Somalis to leave Kenya next week

Tuesday, 7 June, 2005

Kenya says it is providing planes to fly home members of Somalia's government in exile, who have been in Kenya for nearly three years.

Kenya's ambassador to Somalia told the BBC that final payments had been made to Somali MPs and they would be repatriated on Tuesday after a party.

If the Somalis do leave, it will be the first time their government has been based inside the country since 1991.

"Everything that begins has to end," said Mohammed Abdi Afey.

President Abdullahi Yusuf was elected last October by the transitional parliament based in Kenya after two years of talks aimed at ending 14 years of warfare and anarchy.

The government is split between Mogadishu warlords who want to keep Mogadishu as the capital and President Yusuf Ahmed, who want to base it in the towns of Baidoa and Jowhar.

Checkpoints

In Mogadishu, Somali warlords have dismantled more than 10 out of 43 checkpoints the national security minister has said.

Mohamed Khanyare Afrah, a warlord turned cabinet minister, was the first to shut down his checkpoint and his militia vowed not to return.

Correspondents say more than $40,000 are raised from tariffs paid to those manning roadblocks each day.

It is the main source of income for some 20,000 militia in the city.

"The roadblocks are the most visible evidence of the lawlessness and chaos," Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed Jama told the BBC's Network Africa programme after militia promised to remove them by mid-morning on Tuesday.

A journalist covering protests against the roadblocks was shot dead at the weekend.

Confidence

According to the BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu, hundreds of people marched with Mr Jama and other ministers through the city's streets dismantling the checkpoints.

Despite uncertainties about whether all the militia would comply, one belonging to one of Somalia's most powerful warlords, Hussein Aideed - an ally of the president - was also removed, he says.

The row over where to relocate the new administration is threatening to split the government.

"It has a wider significance beyond Mogadishu," Mr Jama said.

He said he had confidence that this time the mood was different and that the initiative would be successful

"The will is there, the public demand is there. They're trying to create a climate for peace which will make security possible," he said.

A monitoring group of 30 people, including the chief of police is overseeing the dismantling process.

Last month three key Mogadishu warlords, who spent years fighting each other, began to merge their militias into a joint force.

Some 1,400 men have been sent to training camps outside the capital, along with dozens of battle-wagons.

Businessmen in Mogadishu have pledged $70 each month to militiamen as long as they are in the camps.

Meanwhile, a delegation led by Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Ghedi arrived in Jowhar on Tuesday.

The African Union has agreed to send some 1,700 troops to Somalia but said it would not send them unless it was safe to do so.