Somalia's gunmen consider peace after decade of war

MOGADISHU, Somalia (Reuters) -- Strolling down the middle of the street as bullets fly all around him, Salad Hashi appears perfectly at ease with life as a militiaman.

While two groups of gunmen trade wild bursts of automatic gunfire and civilians scamper for cover, Hashi calmly picks out his target in the shadows of a building above the street and takes single shots with his AK-47 assault rifle.

Bullets hop off the street at his feet but it is only when the other members of his militia group start pulling out that Hashi, dressed in desert fatigues that hang off his skinny frame, turns and jumps into the back of the pickup truck.

As they speed off, they unleash a hail of bullets back down the street past the crumbling ruins of Mogadishu's cathedral, another victim of Somalia's civil war.

Hashi later concedes his group should probably not have stepped onto rival territory without warning but says that once the shooting starts etiquette is irrelevant. "When people shoot at you, you have to answer back," he said with a shrug.

Now 19, Hashi began hanging around with militiamen fighting for one of Mogadishu's main clan warlords seven years ago, so it was only a matter of time before he took up a gun himself three years ago.

Now part of a group of 10 gunmen working for a private businessman, Hashi is seen as brave, tough and unusually calm when things get nasty. But he is also acutely aware that his profession is of little use, either to himself or the country.

"I'm a young boy so I still have time to learn something. I would like a proper job, something that is useful," he said, adding that he would like to learn English and train as a mechanic. "With a gun in your hand you are either killing or you are dying."

A growing war fatigue among Somalia's rival clans and, crucially, their militiamen, offers the best hope for peace since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in early 1991 and civil war exploded.

Old enemies talk of peace

Clan representatives meeting in neighboring Djibouti set up a parliament-in-exile in August and it elected Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, an interior minister under Siad Barre, as president. He has won international backing and overwhelming public support in Mogadishu, the once beautiful city on the Indian Ocean that now lies in ruins.

Some of Mogadishu's warlords have vowed to stop the new president from taking office and there has been a surge of fighting between rival clan militias in recent days. But optimists -- and there are more of them now than at any time in the last decade -- say the warlords have lost much of their power and their rank-and-file gunmen will opt for peace if they are offered steady jobs in a new security force.

A few hundred, most of them employed by businessmen, have already congregated at "demobilization camps" in the last two weeks for what they hope will be a career in the police.

"We need a government, education and peace," said Abdishukri Mohamed Nur, who fought with the clan militia that toppled Siad Barre and then humiliated U.S. and U.N. troops deployed here in a disastrous 1992-95 peacekeeping operation.

The clan allegiances that tied fighters to their faction leaders are much weaker now than during the most vicious fighting in the first half of the 1990s, and many say they will have no trouble working alongside their former enemies if the political leaders can reach agreement.

"I have no resentment for anyone. We are all Somalis and we have to forget everything that happened. We are together now," said Abdishukri, who abandoned his clan militia in August.

Violence can erupt at any time

The rivalries still exist, of course, and can explode at any time in virtually any part of this chaotic city.

In the past week, 30 militiamen and civilians have been killed in four separate incidents in Mogadishu -- two of them ambushes, one a revenge attack and one apparently a case of a militia group arriving unannounced on rival turf.

But even that is a vast improvement on Somalia's recent past, when rival clans ripped the city to shreds with frequent artillery duels and massive street battles.

"A big militia fight nowadays is 150 a side, where it used to be 1,500 a side," said one foreign security expert with years of experience in the country.

Hundreds of gunmen have left their clan militias over the past two years to join security teams that protect businesses or for the Islamic courts set up by religious leaders to impose sharia law in the absence of a government or judiciary.

They are more disciplined forces and much less likely to kill or loot civilians, or attack rival groups on a whim. And turf disputes are now more often resolved with just a few shots fired into the air.

Young militiamen will scream at each other or prop their AK-47s up against a rival's chest. Sometimes one insult too many or a stray bullet can lead to a full-blown fight but, typically, the side with less firepower will back down.

Some parts of the city are still "no go" areas for outsiders or are so disputed that even passing through can draw heavy fire, but there is generally less tension in the air.

Militiamen routinely wave at each other as they race past donkey-drawn carts and rusty pickups in their "technicals" -- imposing flatbed trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.

At the Ramadan Hotel in north Mogadishu last week, dozens of militiamen sat around chewing qat, a narcotic green leaf, or just chatting as the city's Islamic leaders and businessmen met inside for negotiations on the proposed new police force.

"We all know each other. We are cousins. Why should we fight now when we are all waiting for a new government?" said one, a large bundle of qat stuffed inside his combat fatigues and a smaller wad inside his right cheek.

As he spoke, some gunmen kicked around a football as others sat quietly in the shade, assault rifles across their laps. The mood was relaxed. At least for now they are waiting for peace.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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