Somali Islamist militia kill two over World Cup

By Mohamed Ali Bile
July 5, 2006

Four others were wounded in the fracas outside a cinema.

The Islamists, who kicked U.S.-backed warlords out of Mogadishu then took control of a large swathe of southern Somalia last month, initially sought to project a moderate image but have been increasingly showing a more radical side.

Tuesday night's shooting came when militiamen in the central town of Dusa Mareb -- the home area of the Islamists' hardline leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys -- shut a cinema showing the Germany-Italy semi-final, inhabitants told Reuters.

"They stood in front of the cinema and told the cinema to shut down quickly," resident Muhubo Warsame said by phone.

When the mainly young audience began a demonstration outside, the gunmen first shot into the air, but their bullets also killed two and wounded four others, the witnesses said. The fatalities were the cinema owner and a young girl.

Locals were furious.

"Islam does not accept killing an innocent person without reason," Elmi Abdullahi, a local elder, told Reuters.

"We support the Islamic courts, yet our children are dying without reason," added another elder, who asked not to be named.

There have been numerous other reports of militia from the Islamic sharia courts -- out of which the movement grew -- stopping viewings of the World Cup, provoking public protests.

Islamist leaders say that is not their policy, but rather the work of over-zealous militiamen.

AFRICAN MISSION

Somalis, who initially welcomed the relative pacification of Mogadishu and other areas by the Islamists, are becoming disillusioned with some of their practices and nervous of a Taliban-style rule. Somalis are mostly moderate Muslims.

On a recent visit to Mogadishu, various locals complained to Reuters of militia forcibly chopping long hair, making women cover their faces and whipping people for watching soccer.

The sheikhs at the forefront of the movement say they have no foreign model and their priority is to bring law and order to the Horn of Africa nation, which has been without central rule since warlords ousted a military dictator in 1991.

But Aweys also wants to see government based on Islamic law.

That puts the Islamists at odds with the weak interim government -- based in the provincial town of Baidoa -- which is backed by the West and was founded on a secular charter.

A delegation from the African Union (AU) and east African inter-governmental peace body IGAD was visiting Baidoa on Wednesday in the latest effort by the international community to come to terms with Somalia's power-shift.

While many hoped the Islamists and government could reach a power-sharing accord, they now fear armed confrontation.

The Islamists say Ethiopia has sent troops across the border to back President Abdullahi Yusuf's administration and prevent them making more advances. Addis Ababa denies that.

In a rare confirmation on the ground, a Kenyan who lives in Mandera -- where the Somalia, Ethiopian and Kenyan borders converge -- said locals had seen Ethiopian soldiers going in.

"They crossed over five days ago and I hear that they are scattered all over up to Baidoa, saying they are protecting the government in Baidoa from any possible invasion or attack by the Islamic side," Hassan Ali told Reuters by telephone.