 |
|
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
SOMALIA: Protests after Islamic Courts take Kismayo
NAIROBI, 25 Sep 2006 (IRIN) - At least one person was killed on Monday as forces belonging to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) fired shots to disperse rowdy anti-Islamist demonstrators in Kismayo, 500 km south of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, hours after the UIC took control of the key port city.
The demonstration was organised by ‘khat’ traders after the UIC announced a ban on flights carrying the popular leafy narcotic at Kismayo airport. "They [the traders] were angry that the courts have banned a business they were making a living out of," an eyewitness in the city said. The UIC said the ban on the narcotic would be in effect over the month of Ramadan.
Earlier, thousands of Kismayo residents had poured on to the streets to welcome the UIC takeover of the city, which is located in the agriculturally rich and economically important region of Lower Juba. The move completes the UIC’s control of all ports in southern and central Somalia and extends the group’s control of south-central Somalia.
The leader of a local militia that controlled the city left a day earlier. The UIC forces "entered Kismayo at around 6:00 am local time this morning [Monday] without any resistance", Yusuf Mire Serar, the vice-chairman of the Juba Valley Alliance (JVA), which had been in control of the city, said.
Col. Barre Hiraale, the JVA chairman and defence minister in the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), left Kismayo with some of his supporters and technicals (battlewagons) after disagreements within the JVA on how to deal with the UIC.
"We have been in discussion with the UIC for the last week or so and some of us have come to the conclusion that there should be no fighting in Kismayo," Serar said from Kismayo. "There was a majority that did not want bloodshed in Kismayo and that is why we agreed to the Courts' peaceful takeover. Barre unfortunately disagreed and left yesterday [Sunday] evening and is on his way to Gedo [southwestern region]."
He said the UIC had earlier agreed to give Hiraale and his forces "safe passage to Gedo".
The UIC said it went to Kismayo at the invitation of the locals. "We did not use force. We went there at the invitation of the local people who requested reinforcement, to guard against the entry into the country of foreign forces," said Ibrahim Hassan Adow, the UIC's Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
The UIC forces have set up checkpoints in "all the main arteries of the city", Ali Abdulkadir, a resident, said. "Everybody is going about their business as if nothing has happened," he added. "Most people have welcomed the arrival of the Courts."
Ali said many JVA commanders had defected to the UIC and were now cooperating with them. "Barre left with about 26 technicals and his closest supporters and relatives," he said.
So far, the TFG has not commented on the Kismayo takeover but has previously said any UIC advance would violate a recent ceasefire agreement signed between them in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.
The TFG and the UIC have been in confrontation since June, when forces belonging to the Islamic group seized control of Mogadishu after defeating warlords who had controlled the city since 1991, following the collapse of the regime headed by the late president, Muhammad Siyad Barre.
The UIC has been extending its authority to other areas of southern Somalia, much to the chagrin of the TFG, a fledgling administration set up in 2004 following reconciliation talks in Kenya between Somalia's various clans and political factions.
ah/mw
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
