AP News, November 13th, 2007
The Somali government has shut down three independent radio stations in two days, journalists said Tuesday, as troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers continued to battle Islamic insurgents in the shrapnel-strewn streets of the capital.
Radio Simba and Radio Banadir went off the air Tuesday morning, a day after Shabelle Media Network was ordered to shut down.
All three stations are based in the capital, Mogadishu, where Ethiopian forces have been cracking down since several Ethiopian troops were killed, mutilated and dragged through the streets last week.
Mogadishu has been wracked by violence for months since government forces — backed by Ethiopian troops — pushed out an Islamic alliance that seized the capital and the country's south last year.
Islamists have vowed to wage an Iraq-style insurgency. Scores of civilians have been caught in the crossfire between the soldiers and the insurgents, with thousands killed and wounded. Machine-gun fire could be heard in southern Mogadishu on Tuesday.
Hundreds have fled the capital in recent days; humanitarian agencies say more than half of Mogadishu's residents have left. Doctors say they are running low on supplies, with clinics overwhelmed by the wounded.
A U.N. official described the situation in Somalia as the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa now, and urged local rights groups to raise the issue with the International Criminal Court.
"I think the time has come to see what the international justice (system) can do to help Somalia, like they have done in eastern Congo, in Liberia and in Uganda," said Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the U.N. special representative for Somalia.
On Tuesday, Ali Muhumad Adan, deputy director of Banadir Radio, and Mohamed Shiil of Radio Simba said security officers ordered them to stop broadcasting, giving no reason. Jafar Kukay, acting director of Shabelle, said he and another executive were briefly detained Monday when dozens of soldiers shut down the network.
"A top government official who spoke to us told us that the radio is closed until an unspecified time," Kukay said. "We have seen this many times and always expected this to happen because there are many who are not happy with independent radio."
Government security officials were not immediately available for comment. They previously have accused independent media of making false reports to stir up opposition to the transitional government. Only two news stations in the capital remain on air.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned their heavily armed supporters on each other. The arid Horn of Africa nation is flooded with weapons and divided between warring clans.
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Associated Press writer Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu and Malkhadir M. Muhumed in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.
