A warlord is a leech that sucks the blood of his people.  His riches comes from illegal drugs, robbing people of their own freedom, subjugating them to be subservient and take their inherent rights to live freely and out of harm's way, tax them mercilessly without providing services to better their lives.  His happiness comes from when his militia and his armament kill innocent mothers and their children.  His illegal drugs are whisked to far away countries illegally from his ill-gotten air-strips where in turn it will bring back hard currency and more armament to eradicate innocent citizens.

International Communities and Somalis alike were shocked when they heard reports coming from Mogadishu warlords (unfortunately, last standing warlords in Somalia are based in Mogadishu) that any airplane that didn't use their airfields will be shot down from the sky using their anti-aircraft and as they put it "our anti-aircraft will not be silent".  

They have reacted this way when the Government issued a ban on Airplanes coming into Somalia not to land the Dayniile airstrip on the outskirts of Mogadishu and El-Ahmed in Merka about 100KM to the South of Mogadishu.

Djibouti , Ethiopia, Kenya, U.A.E and Yemen were requested to enforce these measures and were forthcoming to enforce such request from the Somali Government.  Most of the flights to Dayniile and El-Ahmed airstrips originates from these countries and were happy to help the Government to fulfill their mandate to pacify their nation.  The enforcement period starts on November 1, 2005.

The Government's position on this issue is that they have the right to collect taxes in order to bring back law and order and stability back in to the Country and to stop the warlords continue profiting from their illegal activities.  

Everybody is saying it is about time the Government of Somalia to take active role in securing and start initiating development programs such as among others health, education, and sustainable development.  This constructive criticism toward the government is well received in a sense that it encourages the government to expedite the process of pacification and nation building.  

However, people should realize the problem the Government is facing.  The Government continued its dialogue and reconciliation even after the election on October, 2005.  The International Community instead of stretching a helping hand to the Government as whole has been misled. 

The propaganda machine the warlords and their co-conspirators use were legend in Somali circles.  They use International Broadcasting Services such as the BBC Somali Service, FM radios, TVs, and the Internet.  These mediums they use are partially owned or employed or influence by sympathizers of the warlords.  The funding comes from International NGO's. They usually send chain-letters using fraudulent e-mail addresses to send misleading information to the International Community and sometimes the Somali listeners.

This is the dilemma of the government.  It is high time for the International Community to stand up and start to work with this elected Government to fulfill its mandate and to make up their mind to fully support this Government.  There are no divisions within the Government and it should not be pressured to keep such people "warlords" and enemy of the nation in the Government.

The first week of November, 2005 IGAD Ministerial meeting will be held in Jowhar, Somalia.  We hope for the success of this meeting and the outcome to be enforced and empowered by International Community. 

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