Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Aweys Osman Yusuf
27 November 2006
Mogadishu — Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts administrators in Bulo Burde district in Hiran province, central Somalia, have imposed curfew on the town following protests staged against Islamists who closed down cinemas in which young people watched films and sports.
According to Sheik Hussein Barre Rage, the Islamic Courts district commissioner in Bulo Burde, the curfew started at 10:00 pm local time after protesters embarked on burning tires and destroying shops.
The Union of Islamic Courts has banned the narcotic leaf, Khad, and closed down cinemas in all areas in the country they administer, alleging it would officially introduce an Islamic law into the country.
The news comes as Somalia's Islamist forces have been massed somewhere near the Ethiopian border where Ethiopian military dug trenches, triggering fear of war in central Somalia.
The Courts administrating representatives in Abudwaq in Galgadud province, have urged residents to return to their homes after they fled from Abudwaq, a town near the Ethiopian border, to safe areas within Galgadud province.
Somalia has had no government since 1991 when tribal warlords toppled former president Siad Barre.
Abdihafid, an Islamist officer in Abudwaq, said some anti-Islamist members sneaking into the town have incited residents to flee after they had spread false information that Ethiopian troops are attacking the town, adding: "We will track down those people and capture them".
He urged people in the town to come back and line behind the Islamic Courts in the fight with Ethiopian troops.
Islamists declared a jihad war against Ethiopia early this month, demanding that all Ethiopian troops should leave the country.
Ironically, Ethiopian premier Meles Zenawi told the Ethiopian parliament that his country has completed preparation for war with Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts based in central and southernmost of the country' including the capital Mogadishu.
As both Islamist fighters and Ethiopian forces are the verge of war, experts say the war would undoubtedly be regional and Somalia would become a proxy battleground for long time rival enemies, Ethiopia and Eritrea that are accused of meddling Somalia's internal affairs.
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