Tuesday, June 13, 2006
NAIROBI/MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somali warlords defeated in Mogadishu by Islamic militia could be banned from entering other east African countries, where they have extensive business and property interests, diplomats said on Tuesday.
Some of their assets may also be frozen as another punitive measure being mooted at a meeting of east African ministers in Kenya to discuss the power-shift in neighboring Somalia.
Kenya has already slapped a unilateral ban on the warlords and deported one last week. “Similar actions are expected from all the countries and organizations of the world,” Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi said at the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) meeting in Nairobi.
Officials from the seven-nation IGAD bloc were likely to impose a travel ban on the warlords at the end of their closed-door session, regional diplomats said.
Such a measure would be a further blow to the self-styled coalition of anti-terrorism warlords — widely believed to have been backed by U.S. cash — who lost control of the Somali capital in fighting this month.
Militia loyal to Islamic courts seized Mogadishu after battles which killed at least 350 people, in some of the worst violence seen there since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre ushered in a period of anarchy.
There have been fears of new fighting since the weekend as Islamic fighters armed with mortars and anti-aircraft guns were deployed near Balad, just north of Mogadishu.
Some viewed that as preparation to attack the last warlord stronghold of Jowhar, 90 km (55 miles) north of the capital.
If they capture Jowhar, the Islamic groups will control most of south Somalia, raising questions about whether they will help install the interim government or set up a rival administration.
“CREATORS OF HELL”
Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the Mogadishu Islamic Courts’ chairman, said there would be no push from his side. “We are not intending to attack Jowhar or Baidoa, we want peace,” he told reporters.
Baidoa is the provincial seat of the interim government — a 14th attempt to restore central rule since 1991.
A more militant Islamic militia leader, Moallim Hashi Mohamed, directly contradicted that: “It is our plan to seize Jowhar and introduce Islamic courts there,” he said.
The IGAD meeting was also debating a Somali government plan to invite foreign peacekeepers from Uganda and Sudan.
That could require the lifting of a U.N. Security Council arms embargo in place since 1992. There may thus be a case for “a possible targeted exemption of the arms embargo,” EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel told the IGAD meeting.
The expected travel ban is thought likely to apply to about eight or nine warlords, including four who were in government until their sackings for involvement in the Mogadishu fighting.
Somali sources say they have real estate, import-export and transport interests around east Africa and the Middle East, particularly Kenya and Dubai.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Raphael Tuju said he hoped others would follow his nation’s example.
“We will not allow them to use our banks, we will not allow them to use our airports, we will not allow them to bring their kids to school here. We will not allow them to enjoy the facilities in our five-star hotels when they create hell in their own country,” he told the meeting.
Two warlords contacted by Reuters said they would not care about a ban. “We stay inside Somalia, we have no more interest going to IGAD countries, and every country has a right to give and block visas,” said one of them, Abdi Hassan Awale.
Some of the warlords have threatened to fight their way back, but look increasingly isolated despite the support they received from Washington earlier this year, analysts say.
So attention has shifted to the relationship between the interim government and the newly prominent Islamic Courts Union, which joins 14 courts with both moderate and hardline elements.
Despite early overtures on both sides, relations have stumbled over the thorny issue of foreign troops.
Warlords of the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism have said the courts harbor Islamic extremists, some linked to al Qaeda — a fear apparently shared by the U.S. government. The courts have denied that.
Funded by local businesses and Somalis abroad, the courts are popular in Mogadishu for imposing a semblance of order in one of the world’s most lawless cities, analysts say.
Somali experts say the courts are broadly moderate, but have a small number of radicals in their midst.
(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed, Bryson Hull and Andrew Cawthorne)
Source: Reuters, June 13, 2006
