Somalia's PM Hopes to Unit Clan Leaders

Somali Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, white shirt centre left, dance in Afgoye, Somalia, Friday, Dec 29, 2006. The prime minister promised thousands of cheering Somalis peace and stability after he drove through battle-scarred Mogadishu in an armed convoy, a day after an Islamic movement's fighters abandoned the capital ahead of his Ethiopian-backed troops "Today is the beginning of a new life, new stabilization and a new future for Somalia," Ali Mohamed Gedi said. (AP Photo) (Stringer - AP)

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Divisions over clan, politics and power have been the bane of Somalia. Whether the next chapter is one of unity and peace is the test for Somali leaders and their international backers as they try for the 14th time to form an effective government since the last one collapsed in 1991.

Since then, Somalia has become the archetype of the failed state, beset by anarchy, famine and a steady influx of weapons from abroad. And nowhere in the country has the competition for power and privilege brought more destruction than the pockmarked streets of Mogadishu.

There are dozens of clan factions in the capital, each making demands on the government and each a potential spoiler, capable of extreme violence if ignored. Alliances can also shift dramatically in just a few city blocks, depending on which clan controls the street.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said Friday that he would try to unite the city's disparate clan leaders. "In the coming days I will visit every corner of the city," he said.

But he acknowledged that he will need the support of Ethiopian troops for some time to come.

"They will stay until we agree to send them back to their country and this depends on the stability of Somalia," Gedi added.

Ethiopia will not be the first foreign power to try to install a government in Somalia since clan warlords drove out dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into chaos and sparking a famine that left 500,000 people dead.

A U.N. peacekeeping force including American troops then arrived in 1992 and tried to arrest warlords and create a government. That experiment in nation building ended in October 1993, when fighters loyal to clan leader Mohamed Farah Aided shot down a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and battled American troops, leaving 18 servicemen dead.

Aided's son, Hussein, is now the government's national security minister in a Cabinet where positions are assigned according to clan. Despite efforts to create a government where every clan had an equal voice, some warlords prevented the internationally recognized administration from taking power because they refused to settle for anything less than the presidency.

Even now, the speaker of the transitional parliament, Sheik Sharif Hassan Aden, is throwing his support behind the Islamic movement, which has vowed to wage a last stand from southern Somalia.

"The presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia is illegal, it is against the charter of the transitional government," he told the British Broadcasting Corporation's Somali service. "Somalis should resist against Ethiopian troops."

It's an evocative rallying cry. Predominantly Muslim Somalia and Ethiopia, with its large Christian population, fought a bloody war in 1977.