Mayor of Mogadishu bans weapons

[oberliner]

Source: Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A former warlord who has long lived by his gun was sworn in as mayor of Mogadishu on Friday and immediately ordered residents of the Somali capital to get rid of their weapons.

But Mayor Mohamed Dheere offered no clear details on how that could be accomplished in a city awash in Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and hand grenades. Previous efforts to get residents to give up their weapons have been unsuccessful.

"No weapons are allowed in the city," Dheere, who spent 16 years as a warlord struggling for power in this Horn of Africa nation, said at his inauguration ceremony. "Anyone who violates this directive will be punished."

The new police chief, Abdi Qeybdiid, also called for residents to disarm Friday, and said cars with blacked-out or tinted windows must go.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070504/ap_on_re_af/somalia;_ylt=Akd03i2qY_QMteb5WcNP5Wms0NUE

[DBoon]

1. Why isn't the NRA on this one?

Surely a city "awash in weapons" is also awash in second amendment liberty? Mogadishu sounds like a "right to bear arms" utopia.

[central scrutinizer]

2. And awash in personal safety and security

If only Virginia Tech had been awash in automatic weapons......

[MrPrax]

8. Why guns?

They didn't have a football team?

[treestar]

4. Yep, and it looks like the murder rate is going to increase

After all, that's what happens when people don't have their weapons to defend themselves. :sarcasm:

[mancandy]

14. I hate guns and am in favor of strict gun laws....

but would you feel comfortable in Mogadishu without a gun?

[treestar]

15. Not really.

No, I don't suppose I would. Not even in the U.S. is there anywhere where it would be as bad as it must be there.

I wonder too if it can be enforced - how could the government get the guns back if not voluntary? At gunpoint? LOL if it weren't so tragic.

[marshall]

7. All eyes will now be watching

Let's hope it works, and that there is a major decrease in deaths and other mayhem associated with firearms.

[dave_p]

3. Only in Mogadishu

Too ambitious, it seems, for America

[Kagemusha]

13. Too ambitious for Mogadishu too.

It ain't happening.

[walnutpie]

5. Just sayin…

If you can’t trust a Mogadishuian warlord to do right by the people, who can you trust?

Admittedly, my knowledge of Mogadishu mayoral politics is a bit shaky, but if a former warlord became mayor of my town, I might question his motivation in calling for mandatory disarmament. In fact, my first suspicion would be that he intended to set up a dictatorship.

[tabasco]

11. Who do you expect to get control of Somalia, the Girl Scouts?

There won't be law and order in Somalia until one of the warlords gets complete control and establishes security.

Just like Saddam Hussein did in Iraq before we fucked that up.

I had two tours in Somalia myself. I wish the Somali people well because most of them are good folks.

[youngdem]

16. Perfectly stated.

[MGD]

6. We'll see how well that goes over with the various Somali militias

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. Why does he hate freedom?

Must be a Democrat, huh?

[Solo_in_MD]

10. He is a bigger fool than Bloomberg

[pampango]

12. I think they already tried that in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Sounds like a well-intentioned idea, though. Best of luck.

[Trajan]

17. But what about Somalia's perfect gun rights ?

Arent they the poster child for the benefits of unlimited weapons ownership, unfettered by silly ass laws that would deny them their god-given right to drive plugs of hot metal into their neighbors whenever they feel the need ?

Awww shit ..... I KNOW that removing the 'Mechanicals' from the street, those bashed and dented mini pickup trucks loaded with mounted 50 CAL machine guns, will SURELY lead to rivers of blood flooding the streets and cause the deaths of thousands of innocent Somalis ...... right ?

Yeah .... right .....

[knight_of_the_star]

18. Good luck

I'm sure that the people of Mogadishu will gladly comply :sarcasm:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

19. Mogadishu has a MAYOR?

I'm surprised.

[maddezmom]

20. Former warlord Mohamed Dheere takes control in Somali capital trained by the CIA

Former warlord Mohamed Dheere takes control in Somali capital
By Mahad Elmi and Shashank Bengali
McClatchy Newspapers

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A former warlord who for a time had been on the CIA payroll was sworn in Friday as mayor of Mogadishu and announced a plan to pacify this turbulent African capital within three months by requiring residents to turn in their guns.


"Weapons will be in the hands of the government and no one else," Mohamed Dheere told a crowd at his inauguration.


But previous regimes have failed to disarm Mogadishu - the most dangerous city in Africa, where many families maintain AK-47s and other weapons for protection - and Dheere offered few details of his security plan.


Dheere's appointment as mayor, which was announced by the interim prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, follows the installation of another former warlord, Abdi Hasan "Qaybdid" Awale, as the national police chief. According to U.S. officials, both were briefly on the CIA payroll in 2006 under a covert program to fight the rise of the Islamists, a plan that fell apart when the Islamists drove the warlords from power last June.


Awale is a former police chief and later served as a top aide to Mohammad Farah Aideed, the late militia leader whose forces killed 18 American servicemen in the infamous "Black Hawk Down" incident in Mogadishu in March 1993.

more:http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/world/17180579.htm

[davepc]

21. "Weapons will be in the hands of the government and no one else,"

So the government can shoot whoever it wants without the threat of having them shoot back.

[slackmaster]

22. I'm sure all the militia dudes and gangsters will cheerfuly turn in their rifles

:rofl:

[Xenotime]

23. Watch. Gun crimes will go down there.

[IndianaGreen]

24. Headline should have said that the CIA-funded, Ethiopian backed, unelected mayor of Mogadishu

is babbling some shit about guns. I can't wait to see his corpse being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu!