Paris AFP (in English) 1421 GMT

Mogadishu — Police fired warning shots to disperse a crowd near a court in the Somali capital where 45 opposition figures were acquitted of sedition Sunday [July 15th]. A police spokesman said security forces fired in the air to disperse “hooligans, troublemakers and thieves” who had gathered near the court adding that there were no casualties.

At least 62 people were killed and 200 seriously injured nine days ago when presidential guards fired into a crowd of football fans at a Mogadishu stadium after the hurled stones and jeered and whistled during a speech by President Mohamed Siad Barre.

The 45 opposition figures acquitted Sunday were among 100 people who signed an anti-government manifesto calling on the government to step down in favor of a caretaker coalition.

They were found not guilty of organising, preparing and disseminating seditious material by the Regional Security Court, court sources said.

The chief defendants included Somalia’s first police chief Major General Mohamed Abshir Mussa, former Somali ambassador to China Ahmed Mohamed Amin and leading businessmen Hashi Weheliye Maalın.

Security was tight at the one-day trial, but the defendants’ relatives were allowed in.

Among those reportedly arrested in June for signing the “Mogadishu Manifesto Number One” was Somalia’s first post-independence president. Aden Abdulle Osman, who ruled for seven years until 1967, though the government later denied he had been held. Most of the other signatories were former members of the civilian government overthrown by Mr. Siad Barre in a 1969 coup.

[Beijing XINHUA in English at 1134 GMT on 15 Jul carries a report of “machine gun firing and riots” at the beginning of the trial: “People are holding demonstra-tions in the streets, throwing stones toward security forces and cars. Security police opened fire at rioters.” Reports of casualties differ with “no one” killed according to government sources and a “number of people” killed and wounded according to eyewitnesses.” XINHUA at 1421 GMT reports that Mogadishu is “calming down” after the release of the 45.]

_{FBIS-AFR-90-136, 16 July 1990, p. 5}