Mogadishu's new mayor orders residents to turn in arms
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 2:51 pm
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/05 ... index.html
Things that make you go hmmmm.... Militant warload long lived by the gun, gets control of government, orders all weapons turned in, violators will be "punished"....MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- A former warlord who has long lived by his gun was sworn in as mayor of Mogadishu on Friday and immediately ordered residents of the Somali capital to get rid of their weapons.
But Mayor Mohamed Dheere offered no clear details on how that could be accomplished in a city awash in Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and hand grenades. Previous efforts to get residents to give up their weapons have been unsuccessful.
"No weapons are allowed in the city," Dheere, who spent 16 years as a warlord struggling for power in this Horn of Africa nation, said at his inauguration ceremony. "Anyone who violates this directive will be punished."
The new police chief, Abdi Qeybdiid, also called for residents to disarm Friday, and said cars with blacked-out or tinted windows must go.
"Anyone who fails to abide by these rules will be brought before the court," he said -- a surprising assertion in a city that has seen little more than chaos for more than a decade.
Dheere is trying to build on a fragile peace carved out by clan deal-making and a fierce military crackdown on Muslim militants.
Aid groups say 1,670 people were killed between March 12 and April 26 and more than 340,000 of the city's 2 million residents fled for safety as the government, backed by Ethiopian troops, pressed to wipe out an Islamic insurgency.