01-07-2007, 05:09 PM
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#11 (permalink)
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Junkie
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well what do you know.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Somalia/10095154.html
Quote:
Disarmament drive leads to firefight in Mogadishu
Reuters
Mogadishu: Ethiopian troops and Somali pro-testers exchanged fire in Mogadishu yesterday killing three people, witnesses said, as hundreds of Somalis demonstrated against the foreign forces and a government disarmament drive.
The protesters hurled stones and burnt tyres, wreathing streets in smoke and reviving memories of the chaos that had largely stopped during six months of strict Islamist rule before the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) was ousted last week.
"The Ethiopians opened fire and shot dead a young boy and a lady, they also killed another person," a witness said. Other witnesses agreed.
"The [government] and Ethiopian troops invaded our country and they have shot my son for no good reason," Omar Halane, the father of the boy, said.
A government source said one person had died and that police had opened fire in Tarbuunka square.
"Protesters shot at policemen, the police returned fire killing one man," the source said. "I don't know how many people have been wounded."
In the latest show of discontent with the forces that ousted the Islamists, hundreds of Somalis marched through the capital chanting "Down with Ethiopia".
Ethiopian soldiers fired in the air to disperse crowds and government troops armed with AK-47s patrolled the streets. Somalia's interim government wants to install itself in Mogadishu.
Within hours of the Islamists fleeing, militiamen loyal to warlords reappeared at checkpoints in the city where they used to rob and terrorise civilians.
Muse Sudi Yalahow, a warlord dislodged by the Islamists in the June battle for Mogadishu, came back to the capital yesterday but declined to speak to reporters.
"We are against the Ethiopian troops' occupation. We don't want them, they should leave," 20-year-old protester Ahmad Mohammad said. "They are harassing us in our own country. The government is imposing the Ethiopians on us."
A hospital source, speaking before the shooting incident, said at least five civilians were hurt.
The interim government had given Mogadishu residents until last Thursday to hand in their weapons or be disarmed by force. Government spokesman Abdul Rahman Dinari told local radio yesterday the disarmament programme had been postponed. Few weapons have been handed in as locals wait to see if the government can impose the relative stability experienced under the SICC.
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"no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."
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