Islamic courts, militias emerge in Somalia

Acts of violence have been renewed in Somalia at a time when a new side has emerged in the conflict, namely the Islamic courts militias.

Members of these militias who introduce themselves as "soldiers of peace" and armed in full, parade the main streets of several Somali cities in four-engined cars on which they mount heavy machine-guns.

Meanwhile, several Somali warlords have decided to apply the Islamic Sharia (Islamic rules) and establish Islamic courts to fight crime. But such courts have become stronger and able to interfere last Tuesday in battles that took place in Beletwin city in the center of Somalia to stop four days of fighting in which 18 persons were killed.

So far the international community has proposed 12 peace initiatives which have failed, and Makadishu has become empty of foreign working staff recruited in UN humanitarian organizations since last April when representatives of the International Red Cross committee were kidnapped. Few foreigners are still there.