families cannot afford to send their children to the few formal schools that exist, so they attend ad hoc training led by local Islamic clerics. An entire generation has little knowledge of the outside world.
What they do know of the outside world may be what their elders have told them about Western intervention, some of it disastrous. Identity is based on family and clan, with little national allegiance.
For Mogadishu’s young men, many of whom are illiterate, a career as a freelance gunman working for a warlord has been the best way to guarantee a regular meal and a ration of khat, an addictive, semi-narcotic plant chewed by many Somalis. These militiamen strike terror in average Somalis, sometimes robbing, raping and killing with impunity.
Public support for the Islamic Courts is high because they have brought a semblance of justice and security, though some worry about the consequences.
“I like the Islamic courts because they work on creating a secure environment for our business,” local trader Abdirahman Mohamud Ahmed said. “But I am worried that they might come up with too much taxation … they’re stubborn because they think everything they say is a holy thing from God.”
The fundamentalists have raided bars and destroyed video halls showing risque films. The death penalty has been imposed for a variety of offenses.
Most Somalis welcome the stability brought by the Islamic militants, but they also support the weak, U.N.-backed transitional government currently struggling to assert its authority. They see it as a way to rejoin the international community, which most Somalis consider the best opportunity for prosperity.
Leaders from the Islamic Courts Union and the Transitional Federal Government have begun talks, but both sides have widely condemned each other in the past, leaving many wondering if they will reach a consensus or start another civil war.
“Now things are quiet in Mogadishu, but I am worried what will come next,” said Jamila Issac, a woman’s rights activist in Mogadishu. “If the Islamic Courts install law and order and establish an Islamic state in Mogadishu, then this means there is no transitional government and the worst case scenario is looming.”
Source: AP, June 10, 2006
