Oct 24, 2000 - 08:47 PM

Capital's Traffic Comes to Halt as Fuel Prices Rocket By Osman Hassan Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Mogadishu's streets, usually packed with beat-up cars, taxis and minibuses, came to a standstill Tuesday after the cost of gasoline more than doubled in three days. Unable to afford fuel, streams of pedestrians walked in vain through the Somali capital trying to find a lift.

"If it continues at this rate, I will have to become a porter in the market to earn the bread for the family," said Ali Alasow Mohamed, a taxi driver with seven children.

Since Saturday, the price of a quart of gasoline has risen from 5000 or 6000 Somali shillings to 12,000 shillings - about $1.20 - because of high global oil prices, the weakening shilling and the failure of expected fuel shipments to reach Mogadishu, said Ali Ahmed Aden, a fuel wholesaler in the capital. Adding to the problem is the monopoly a few oil importers enjoy here after other companies went bankrupt, said Dahir Farah Ali, a fuel retailer.

Like other commercial sectors in this Horn of Africa nation, the fuel and transport markets have been unregulated since 1991, when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted and the country was plunged into chaos. There has been no central government in the country of 7 million since then.

Because of the lack of central government, there is no treasury to print or regulate Somalia's currency, so bank notes based on the pre-1991 model are printed in Indonesia and Canada and brought in by Somali currency dealers. The shilling has depreciated from 9,800 per dollar to 11,000 during the past week because of speculation that a batch of freshly printed bank notes is expected to arrive in Mogadishu soon.

In August, a president and a 245-member assembly - which are supposed to lead the country through a three-year transitional period - were elected in neighboring Djibouti following a peace conference that began in May.

President Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galaydh and most of the legislators returned to Mogadishu last week. But before they can genuinely tackle economic or infrastructure problems, they face the monumental task of setting up security forces and disarming thousands of gunmen throughout the country.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA2G1MAQEC.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), October 25, 2000