Thousands In Somalia Rally For Warlords’ Peace Agreement

Tens of thousands of Somalians packed a soccer stadium in the war-battered capital Wednesday to demonstrate their support for an agreement that could finally bring peace to their country.

The crowd, estimated by observers to number about 60,000, was the largest to assemble in one place since Somalia disintegrated after the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991 and the capital was divided into fiefdoms under rival warlords.

Speaking to the crowd in the heavily guarded stadium that holds about 80,000, the warlords pledged to reopen the city’s port and airport soon but did not say when.

Hussein Mohamed Aidid, son of the late Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid; Ali Mahdi Mohamed, and Osman Hassan Ali Atto agreed on Saturday to take down the barricades and checkpoints that have divided the capital into three zones for seven years.

A close aide to Aidid said both port and airport could reopen by the weekend. Both facilities were closed after United Nations peacekeepers withdrew in March 1995 because faction leaders disagreed over who would control the revenue they earned.

It was the first time in seven years that Ali Mahdi, who controls north Mogadishu, had set foot in the southern part of the city.

All three men are members of the Hawiye clan, one of six in Somalia to which all Somalis trace their ancestors.

Militiamen loyal to the Abgal sub-clan of Ali Mahdi fought forces backing Aidid and Atto, both members of the Habr Gedir sub-clan, for a year, from 1991 to 1992. At least 30,000 people were killed, most of them civilian bystanders.

Aidid, a U.S. citizen and former Marine reservist, described the rally as an “historic event for the people of Somalia.”

He called on the crowd to prepare for a national reconciliation conference in the city of Baidoa beginning Feb. 15.

In an agreement reached among 26 faction leaders in Cairo in December, Aidid was asked to withdraw his men from Baidoa before the conference.

The faction leaders agreed in Cairo to set up an interim government with Ali Mahdi as president and Aidid as premier and also named 465 delegates to the conference.