Somalia parliament approves martial law

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somalia’s acting parliament authorized martial law Saturday as the fledgling government struggles to assert authority over a country that has known little but clan warfare and chaos for 15 years.

The vote will allow the U.N.-backed government to impose martial law for up to three months in this Horn of Africa nation of 7 million people, deputy parliament speaker Osman Ilmi Boqore said during a legislative session broadcast live on a state-owned radio station.

The vote came as government troops and allied Ethiopian soldiers began house-to-house searches for weapons near Mogadishu’s main airport.

A few hours later, Ethiopian jets reportedly bombed at least one village in the south, killing three people, a traditional elder reported.

Ethiopian forces, which helped Somali government troops defeat an Islamic militia that had controlled much of southern Somalia since summer, do not speak to journalists in Mogadishu.

Boqore said 154 legislators voted in favor of letting the government impose martial law. He said two lawmakers voted against the motion.

The remainder of Somalia’s 275 lawmakers were not present at the session in Baidoa, a western town that had been the two-year-old government’s stronghold until the Islamic militia was routed in an offensive that began Dec. 24.

A government spokesman said he did not know when President Abdullahi Yusuf would sign a decree to impose martial law.

Information Minister Ali Ahmed Jama has said the measure was needed because of widespread insecurity in the country, which has been without an effective government since clan warlords toppled a dictator in 1991 and then turned on each other.

Opposing lawmakers said too many Somalis are armed to impose strict order right now.