By Mohamed Ahmed and Abdi Guled
March 25, 2009
Al Shabaab, a pro-al Qaeda group which is fighting the Somali government and African Union peacekeepers, overran Baidoa town -- the former seat of parliament -- earlier this year to increase its grip on large swathes of south Somalia.
Somalis, who are traditionally moderate Muslims, say al Shabaab leaders normally bring security to areas under their control, but also impose hardline practices that many resent.
Nearly 1,000 enraged locals took to Baidoa's streets on Wednesday, witnesses said, even throwing stones at the militants in their rage against a ban on khat.
The leaf, a mild stimulant, is chewed by most Somali men and is an important part of their culture.
"We don't want the khat to be stopped, we don't want an Al Shabaab administration," demonstrator Ali Mohamed told Reuters.
Fighters shot into the air to end the protest and detained about 50 people, locals said. One demonstrator was arrested, and the militants demolished rows of khat kiosks.
On a Web site it uses, al Shabaab urged Somalis to redouble attacks on a growing AU peacekeeping force in Mogadishu.
The AU said this week Uganda had sent another battalion to Somalia. That would bring the mission to around 4,500 soldiers.
"We ask all Muslim brothers to continue fighting against the infidels flowing into our country," Al Shabaab said on the Internet site it uses, www.kataaib.info
"It's the right time for the Mujahideen to double attacks on AU forces as long as they are continuing the deployment of new troops in Somalia ... We have a generation ready to fight by any means as long as they are present in our country."
U.N. ENVOY UPBEAT
Al Shabaab is the main obstacle to a new government seeking to bring peace and central rule to the Horn of Africa nation in the 15th such attempt during 18 years of civil conflict.
U.N. envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, told Reuters in Tanzania that despite al Shabaab's threat, there was cautious optimism President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government would be able to make progress in stabilising the nation.
Ahmed is a moderate Islamist who used to run a sharia courts movement whose fighting wing was al Shabaab.
"I consider the government in its honeymoon period ... there's a lot of optimism. Because the war has been fought for so long, the suffering is so long that people are crying for peace," the envoy told Reuters at a conference in Zanzibar.
"He (Ahmed) is at the same time facing many problems, including scepticism because after 20 years of war it is difficult to bring people on board ... The government has to strengthen its base and simultaneously reach out to all Somalis."
Residents in the al Shabaab-controlled towns of Kismayu and Baidoa say foreign fighters -- east Africans, Arabs and Asians -- have arrived in recent weeks and now sport the popular green suit and black mask of al Shabaab.
Regional diplomats also say they have heard credible reports of weapons being flown into al Shabaab areas.
SOURCE: Reuters, March 25, 2009