New president visits Mogadishu

The newly elected president of Somalia, Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, arrived in the capital, Mogadishu, to an ecstatic welcome on Wednesday morning from the public and a show of support from militiamen previously allied to the country’s faction leaders.

Eyewitnesses in Mogadishu told IRIN Hassan flew into Balidogle Airport, a former military airbase some 100 km from the capital, on a privately hired aircraft from neighbouring Djibouti at 10:10 a.m. (07:10 GMT). He then drove in a motorcade that stretched for more than two km into the capital.

At the same time, two of the main Mogadishu faction leaders, Osman Ali Atto and Hussein Mohamed Aideed, were reported by the local and international news agencies to have left the day before for Yemen, to meet a delegation sent by Hassan from Djibouti.

About 100 jeeps mounted with heavy weapons - known as “technicals” - were brought out to escort the new president, primarily by the business community, with support from the Islamic courts. Gunmen controlling the former military air base at Balidogle had been loyal to faction leader Hussein Mohamed Aideed, but in recent days switched allegiance to Hassan, AFP reported. Aideed had earlier warned the new president not to return to Mogadishu, saying his militiamen would stop him coming in “by port and air”.

The presidential motorcade took nearly two hours to reach Mogadishu, the eyewitnesses told IRIN. The convoy entered Mogadishu from the south - traditionally territory controlled by Aideed and Atto - and had to pass through a major road block next to the University. The road block held by Atto, is an old government check point known as “Ex-Control”.

One eyewitness told IRIN that the reception was “unbelievable” with “every hamlet, town and street” packed with emotional supporters. “People are showing their confidence in the new president but they also are showing they want to be led better than they have been so far,” Ahmed Abdi Dini, manager of Nationlink Telecommunications, told IRIN by telephone. He said he had tried unsuccessfully to reach the stadium where Hassan was due to speak but that “people had packed the stadium and area nearby since 6:30 a.m.”. Dini confirmed that militiamen and technicals from faction leaders Atto, Aideed and Mohamed Kanyare Afrah were included in the welcome, despite the fact the warlords had earlier rejected the new president as “illegitimate”.

Another eyewitness told IRIN that from the early morning hours Mogadishu streets became deserted, with few vehicles moving, as most residents headed towards the stadium to hear Hassan speak. Even the main Bakaara money market was closed, said the source. “There is a festive mood. It almost feels like Iid,” he said referring to the Muslim holiday.

Hassan was accompanied by Ali Kalifa Galeyr and Hassan Abshire, the main candidates for prime minister. Other members of the new interim parliament, the Transitional National Assembly (TNA), also accompanied him. They included representatives from northern and southern regions such as Hassan Mohamed Nur “Shatigudud”, leader of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army; Abdullahi Musa “King Kong”, a Mujerteen elder from Puntland in the northeast; Ahmed Dowale Guelleh “Haaf”, of the Habir Gadir Sa’ad sub-clan;Abdi Hassan Awale Keybdid, also of Habir Gedir Sa’ad and former right-hand man of Atto; and Osman Jama of the Issak clan.

One observer told IRIN the absence of the two was “a clever face-saving piece of diplomacy” probably discussed when regional heads of state who attended the inauguration lunch with President Ismael Omar Guelleh of Djibouti on Sunday. Aideed and Atto were invited by Yemeni President Ali Abdulla Sale, who also attended the inauguration in Djibouti.

Hassan told the 245-strong TNA on Tuesday that he intended to spend two days in Mogadishu before heading to New York to represent Somalia at the United Nations Millennium Conference.

By choosing Balidogle airport, an observer contacted by IRIN in Mogadishu said the new president, who had been threatened by Mogadishu faction leaders not to come to the capital had demonstrated that the warlords did not have as much power as they claimed. However, it will be more of a challenge to bring the full TNA and newly formed government, and establish it in the capital, said the observer. A member of parliament said he believed such a move was unlikely to take place before the end of September.

Hassan has lived in Mogadishu since 1998, and dismissed claims that he would be unable to return to the divided capital. The new president said after his election and inauguration in the Djibouti-hosted peace talks, that he would visit Mogadishu “as soon as possible” to demonstrate there was popular support for the process, and to defy critics that he represented a “government in exile”.

Meanwhile, opposing political factions have been forging new alliances in opposition to the new president, according to local newspapers in Mogadishu and the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeast Somalia.