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     | Sunday, November 12, 2000 - 12:36 pm MOGADISHU, Somalia (November 11, 2000 2:48 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - They came by the thousands to the main soccer stadium Saturday, some in their old uniforms complete with medals and service stripes, many shedding tears of joy on seeing former comrades. An estimated 11,000 former Somali soldiers who served during the 21-year rule of Mohamed Siad Barre came to re-enlist in the new army being formed by Somalia's first government in a decade. The gathering was short-lived because the former soldiers were told to return home and fetch documents to prove what rank they held in the old army. But the man who issued the enlistment call six days ago, Defense Minister Abdullahi Boqor Muse, called the meeting historic nonetheless: The creation of an army is considered key to reuniting this fractured country. "You are now making the difference," Muse told the men. "You are the government. You understand weapons and the consequence of their misuse." Most of the soldiers belonged to the old army that fell apart when a coalition of rebels forced Siad Barre to flee to neighboring Kenya in January 1991. Since his ouster, Somalia has had no functioning central government. The rebel coalition soon broke up, and the country of 7 million in the Horn of Africa remains divided into fiefdoms defended by clan-based militias. In August, a national reconciliation conference in neighboring Djibouti elected President Abdiqasim Salad Hassan and a 245-member national assembly to rule the country. They now face the daunting task of establishing order by disarming thousands of militiamen, some loyal to faction leaders and others no more than bandits. The northern regions of Somaliland and Puntland, in what was British Somaliland until 1960, refuse to recognize the authority of the new government. Several clan-based factions in Mogadishu and in central Somalia also oppose Hassan's administration. Top officials in the new government attended Saturday's gathering. Muse said Hassan's government recognizes the importance of the former soldiers. He told the would-be soldiers that it has "concluded that your reintegration is the restoration of Somalia's nationhood." Muse said 13 previous attempts had been made to reconcile Somalis, but what he described as a few "warmongers and power-hungry individuals" have made reconciliation impossible. "Somalia's enemy wants to divide the country into five powerless emirates, but we are calling our army for the security of our people," he said, a reference to the recent call by faction leaders to split the country into five autonomous regions. "We are not provoking anybody," Muse said. "We know what war is. The army is the backbone of the government, and our morale is high now." The re-enlistment of the former soldiers is key to reuniting Somalis, said Col. Hasshi Hassan Warsame. "This is the only and easiest way we could reunite and retain our prestige among our people," he said. But not all former soldiers want to join the army again. At his business in a market in downtown Mogadishu, Hashi Sabriyeh Isaak said: "I have developed a new profession." "I am now an electrician. And I can never forget how I was punished when I disobeyed my superiors," he said.
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