London BBC World Service in English 1709 GMT – From the “Focus on Africa” program
In the Somali capital, Mogadishu, the USC (United Somali Congress) rebels are getting down to business on the third day since their forces drove President Barre out of the city. They have appointed a new president, Ali Mahdi Mohamed, a leading member of the USC. But by all accounts, he has got a tough job ahead of him. Mogadishu has been a battlefield for the past month as rebels and government forces struggle for control amid widespread looting and social chaos. Our journalist Catherine Bond managed to get into the city yesterday morning and spent the day looking around. She is now back in Nairobi, and on the line, Robin White asked her what sort of a state the city was in:
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[Bond] Well, as you drive from the airport into the city, you notice that roads are covered in rubble with a lot of broken tree branches lying on the road; in occasional places, there are still bodies lying on the road. All the shops have been broken into and looted. Most of the embassies appear to have been looted too and there is quite a lot of destruction around the Villa Somalia because we were told that Siad Barre troops fired out of the Villa Somalia with heavy artillery, pounding the city. So a number of buildings, hotels, shops, that kind of thing, anything within firing range has been peppered with holes and some buildings are gutted.
[White] Are people out about in the streets or are they still in hiding?
[Bond] There were lots of people in the streets today. We stayed at the north end of the city last night. When we got up this morning, there were people streaming into Mogadishu. When we went into the heart of town later in the morning, we discovered hundreds of people looting on the streets around the Central Bank and Finance Ministry. There were a couple of streets that were covered in money – money that had been taken out from the Central Bank allegedly by Siad Barre’s soldiers and it is now being picked up. They look like leaves on the streets, the people sort of sit and squat and count out the money and take it away with them.
[White] So, there is nobody policing the city at all?
[Bond] There is not anybody policing the city. Almost everywhere you go there are men with guns. I think a small number of them are really USC rebels. The rest of them are civilians who have managed to get guns over the past few years. Probably they are now using them. There is a lot of shooting both during the day and early at night. Last night, we saw traces in the sky, from about 7 to 10, there was a lot of firing and we’re told that this is looting gangs going into houses or shops and shooting to frighten people or that kind of thing. There is a hospital which is getting a number of casualties from this sort of looting.
[White] Is anybody trying to establish any kind of control?
[Bond] Well, yes. Today, we went to the swearing-in of Somalia’s new and interim president, Mr. Ali Mahdi Mohamed. So, we went up to the police headquarters. He was sworn in in in a waiting room and they are the people who are going to try and set up a new government and restore some law and order.
[White] It sounds from what you have said that the whole city has been looted.
[Bond] The whole city has certainly been affected; the areas that were under the control of Siad Barre’s troops the longer seem to be worse affected than the others. For instance, the American Embassy – the American Embassy has panels of bullet-proof glass, most of which have been shattered; it’s been completely looted. They even tried to take the marble off the staircase. And we even heard someone on the roof when we were in there this morning, still trying to loot stuff from the American Embassy. So, yes, everywhere you go there are signs of looting. The middle of the city is by far the worst.
[White] So after all these weeks of fighting, what is the mood among the people? They must be pretty depressed.
[Bond] Well, no, that’s the extraordinary thing. I mean. certainly the USC fighters weren’t depressed; they were laughing, making jokes, very hospitable; they seem to be very bruyant [noisy]. Everybody was sort of quite happy when the new interim president was sworn in. People rushed up and hugged him and shouted Allah Akbar [God is Great] and put their arms in the air; and the ordinary people – It was hard to gauge, but, I mean, very many of them were looting and carrying sofas up the streets and beds up the streets.
[White] Now, you are now back in Kenya-Now, there are reports that President Siad Barre has in fact arrived in Kenya, somewhere in Kenya. Can you confirm that or not?
[Bond] That has been denied by a senior Foreign Ministry spokesman here and nobody, as far as I know, has yet confirmed it. There are lots of rumors that he has arrived at (Loame) on the coast, or Mombassa; when we flew into (Wilson) airport in Nairobi this afternoon, we did ask the immigration people if they had any news of Siad Barre, if they got to see him coming through to (Wilson) airport, and they said that they would not be told about it even if he had, but they did not think that he had arrived.
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The Somali History Archive 