27/07/07 (B405) SH.M.NETWORK : (Manifestation contre les forces armées à Mogadiscio) – Somalia: A demonstration against govt. troops happens in Mogadishu (En Anglais – Info lecteur)

Mogadishu 25, July.07 ( Sh.M.Network)- A huge rally organized by the traders in Karan district, north of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, took place in the district on Wednesday. Hundreds of Somali businessmen and women were chanting anti-government troops slogans, marching inside the district for hours.

They have been demanding that the government should release a businessman, who was detained by the troops on Tuesday, shouting that he had nothing to do with politics.
Mohamoud Hassan Kulmiye, one of the rally-makers, told Shabelle that they will continue staging demonstrations against the government until Aweys Mohammed Gaal, a shopkeeper, who was apprehended by Somali troops yesterday is released.

He also pointed out that they were asking the Somali interim government to punish the troops who raid and rob the market in the district.

Mohammed Gaal, the brother of the detainee, said the government should release his brother immediately. « My brother is innocent and he has been selling his shop for ever and he has never even talked about something relating to politics, » he said.

Contacts made by Shabelle with the Karan district commissioner went impossible.

Somalia transitional government was faced with great hurdles from the remnants of the defeated Union of Islamic Courts since the Ethiopian led military offensive defeated the Islamists and enabled the Western backed government to move into the capital late last year.

The government accuses the Islamist fighters of being responsible for daily bombings against the Ethiopian and Somali troops based in the volatile city.