RSS 2.0 FeedSomalia Mayor Attempts To Seize Guns
by Brad WarbianyYeah, I’m sure this will work…
A former warlord who has long lived by his gun was sworn in as mayor of Mogadishu on Friday and immediately ordered residents of the Somali capital to get rid of their weapons.
But Mayor Mohamed Dheere offered no clear details on how that could be accomplished in a city awash in Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and hand grenades. Previous efforts to get residents to give up their weapons have been unsuccessful.
What’s “Molon Labe” in Somali?
I think it’s obvious here, as the article points out, that the people don’t want to give up their guns… Except for the suckers* anyway…
The relentless violence is among the reasons many Somalis have been reluctant to give up their arms. But in a hopeful sign for the government, several members of the powerful business community in the capital handed over 25 boxes and 20 sacks filled with weapons, saying they would now depend on government forces to protect them.
What sort of violence are these Somalis guarding against? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not petty thugs and drug dealers. It’s the government-backed Ethiopian military!
Aid groups say 1,670 people were killed between March 12 and April 26 and more than 340,000 of the city’s 2 million residents fled for safety as the government, backed by Ethiopian troops, pressed to wipe out an Islamic insurgency.
Funny… The citizens refuse to give up their guns as a hedge against an overreaching government that is attempting to oppress them. Where have I heard of that before?
* Yes, I used the term suckers for the “powerful business group” that turned over their guns. This is probably unfair, as I’m sure they’re doing it to curry favor with the new mayor and as a result, they probably WILL get the government’s protection (and likely have a backup weapons cache stored away somewhere, just in case). Ordinary citizens who turn over their firearms will not get any protection, thus they refuse to turn over those weapons.
Did you notice what was going on before that?
Comment by VRB — May 4, 2007 @ 1:59 pmWhile I agree that it’s better for the Somali people to keep their weapons as the government won’t protect them, you’re basing much of your argument on the idea that the Somali government and their Ethiopian allies are somehow worse than the Islamist warlords they pushed out (they aren’t).
Frankly, the people are better off in the long run with the Somali government and the Ethiopians…although they’d be foolish to give up their weapons as you’ve said. But you’re stretching if you’re trying to draw parallels between Somalia’s situation and the battle for gun rights in our country.
Comment by UCrawford — May 4, 2007 @ 2:27 pmSomalia was in far better shape than what they are showing on the evening news prior to the American intervention.
The islamic courts were composed officials froma a broad range of idealogies ranging from talibanesque to very liberal. Their support came more from keeping people happy with their law enforcement rather than by intimidation.
Unfortunately, it is hard to get good data; most of the publicly available data is gathered by governments, which tend to
a) overestimate the degree of violence – mainly as a form of P.R.
b) underestimate the degree of violence by aggregating northern somalia with southern somalia – northern somalia has a state which is not recognized by any government whereas the south used to be nominally stateless.
These two opposing biases make it very difficult to filter out junk from the data.
Someday when I have time, I would like to write about Somalia, since there are some interesting lessons to be drawn from it.
Comment by tarran — May 4, 2007 @ 3:09 pmtarran,
Comment by VRB — May 4, 2007 @ 5:07 pmThere are a lot of blogs out of Africa. this might be a place to start, the Sokwanele blog. Check out their blog roll. Unfortunately the one from Somalia is not in English, but the news stories are.
The current situation in Somalia is another example of a failed intervention in Somalia, only this time the intervention is labelled “Fighting Terrorism”. The current Somali “government” is nothing but the same blood thirsty warlords who have destroyed Somalia. The man who was named the mayor of Mogadishu is a notorious warlord whose infamy stretches throughout southern Somalia. His militias looted, raped and oppressed the minority clans of southern Somalia.
Most of the members of the Somali “government” are war criminals who have killed thousands, where is justice for Somalia? Instead the U.S. and the West endorse these same murderers as law men? Talk about hypocrisy. The U.S. government beats the U.N. security council table and shouts “Genocide in Darfur” all the while endorsing genocide in Somalia. The world is not blind or dumb, we all see and we all know the truth, Somalia’s failure is the fault of Western countries.
Comment by ALH — May 4, 2007 @ 11:51 pm