Somalia’s Transitional Government Shuts 3 Radio Stations

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/world/africa/16somalia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=world&pagewanted=print

January 16, 2007

Somalia’s Transitional Government Shuts 3 Radio Stations

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

MOGADISHU, Somalia, Jan. 15 — Somalia’s transitional government shut three of the country’s biggest radio stations on Monday, accusing them of broadcasting incendiary propaganda.

Then, in a show of force, hundreds of government soldiers stormed into the streets of Mogadishu, the capital, as tanks from neighboring Ethiopia, which has been providing military support to the government, chugged through downtown, drawing crowds of onlookers and the occasional rock.

Somalia’s government, which declared a state of emergency on Saturday, seems intent on using its newfound powers to crush the seeds of a growing insurgency. On Sunday night, gunmen attacked an Ethiopian convoy, setting off an intense hourlong firefight in one of Mogadishu’s ramshackle neighborhoods.

Ethiopian troops last month helped rout Somalia’s Islamist forces, which had controlled much of the country, but the Islamists have vowed to regroup underground.

As the days pass, the insurgent attacks grow more frequent and more lethal. The government has not released casualty figures, but Mogadishu residents said more than a dozen people had been killed in gun battles over the past week.

Executives of the radio stations, however, said that was no excuse to force them off the air.

“All we have done is voice different opinions,” said Mohammed Amiin, deputy chairman of Shabelle Media Network. “We never expected this to happen.”

Abdirahman Dinari, spokesman for the transitional government, accused Shabelle, along with the other stations, of making false reports to stir up the people against the government.

“They said our soldiers were looting the markets and harassing people, which was totally untrue,” he said. “They are using the media to undermine the government. They have been doing this for months.”

Security officials have summoned station owners to a meeting on Tuesday, and Mr. Dinari said there was a possibility that the stations would soon be back on the air, after they were given a warning.

In a land of rival clans, there is a clan dimension to all this. The owners of both Shabelle and Horn Afrik, another station that was closed down, are members of the Ayr, a branch of the powerful Hawiye clan, and many government officials blame the Ayr for the rising level of violence.

“The Ayr clan is part of the problem,” Mr. Dinari said.

The Ayr was closely associated with the Islamist movement, supplying it with many top leaders. Many residents say they suspect that Ayr members are the backbone of the insurgency, though Ayr elders vehemently deny that.

So far, the most intense fighting — and the most intense crackdowns — has been in Ayr neighborhoods, and it is beginning to fuel resentment.

“We are being harassed simply because of our clan,” said Abdi Ali Halaneh, an Ayr businessman who sells building materials in north Mogadishu.

Mr. Halaneh said many of his friends wanted to leave Somalia.

“There may be no place for us here,” he said.

The government also closed the Mogadishu office of Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite network, and a Somali religious radio station, which some people feared could play into the hands of the Islamists.

In the Bakara market, where even the tiniest tin kiosk has a radio, shoppers and shopkeepers moaned and hissed when the music and news turned to static. Many shook their radios.

Some derided the government and accused it of being hypocritical because, just a few months ago, officials had criticized the Islamists for not allowing radio stations to play Western music. Now the government was going further by closing the same stations.

“Totalitarian rule has arrived,” said Asho Elmi Ahmed, a shopper. “And it didn’t take long.”

Mohammed Ibrahim and Yuusuf Maxamuud contributed reporting.
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