Islamic Courts Defies Disarmament

Government troops patrol the streets in Mogadishu.

"Somalis will not relinquish their arms voluntarily. Some clans will fight back because trust does not yet exist between clans," SICC spokesman Abdirahim Ali Mudey, speaking from a hideout, told Reuters by telephone.

He poured scorn on the government's disarmament drive, saying it had no popular legitimacy and would be unable to unite Somalia's clan-based society.

Somalia's government set up gun collection points in Mogadishu on Tuesday at the start of a drive to disarm locals supporting the courts.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has told Mogadishu residents to hand over their weapons by Thursday, January 4, or be forcibly disarmed by his troops who, backed by Ethiopian forces, drove the courts fighters from cities they had controlled since June after defeating a US-supported alliance of warlords.

Gedi has also offered an amnesty to courts fighters, who briefly pacified the country, one of the most gun-infested cities in the world and has been in chaos since 1991, when president Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown.

After fleeing their last stronghold in the southern port of Kismayu in the face of an Ethiopian bombardment, courts fighters and leaders have moved further south.

The courts have conceded defeat, but vowed to carry on with guerrilla war against the Somali troops and their Ethiopian backers.

AU Troops

The Somali government further said Tuesday it was now in control of all courts-held territories in south and central Somalia after nearly two weeks of fighting in the lawless African nation.

"The government has gained control of southern and central Somalia. We will ensure that we restore law and order in that part of the country," information minister Ali Jama told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Gedi appealed for the deployment of African Union peacekeepers to the country as his weak government tries to cement its authority across the lawless nation battered by 15 years of internecine violence.

Meanwhile, Nairobi said it is trying to seal its border to prevent courts fighters from having a hideout on its soil and has already blocked the flow of Somali refugees into camps in the north and

"We are telling them to return and help build their country. We are not allowing an influx of refugees," Antony Kibuchi, police boss for North Eastern Province, told Reuters.

Kenyan police said they were interrogating eight suspects who had crossed the border, but denied media reports that they were SICC fighters.

Despite the Kenyan measures, it would not be hard for courts fighters to slip over the border, given the length of the frontier, the desolate nature of the terrain, and the fact that ethnic Somalis live on the Kenyan side, analysts say.

Warships from the Djibouti-based US counterterrorism Joint Task Force were also said to be patrolling the sea off Somalia to stop SICC leaders or foreign supporters escaping.

Despite the courts' surprisingly quick flight, analysts and diplomats say the conflict may be far from over.

The courts may launch an Iraqi-style insurgency against a government they see as illegitimate and propped up by a foreign power.