Demonstrators condemn US policy

Hundreds of Somalis on Sunday demonstrated in the capital, Mogadishu, against US foreign policy, despite efforts by the Transitional National Government to stop it, and condemnation of the US attacks by Somali Muslim clerics. Demonstrators gathered at a sports field in south Mogadishu chanting anti-American slogans and shouting support for Osama bin Laden, widely believed to be behind the 11 September terrorist attacks, news agencies said. Some of the protestors carried portraits of Bin Laden, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said. One organiser of the demonstration said it was intended to be a show of solidarity with all Muslims, who, he said, were “under threat” from the US, AFP reported. Another organiser told Reuters news agency that the protest was not meant as a show of support for Bin Laden, but as a stand against American policy towards both Israel and Muslim nations in general. Meanwhile, the local Mogadishu media said photographs of Bin Laden’s photos had become a booming business for entrepreneurs in the capital. “Many enlarged photos of Bin Laden are seen displayed for sale, and many Mogadishu residents buy them... [They] have become an important business commodity for many people,” the Somali HornAfrik Online web site said on 21 September.

Mogadishu police deployed police throughout the city to contain the demonstration, Mogadishu police chief, Abdi Hasan Awale Qeybdid, told IRIN. He condemned the demonstration as having a “political agenda” and “an attempt by opposition groups to tarnish the image of the interim government.” Qeybdid said the police did not allow the demonstrators to march around the city, but confined them to the stadium. The director of information for the Transitional National Government(TNG), Abdirahman Dinari, told IRIN, that the organisers had assured the TNG that the demonstration had not been held to express support for Bin Laden but rather as a protest against US policy towards the Muslim world.