17 Dec 2004
By Mohamed Ali Bile
MOGADISHU, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Somali gunmen fired grenades and heavy machineguns at Mogadishu port for a second straight day on Friday, complaining that businessmen trying to reopen it after a nine-year closure wanted to monopolise the facility.
The sound of rocket propelled grenades and truck-mounted guns boomed over the city as fighters of warlord Abdulkadir Abdi Bebe made good a threat to continue shooting at the docks until a comprehensive accord on its use is hammered out.
"Those who are trying to open the seaport are the profiteers of the civil war and seeking to advantage only themselves. They don't want the public interest," Bebe told local radio station on Friday morning.
He accused businessmen who tried to reopen the port on Thursday of being responsible for its closure amid civil war violence nine years ago.
"Mogadishu seaport is national property. The national government has the right to administer the seaport, but not the businessmen. These businessmen are those who printed and brought to the country fake Somali banknotes, which caused incredible inflation," Bebe said.
Printing fake banknotes is a widespread practice among Somali militia leaders that has long fuelled inflation and inflicted hardship, increasing prices and hunger for many Somalis.
There was no immediate comment from the more than 10 businessmen involved in the attempted reopening, which saw the the M.V. Star from the United Arab Emirates dock and offload a 500 tonne cargo on Thursday under sporadic fire from Bebe's men.
The businessmen include top Mogadishu entrepreneur Mohammed Dheilaf. The Star left for the UAE on Friday.
Mogadishu's sea port, and its airport, have been closed since 1995 due to militia mayhem.
Nur Abdi, a father of seven who lives in the Hamar Jajab district close to the port, told Reuters people in the neighbourhood were longing for the port to reopen.
"The shooting really disappointed me," he told Reuters.
"Nine years ago, I had a small tea shop in front of the seaport. My wife died at the beginning of the civil war in 1991. I raise my children myself, and the reopening of the seaport could help me feed my children."
In the absence of the main sea port a private port called El Ma'an north of the capital has dominated the city's maritime trade, which is mainly with Yemen, Kenya and Dubai. El Ma'an is owned by a group of businessmen who have their own militia and weapons to protect their interests.
Somalia collapsed into lawlessness with the 1991 overthrow of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre and has since been without an effective central government.
A government was established last month after two years of reconciliation talks among clans and militia factions in the safety of neighbouring Kenya but the administration has yet to return to Somalia to start work.
Elsewhere in Somalia, more than 16 people were killed and 31 wounded on Thursday in fresh feuding between rival clansmen near Gelinsor town in central Mudug region, residents said. Factional fighting killed more than 100 people in the area earlier this month.