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CNN Live Saturday
Somalia's Warlords Threaten Fragile Somali Government
Aired January 12, 2002 - 16:25 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Afghanistan's interim government isn't the only one struggling to establish itself. Somali warlords threaten Somalia's fragile transitional government and giving terrorism a foothold. Now Somalia now finds itself on the short list of U.S. war on terrorism, and CNN's Catherine Bond has more from Mogadishu.
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CATHERINE BOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The political patchwork that is Mogadishu, part controlled by Somalia's fragile government, the TNG or Transitional National Government, and part controlled by a warlord still holding out against it, because, he says, the government is composed of Somalis from outside the city.
"They want," says Moussa Sudi Alahu (ph), to take the property we own."
This is Moussa Sudi's home turf in north Mogadishu. South Mogadishu is government's terrain. So why, after 11 long years of fighting, is the city still divided? One reason, many say, is neighboring Ethiopia, which supports Moussa Sudi (ph) and other warlords, like these men, assembled in Baidoa (ph), 160 miles or 240 kilometers northwest of the Somali capital.
They warlords say they won't join the government, because the government should join them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We extend this hand to them to join us, because they are very much artificial in nature and in organization. Is there any institutional services working in Mogadishu, except the name of the TNG?
BOND: But services can't work without money, and back in Mogadishu, the government says it ran out of money months ago.
(on camera): Are you broke as a government?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did not inherit a bin, you see. We came here empty handed. We borrowed from business people.
BOND (voice-over): It's 17 months since the government was elected by a Congress of Somalis, and the government says the only money the international community has come up with is $13 million from Saudi Arabia, and $3 million from Qatar.
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) the Christian-dominated government of Ethiopia, may feel suspicious of. From the United States' perspective, though, how did the case against Somalia as a possible terrorist haven come about? Partly in letters like this one, from a Somali warlord Houssein Aidid to U.S. President George W. Bush, accusing this man, Abraham Desuki (ph), of manufacturing explosives for terrorist groups in the office of his printing press.
Terrorists groups including Al-Ittihad, a Somali group which Ethiopia says was behind attacks against it, and is now on the Bush administration's black list.
Ironically, three years ago Desuki (ph), a known peace activist, actually became a target of Al-Ittihad.
(on camera): You say you have to hire security to protect yourself against Al-Ittihad, because they issued a fatwah against you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOND: How active are Al-Ittihad today in Mogadishu?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Al-Ittihad (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they are not -- but they are probably -- I don't know one by one, nobody knows because I have never been in their organizations, but I think there are some individuals in Mogadishu.
BOND (voice-over): Desuki (ph) is also a member of Somalia's Transitional Parliament. The government's opponents perhaps hoping that creating links between the Mogadishu administration and Al- Ittihad could draw U.S. support.
(on camera): And do you have political ambitions? I mean, in year's time, would you like to be in Mogadishu?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we would like to go back to Mogadishu, because Mogadishu is our capital. After all, we are not going to remain on the peripheries of Mogadishu. One day, we have will to be there. But how, that is the question.
BOND (voice-over): How is one issue that's come to the fore. Ethiopia denies is has troops in Somalia. But the coming and going of Ethiopian soldiers, apparently to help train and to equip militiamen like these, have been confirmed by residents, leading the United Nations to state that the real problem here is the wrong kind of intervention by Somalia's neighbors.
So if the United States really wants to see stability in Somalia, wouldn't it, some of its critics say, publicly pressure Ethiopia to end support for Somalia's warlords, and help the very fragile Somali government get on its feet.
Catherine Bond, CNN, Mogadishu.
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