Around 150 people, many of them civilians, died last week in Mogadishu during pitched battles between Islamic 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-U.S. slogans demonstrated against the violence this week.
Members of parliament meeting in a warehouse in the southern city of Baidoa asked Prime Minister Mohamed 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 Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, Commerce Minister Muse Sudi Yalahow, Religious Affairs Minister Omar Mohamed Mohamud and Militia Disarmament Minister Bootan Isse Alim.
“The warlords have committed genocide,” lawmaker Asha Abdallah told Reuters from Baidoa, a provincial town where Yusuf’s interim government is based.
“Their treacherous acts have caused so many civilian deaths, they should be charged with war crimes against humanity.”
Mohamed Hassan, another Somali lawmaker, said: “The ministers should be sacked, stripped off their immunity and then charged with crimes against humanity.”
U.S. CONCERN
But a warlord spokesman dismissed the threats and said the militias were protecting Mogadishu from a fundamentalist Muslim takeover.
“The warlords are still in the government and are engaged in the crucial job of preventing extremists from taking over the city,” Hussein Gutale Rage told Reuters from Mogadishu.
The interim Somali parliament met inside the country for the first time on Feb. 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 Yusuf, the 14th attempt at restoring central rule since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed 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 Qaeda, were operating in the failed Horn of Africa state.
“We want to make sure that al Qaeda does not in fact establish a beachhead in Somalia,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
The warlords are fighting militants linked to powerful Sharia courts which have imposed order on parts of the lawless city and so become popular with many residents.
Source: Reuters, May 19, 2006
