April 11, 2002	Thursday	Muharram 27, 1423

MOGADISHU: His blood slowly staining a pillow red, Somali merchant Ali Moumin explains how a business dispute landed him in hospital with a bullet wound in the head.

A rival merchant settled matters by shooting Moumin in the back of the skull with an AK-47 rifle at near point blank range.

The attack taught the newcomer to Mogadishu a lesson he says he will not forget — to stay in business, respect clan turf.

“In future I must obey the man who attacked me because I am from the countryside, and he’s from here,” he said.

Clans and their many rifles, truck-mounted machineguns and rocket launchers still rule the capital’s rubble-strewn streets and much of Somalia despite efforts to end a decade of chaos. Disarmament of militias and society in general is a key goal of peace talks expected to be held in coming months to create a truly national government for the first time since 1991.

But instead of getting rid of their guns, the capital’s increasingly worried inhabitants admit they are buying more.

An increase in gun prices signals rising demand for weaponry in a climate of uncertainty ahead of the talks. The price of a second hand, top of the range Russian-made AK47 rifle stands at about 200 dollars, compared to up to 150 dollars six months ago.

TROUBLE AHEAD: “The price shows people are anticipating trouble,” says doctor Sheikh Salad Elmi, who sees five fresh gunshot cases a day at south Mogadishu’s main hospital.

The gun market has strengthened, some observers say, despite fresh supplies of weapons from Ethiopia to Somali militia allies in the capital. Ethiopia denies it provides any such weapons.

Young militiamen are encouraged by an interim government created with Arab backing in 2000 to disarm and join police struggling to remove gunmen from the garbage-clogged streets.

But the effort is dogged by volatile ties within Somalia’s labyrinth of clans and sub-clans, who control their own districts or business sectors in the capital and remain the traditional arbiters of most aspects of life in the nation of seven million.

“This is the only country on earth with no government, people are heavily armed, no one trusts anyone else, and there is no clear agenda for peace talks,” says Abdulkadir Yahya Ali of the Center for Research and Dialogue think tank. —Reuters