Islamists bring rare peace, new worry to Mogadishu

MOGADISHU, June 18 (Reuters) Somali gunman Nur Faryama has wielded an AK-47 for two decades -- since he was eight in fact.

Like thousands of others in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation, Faryama has spent his whole youth charging in and out of battles and riding on the back of ''technicals'' -- pickups made into war machines -- with bullet belts draped round him.

Finally, however, thanks to the rise to power of the Islamic Courts for whom he fought in recent months, the 27-year-old hopes he may be able to put down his gun and go to school.

''For 16 years, when the warlords ruled, there was no economy, no education, no nothing,'' he said. ''Now we have stability, we can start our lives. I would like to go to school. I don't want to be a gunman for ever.'' Islamic militia linked to the courts ousted US-backed warlords from Mogadishu earlier this month after battles that killed some 350 people. That has left them in control of an important swathe of Somalia, which has had no central government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Somalis interviewed by Reuters in Mogadishu -- and Jowhar and Balad to the north, which the Islamic militia also captured last week -- almost unanimously expressed happiness at the new-found stability on their streets since the power shift.

Transport was moving more freely, business was flourishing, roadblocks had come down, and guns were less visible on the streets, they said.

Enthusiasm on the street was tempered by fears the peace may be short-lived if the Islamists' newly-won power is challenged, or that the courts could impose hardline religion on the generally moderate Muslim population.

Women have been covering themselves more often in Mogadishu, and the popular, and mildly narcotic, qat leaf chewed by many Somalis is frowned on by the courts.

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