Gunmen Won't Let Somali Leader Use Airport

By OSMAN HASSAN

Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Gunmen refused to let the president of Somalia's transitional government depart for Libya on Thursday from an airfield they control, a witness said.

The gunmen demanded cash from President Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, who wields little power in the lawless country, if he wanted to fly out of the Ballidogleh airport.

The gunmen claimed they were former Abdiqasim bodyguards who hadn't received their salaries. Abdiqasim refused to pay, and returned to Mogadishu with his entourage after a tense standoff at the airfield, 62 miles northwest of Mogadishu, said the witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The chartered plane Abdiqasim was supposed to take to Libya returned to its base in neighboring Djibouti.

Somalia descended into chaos after the faction leaders who ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 turned on each other, transforming the country of 7 million people into a patchwork of fiefdoms. It now has no effective central government.

Officials from the transitional government refused to comment on the incident. They said Abdiqasim planned to depart Friday from a different airfield.

The transitional government, elected at a peace conference in Djibouti in Aug. 2000, has little influence because most of the country's major armed factions did not take part in the talks.

Fighting shut down Mogadishu's main air and sea ports long ago. But makeshift facilities have sprung up throughout the country.