Word: somali
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...know three guys in Mog who got written proposals of marriage from Somali women...
...Administration officials say they are encouraging disarmament, but not imposing it. But if a political decision were made to collect all the weapons, it would be fairly easy to accomplish. The Somali clans do not have trained soldiers, like the Serb militias in Bosnia. Most of those toting guns here are youths, some not so big as the rifles they carry. They are not fighting for any cause, not for communism or Islam, not for freedom or democracy. They appear mainly interested in spoils. When the Marines landed, they fled, and it is unlikely that they would fight...
Nonetheless, a campaign to disarm Somalis could create hostility. "If we were obliged to go on a house-to-house search -- which we wouldn't do anyway," said Oakley, "the Somalis would see it as rank colonialism." Still some Somali leaders discount a major backlash because, they say, the people are sick and tired of the violence...
Only an "outside authority" can disarm Somalia, says 56-year-old Ahmed Jama, a former Somali national police chief. "We are unable -- or unwilling -- to disarm ourselves. The best authority, which has the goodwill of the Somali people, is the American soldiers." He thinks it would take four to six months for "total disarmament." If the U.S. proves unwilling to undertake this part of its mission, then the result will be like the end of the Gulf War -- a job half done...
Under the blazing morning sun a hodgepodge of military vehicles falls into sloppy formation on the dunes near the Mogadishu airport. Somali children sneak through shell holes in a wall to beg for food and baksheesh. Marines shoot souvenir snapshots of each other as the convoy slowly takes shape...