Though Islamists flee, peace eludes Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Declaring an end to the warlord era, Somalia’s prime minister has ordered all fighters to surrender their weapons – delivering a wildly ambitious plan in a country awash with guns after 15 years of anarchy.

Shots from Kalashnikov rifles and machine guns have rung out daily on the pockmarked streets of the Somali capital since government and Ethiopian troops rolled in on the heels of a fleeing Islamic militant group. Three warlords who once ruled Mogadishu are back in town.

“There is a power vacuum already,” said Ali Said Omar, a peace activist in Mogadishu. “Everybody has taken his own weapons back. How can the government say it’s in control?”

Many here believe the only chance for real stability in Somalia lies with international peacekeepers – not with the government, which controlled just one town before Ethiopia intervened in the past 10 days and provided the administration with tanks and MiG fighter jets.

Regional diplomats worked to arrange the speedy deployment of African peacekeepers to help the interim government establish its authority in the country.

Fighters belonging to a militant Islamist movement fled into a rugged, forested corner of Somalia on Monday, attempting to escape rapidly advancing government forces.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi offered amnesty if they surrendered. He ordered a nationwide disarmament beginning today.

“The warlord era in Somalia is now over,” Gedi said at a news conference Monday in the recently captured capital, giving a three-day deadline for handing over all weapons. Somali warlords, who have begun returning to Mogadishu after the Islamists’ defeat, have not yet voiced agreement.

Yet the Islamists’ flight does not mark their end or ultimate defeat. The group has promised to wage an Iraq-style guerrilla war if defeated, and a woman was killed Sunday in a mysterious blast in Mogadishu.

As the last remaining stronghold of the Islamic group was overrun by government troops backed by Ethiopian forces, the net began closing on suspected al-Qaida militants believed to be sheltered by the hard-line group.

Neighboring Kenya vowed to seal its frontier to prevent any extremists, now wedged against the sea and their border, from escaping the 13-day military offensive.

Sea routes from southern Somalia were also being patrolled by the U.S. Navy, hunting for three al-Qaida suspects believed to be among the Islamic group and wanted for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa.

Thousands of Somalis fled in the wake of advancing Ethiopian and government forces, but most returned to their homes once the fighting subsided.