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Nairobi: Warlords involved in Somalia’s worst fighting in a decade should be
sacked as government ministers and charged with war crimes, members of the
country’s fledgling parliament said yesterday.
About 150 people, many of them civilians, died last week in Mogadishu during
pitched battles between fighters and warlord militias, which many analysts and
Somalis believe are funded by the United States.
The fighting has recently died down but the lawless capital remains tense.
Hundreds of Mogadishu residents chanting anti-US slogans demonstrated against
the violence this week.
Members of parliament meeting in a warehouse in the southern city of Baidoa
asked Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Gedi to dismiss warlords from the cabinet,
saying they broke ceasefire accords signed in Kenya during the formation of the
government.
The warlords include Security Minister Mohammad Qanyare Afrah, Commerce
Minister Muse Sudi Yalahow, Religious Affairs Minister Omar Mohammad Mohamoud
and Militia Disarmament Minister Bootan Isse Alim.
“The warlords have committed genocide,” lawmaker Asha Abdullah said from
Baidoa, a provincial town where the interim government is based.
“Their treacherous acts have caused so many civilian deaths, they should be
charged with war crimes against humanity.”
Mohammad Hassan, another Somali lawmaker, said: “The ministers should be
sacked, stripped of their immunity and then charged with crimes against
humanity.”
But a warlord spokesman dismissed the threats and said the militias were
protecting Mogadishu from a fundamentalist takeover.
“The warlords are still in the government and are engaged in the crucial job
of preventing extremists from taking over the city,” Hussain Gutale Rage said
from Mogadishu.
The interim Somali parliament met inside the country for the first time on
February 26.
But the warlords had formed an “Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and
Counter-Terrorism” a few days before in what many Somalis saw as an attempt to
undermine the new government.
The interim administration of President Abdullahi Yousuf, the 14th attempt at
restoring central rule since the overthrow of dictator Mohammad Siad Barre in
1991, is powerless to control fighting in Mogadishu or even move to the
capital.
Another MP, Ali Bashi, cautioned against confronting the warlords, saying the
government was still too weak.
“They have formed a political party and are heavily armed now,” Bashi said.
“We need to tread carefully.”
Washington has never responded directly to accusations it is backing the
warlords but said earlier this week it was concerned foreign fighters, including
members of Al Qaida, were operating in the failed Horn of Africa state.
“We want to make sure that Al Qaida does not in fact establish a beachhead in
Somalia,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
SOMALILAND
Hyenas kill four and wound three
Marauding hyenas have mauled to death four people and wounded three in the
latest attack by the scavengers roaming the Somali enclave of Somaliland,
officials said yesterday.
So brazen have the predators become, that local men are sleeping with guns to
protect their families in Ainabo district, 300km from the Somaliland capital
Hargesia.
“One of the last victims was a small child, who was sleeping on his mother’s
lap,” Mohammad Nur Abdillahi, a village official, said by telephone. Attacks in
the last few days have brought to 11 the number of people killed, with 40
wounded in the past nine months by hyenas, another official in the area
said.
“Hyenas live in great numbers in this district. Their attacks on livestock
are nothing new, but attacks on people mostly women and children have been
increasing in the last few years,” Mohammad Omar said.
Known as scavengers that normally feast on dead meat rather than hunt, hyenas
are common across Africa.
Residents of Eritrea, which like Somaliland lies in the Horn of Africa, also
recently reported a wave of hyena attacks around the capital Asmara.
SOURCE:Reuters, May 20, 2006
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