 |
|
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
SOMALIA: Businessmen to hand over weapons
NAIROBI, 28 Nov 2006 (IRIN) - As another sign of improved security in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, the powerful business community has agreed to hand over their weapons to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).
"We have met and discussed this issue and they [the business community] have agreed," Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Umar, the vice-chairman of the UIC, told IRIN on Tuesday.
The business community has 30 days to comply with the order. "We expect to have all heavy weapons handed over within the 30-day period," said Umar. Businesses would be allowed to keep small arms "for the time being".
The business community in Mogadishu has, since the early 1990s, set up its own security to protect their operations from marauding gangs of militias.
"The reasons we acquired these weapons no longer exist in Mogadishu, so we don't need them," said Abdulkadir Dini, a businessman in the capital. He said that since civil war broke out in 1991, businesses had been forced to provide "everything a government should be doing, such as electricity, water and security. We had to reinvent the wheel. Getting rid of all these weapons is one less expense to worry about. I hope they will start the provision of other public services," he added.
The handover of weapons is an indication that the security situation is such that business people “felt they did not need to keep such weapons", said Muhammad Nur Ga'al, deputy head of the Civil Society in Action, a coalition of civil-society groups.
As an indication of how far security had improved, "food aid is being delivered and then sent outside the city without any security escort. This has not happened in 15 years," Ga'al said.
There is another reason why the UIC is asking the business community to hand over their weapons at this time, according to Ga’al. "They are on a war footing and so would like the extra firepower," he said.
Forces loyal to the UIC have been massing at Buur Hakaba, 60 km south of Baidoa, in anticipation of a showdown with forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which is allegedly supported by Ethiopian troops. The Ethiopians have denied sending a fighting force to Somalia, but acknowledged that their "military advisers" were helping the TFG.
Not all business people are happy at being asked to hand over their weapons. "There are some who are worried that the situation is not stable enough to warrant a handover," a local journalist told IRIN. "They are worried that if fighting breaks out the situation in Mogadishu could revert to the way it was and so would like to keep their weapons for insurance."
This will be the first time since 1990 that one group controlled such weapons in the city. "After this the courts will have a monopoly on heavy weapons," added the journalist.
Meanwhile, thousands of UIC supporters took to the streets of Mogadishu to urge the United Nations Security Council not to lift an arms embargo on Somalia. A vote is due on Wednesday. Lifting the embargo would pave the way for the deployment of a peacekeeping force from neighbouring countries, an idea opposed by the UIC.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the chairman of the UIC, said: “We are independent, we can’t accept Ethiopian occupation, we are neither a risk to Ethiopia nor any other country. That means if Ethiopia invades we will defend ourselves.”
Speaking at the same venue, Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Indha'ade, secretary of defence for the UIC, told the crowd: "I urge the international community to prevent all-out war that may engulf all East African nations; otherwise the world will struggle to find a solution later.”
Since the UIC took control of Mogadishu in June, it has continued to extend its authority over much of southern and central Somalia, challenging the authority of the transitional government. The TFG was set up in 2004 in a bid to restore law and order in the Horn of Africa country, which has had no functioning national government since the regime headed by the late Muhammad Siyad Barre was toppled in 1991.
ah/aa/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 |
|
|
|
