Somalis rally in support of prime minister
By Mohamed Olad Hassan, AP
July 31, 2006
BAIDOA, Somalia (AP) — Hundreds gathered outside the home of Somalia's prime minister on Monday to show their support for the embattled leader, who barely survived a no-confidence vote in parliament over the weekend.
The demonstrators carried signs and chanted the name of Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi, who kept his job Sunday even though only 88 lawmakers voted to keep him and 126 voted to remove him. The motion needed 139 votes against him to pass.
"We have seen what happens when we have no government," said Baidoa resident Safiya Roobaa, who was among about 200 people at the rally. "We need a government, and a bad government is better than none."
The administration was formed two years ago with the support of the United Nations to help Somalia emerge from more than a decade of anarchy, but it has no power outside its base in Baidoa, 150 miles from the capital, Mogadishu.
An Islamic militia has seized the capital and much of southern Somalia, imposing strict religious courts and raising fears of an emerging Taliban-style regime. The United States accuses the group of harboring al-Qaida leaders responsible for deadly bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
On Sunday, the first commercial flight departed from Mogadishu International Airport in more than a decade, demonstrating how the militants have pacified the once-anarchic capital.
Local airlines had been operating from private airstrips outside the capital. Now, Islamic militiamen are guarding the airport for commercial passengers, said Sheik Muqtar Robow, deputy defense chief for the Islamic group.
The Jubba Airways plane was headed to the United Arab Emirates, said Abdurahman Hassan Mohamud Mufo, a spokesman for the airline.
The news pleased Hussein Osman Kariye, a secondary school teacher in Mogadishu.
"I remember in the older days, happier times, when I would welcome my relatives from abroad. The airport was very beautiful then, well-lit, decorated and green," Kariye said.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, carving much of the country into armed camps ruled by violence and clan law.
The chaos transformed Mogadishu, home to an estimated 1.2 million people, into a looted shantytown with no public services. "Mogadishu was like a huge prison where no one could get in or out," said Abdi Nur Hassan, a longtime resident of the capital.
The United States and other Western powers have cautioned outsiders against meddling in Somalia, which has no single ruling authority and can be manipulated by anyone with money and guns. But there is little sign the warning has been heeded.
Gedi has accused Egypt, Libya, Iran and Eritrea of providing weapons to Islamic militants. The militants, meanwhile, say Ethiopia has sent troops here to support the fragile government.
___
Associated Press Writer Mohamed Sheikh Nor contributed to this report from Mogadishu, Somalia.
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July 31, 2006
BAIDOA, Somalia (AP) — Hundreds gathered outside the home of Somalia's prime minister on Monday to show their support for the embattled leader, who barely survived a no-confidence vote in parliament over the weekend.
The demonstrators carried signs and chanted the name of Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi, who kept his job Sunday even though only 88 lawmakers voted to keep him and 126 voted to remove him. The motion needed 139 votes against him to pass.
"We have seen what happens when we have no government," said Baidoa resident Safiya Roobaa, who was among about 200 people at the rally. "We need a government, and a bad government is better than none."
The administration was formed two years ago with the support of the United Nations to help Somalia emerge from more than a decade of anarchy, but it has no power outside its base in Baidoa, 150 miles from the capital, Mogadishu.
An Islamic militia has seized the capital and much of southern Somalia, imposing strict religious courts and raising fears of an emerging Taliban-style regime. The United States accuses the group of harboring al-Qaida leaders responsible for deadly bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
On Sunday, the first commercial flight departed from Mogadishu International Airport in more than a decade, demonstrating how the militants have pacified the once-anarchic capital.
The Jubba Airways plane was headed to the United Arab Emirates, said Abdurahman Hassan Mohamud Mufo, a spokesman for the airline.
The news pleased Hussein Osman Kariye, a secondary school teacher in Mogadishu.
"I remember in the older days, happier times, when I would welcome my relatives from abroad. The airport was very beautiful then, well-lit, decorated and green," Kariye said.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, carving much of the country into armed camps ruled by violence and clan law.
The chaos transformed Mogadishu, home to an estimated 1.2 million people, into a looted shantytown with no public services. "Mogadishu was like a huge prison where no one could get in or out," said Abdi Nur Hassan, a longtime resident of the capital.
The United States and other Western powers have cautioned outsiders against meddling in Somalia, which has no single ruling authority and can be manipulated by anyone with money and guns. But there is little sign the warning has been heeded.
Gedi has accused Egypt, Libya, Iran and Eritrea of providing weapons to Islamic militants. The militants, meanwhile, say Ethiopia has sent troops here to support the fragile government.
___
Associated Press Writer Mohamed Sheikh Nor contributed to this report from Mogadishu, Somalia.
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