Who will stop Somalia's warlords?

Somalia President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed's road to the seat of power is perilous.

The president has been literally pushed out of Kenya under international pressure borne on the promise of support only if his government goes home

Militia men guard a home belonging to one of the war-lords in Mogadishu City Somali, recently.

He has sought help from the international community and years of peace brokerage gave birth to the Federal Transitional Government seven months ago to assist the new team to settle back home.

And when President Ahmed finally left Kenya this month, he never landed in Somalia. His homecoming never turned out to be.

The hard part had just began.

President Ahmed is returning to a nation torn by 13 years of lawlessness following the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991.

A fortnight ago, the President was supposed to fly home to Jowhar, 100 kilometres northwest of

Mogadishu, avoiding the capital city because of insecurity. But his plane left Nairobi too late, so he flew to Djibouti instead.

Logistical problems

Prime Minister Prof Mohammed Ghedi, who was scheduled to fly out four days after President Ahmed, along with his Cabinet, also fell behind the timing by three days, this time citing logistical reasons.

The point of contention has been whether Mogadishu is safe enough for the government to set up base and start running affairs from the once thriving capital city, now lying in ruins and controlled for the most part by ragtag armies.

Last Sunday, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi urged government members to leave Mogadishu and join him in Jowhar. In a radio broadcast, he also warned that the government was prepared to use force to confront powerful warlords-turned-legislators whom he accused of trying to undermine the peace process from their bases in the capital.

Earlier on Friday, Somalia's president and parliamentary speaker ended talks in Yemen without resolving differences that have split the transitional government as it struggles to set up operations at home.

President Ahmed and parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden failed to agree on where the government should be based and on the involvement of troops from neighbouring countries in a regional force that would be sent to stabilise the country.

The president wants the government to set up base in Jowhar. The speaker, however, insists they be in the capital, as provided in the transitional constitution.

The speaker has set up operations in Mogadishu, together with more than 100 legislators who are pressing the president, prime minister and the rest of the Cabinet and parliament to follow suit.

After enduring years of dictatorship, things moved from bad to worse in the neighbouring state after Somalia fell from the frying pan into the fire.

It fell from the hands of a dictator into the smoking guns and barrels of warlords, fighting for fiefdoms and letting nothing stand in the way. They have fought to keep the grounds they controlled since and with it, sent more largely innocent civilians to the grave.

The bullets flew, the bombs shelled, children, women and men lay dead ..... or dying.

The world - led by the United States - responded to the chaos to try and restore order in the Horn of Africa nation, which was evidently sinking into the abyss.

The former Italian and British colony, plunged into a major crisis after the collapse of President Siad Barre's military regime in 1991.

Gen Barre ruled Somalia with an iron-fist prompting widespread opposition mainly from the northern part of the country.

The former President, for example, ordered aerial bombardment of Hargeisa, the country's second capital, and Burao city, which killed hundreds of citizens.

Reason; both towns harboured rebels and, according to Mr Barre, they had to be eliminated.

In 1990, President Barre was driven out of Somalia after a sustained offensive by his opponents. He later died in exile in Nigeria.

Since his ouster, the country has been plunged into civil war pitting warlords from various clans.

The fall of the State in Somalia bears directly on peace in the region with the spread of illegal small arms into stable neighbouring countries.

Security chiefs in Kenya have repeatedly said that weapons that have found their way into the wrong hands have contributed greatly to insecurity in the country.

And the Igad initiative to bring a stable government to the nation of Somalia could shift the equilibrium of security in the region.

Yes, the warlords derive a livelihood for themselves and their rag-tag armies from the money that they collect from the few amenities that remain that they control. Or simply by mounting roadblocks and extorting money from travellers. Somalia has been without a stable government or economy since 1991.

The question then is; Just who finances the warlords of Somalia?

A UN report released last year also blamed foreign countries for fuelling the Somali crisis.

The report released last year had found that Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait have given arms, equipment, money or training to Somali factions in violation of a 1992 arms embargo.

However, the countries later stopped supporting the warlords, opting for peace initiatives.

Intelligence reports have pointed to terrorist networks and multi-billion drug trade in the country. It added that "rogue states" and terrorist networks and multi-billion dollar drugs barons could easily find save havens in the fragmented state when they want to cover up their traces.

A report of the Central Intelligence Agency - the US government's international spy network - says of Somalia: "Numerous warlords and factions are still fighting for control of the capital city as well as for other southern regions. Suspicion of Somali links with global terrorism further complicates the picture."

And an assistant director in the office of Intelligence at America's Federal Bureau of Investigations, Mr Steven C. McCraw, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 20, 2003, that Somalia was a suspected link in international money laundering rings and terrorist networks.

McCraw said in his testimony: "The Al-Ittihad al-Islami, or AIAI, Somalia's largest militant Islamic organisation, is suspected of smuggling khat (miraa) into the US. Arrests and shipment seizures indicate a sharp increase in demand for the drug. Proceeds from sales are likely remitted to Middle Eastern banks via Hawala network and wire services.

The spokesman of the Somali Prime Minister's office, Mr Abdirahman Dinari, said: "There has been no law and order for so long and these illegal things - terrorist cells, money laundering, firearms and drug trafficking - can take place. That is why we are now trying to form a government and asking for international support."

He hopes that the UN Security Council would lift the embargo on arms to Somalia so that the African Union - which has already approved the deployment of peace keepers - can send troops to support the new government.

A report of the UNDP Somalia captures the difficulties in which humanitarian aid has to be delivered to the population who bear the brunt of the sporadic, relentless wars.

"Fighting among rival clans over territorial boundaries and control of specific areas is a frequent occurrence. Illegal roadblocks continue to be set up to extort money from businessmen, while landmines have led to the maiming and killing of people," the UNDP report on the security situation says.

After the fall of President Barre, the world gave rapt attention to Somalia to try and bring peace and reverse the slide into anarchy.

For good measure, the UN deployed troops and at one time, the US led the military intervention in what was dubbed Operation Restore Hope.

Successful coup

The deployment of the troops had been authorised by President George Bush Snr, at the end of his term and just before President Bill Clinton assumed office at the White House.

At the time, the UN forces were hunting down Mr Mohammed Farah Aideed, who was widely believed to be responsible for the chaos obtaining in the country soon after the successful coup.

The American special forces who went on the operation to hunt down the warlord fell into the hands of Somalia militiamen who understood the terrain and geography of their backyard too well.

In October 1993, 18 American soldiers were brutally murdered. Just before that episode, Pakistani soldiers had been killed and the world was beginning to burn its fingers.

Washington abandoned Somalia after the 18 were killed in a firefight in the capital Mogadishu.

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, officials have repeatedly said that Al-Qaeda can exploit Somalia's anarchy and use it as a base for its operations.

The movement of the Transitional Federal Government from Nairobi is a sure welcome move, but who will stop the warlords of Somalia from feeding off the failed state?