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ACRONYMS:
SACB - Somalia Aid Coordination Body SAMO - Somali African Muki Organisation SDA - Somali Democratic Alliance SDM - Somali Democratic Movement SLA - Somali Liberation Army SNA - Somali National Alliance SNDU - Somali National Democratic Union SNF - Somali National Front SNM - Somali National Movement SNU - Somali National Union SORRA - Somali Relief and Rehabilitation Agency SPM - Somali Patriotic Movement SSA - Somali Salvation Alliance SSDF - Somali Salvation Democratic Front SSNM - Southern Somali National Movement USC - United Somali Congress USF - United Somali Front USP - United Somali Party
THE UN GETS OUT OF SOMALIA
(Economist via RBB 4 Mar 95)
Skittering through the dust from retreating United Nations tanks came
the looters, grabbing any rubbish they could lay their hands on,
abandoned army cots, mattresses, planks of wood and - an item likely
to prove valuable in the months to come - razor wire. They had waited
all night to ransack what remained of the UN's base at Mogadishu
airport, but the spoils were meagre and their spree brief. Almost at
once they were driven out by General Muhammad Farrah Aideed's
militiamen in their heavily armed battle-wagons. A deal with the
militia ensured that the evacuation of the last 1,500 Pakistani troops
was a text-book affair. The peacekeepers, the rearguard of a force
that once numbered 30,000, were themselves guarded by 2,000 American
and Italian marines who held a strip of ground about three kilometres
(two miles) long and 100 metres wide. By arrangement with Somalia's
warlords, the marines would not fire on the militia unless they posed
a threat. To secure this deal, say non-military sources, the Americans
paid large sums to various faction leaders...
For a time, it looked as if General Aideed's power was indeed waning. He stayed out of circulation, adopting the security measures that kept him safe when the best of America's high-tech and intelligence services were hunting him for his alleged part in killing American and Pakistani peacekeepers in 1993...
Things don't look all that good for anyone living in southern Mogadishu. In some ways it is better in the north - so long as you do not fall out with the authorities. Northern Mogadishu, though still under the nominal control of Ali Mahdi Muhammad, has fallen into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists who have imposed sharia law at its most intolerant. Street crime, given the punishments, is almost unknown. But, provided it is done in the privacy of the home, a blind eye is turned to boozing and other non-Islamic pastimes.
Cross to the south of the city, through the shell-shattered centre, and tension mounts immediately. Gunmen lurk at street corners, urchins snatch through car windows at the faces of drivers wearing dark glasses, and after sunset only the criminal or the insane venture abroad.
General Aideed, having reasserted his power by grabbing the airport, is now set for a confrontation with the Islamists in the north; from the areas they control they can stop ships from docking and aircraft from landing. "We must try to achieve reconciliation. There is no point and no future in endless lawlessness," says Borhan Dhalmas, a businessman who was once an Aideed loyalist. But the general is back on top, and the militias, with the UN gone, have no source of income but crime. People may be needing that razor wire.
BOUTROS-GHALI: "THE UN WILL NOT ABANDON SOMALIA"
(Jane's Defence Weekly via RBB 11 Mar 95, Volume 023/010, by Ian Kemp)
The seven-nation Operation `United Shield' task force has dispersed
following the successful evacuation of the last UN peacekeepers from
Somalia...
Since the UN assumed command of the mission from the USA on 4 May 1993, 135 peacekeepers, including 26 US personnel, have been killed.
UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said efforts to bring peace and humanitarian aid to Somalia will continue. "The UN will not abandon Somalia," he said, but warned that distribution of aid would depend on the co-operation of Somali leaders.
Erling Dessau, the UN co-ordinator of humanitarian assistance to Somalia, said that nine UN agencies and 38 private aid groups are planning to provide health care, education and agricultural assistance. Relief groups have withdrawn their international staff until they can assess the security situation following the withdrawal of the peacekeeping force.
CLASHES ERUPT AT SOMALI AIRPORT, AT LEAST FOUR DIE
(Reuter 11 Mar 95, by Aden Ali)
MOGADISHU - Clashes erupted between Somali militiamen inside Mogadishu
airport, witnesses said on Saturday, and local newspapers said at
least four people were killed...
Clan elders intervened to broker a truce and on Saturday Mogadishu residents said the airport area was calm.
The clash underlined the fragility of the agreement between rival clans, reached after the U.N.'s departure, to share control of the airport and sea port.
Both facilities are effectively under the control of the Habre Gedir militia of Mohamed Farah Aideed. Under the accord, members of the Abgal and militias from other clans are supposed to join them.
But even within the Habre Gedir ranks, militia gangs from different sub-clans have already carved up the airfield, which comprises a tarmac runway and a few terminal buildings, into a mosaic of family "turfs".
Members of the U.N.-trained Somali police, the only symbol of national security in a nation without a government, have stood by helplessly because they are unarmed.
In a country devastated by war and without much employment, control of a chunk of the airport, or anything from a stretch of road to a water well, means the largely youthful militiamen can live by extorting money from anyone needing to pass...
Looting has gone on unchecked, often with the militias leading the frenzy to strip the airport of everything the U.N. left, witnesses say.
The world body took away vital equipment such as fire engines and control tower communications. It says these items, plus tug boats from the port, will be returned when the Somalis make peace.
The sea port has functioned well since the U.N. departed. At the weekend, a fuel tanker, two cargo ships and three of the traditional timber dhow cargo vessels that ply between the Gulf and Africa were unloading.
Market prices of food and fuel which rose in anticipation of fighting ahead of the U.N.'s departure have now dropped sharply, a sign of confidence in security at the port, Somalis said...
AYDID AND ALI MAHDI AGREE ON COMMITTEE TO ADMINISTER PORTS AND
AIRPORTS
(SWB 14 Mar 95 [RMV in Somali, 12 Mar 95])
Text of report by pro-Muhammad Farah Aydid radio...
Mr Muhammad Farah Aydid and Mr Ali Muhammad have jointly released a 12-point programme on how to administer the port and airports of Banaadir region [in and around Mogadishu].
In the light of the joint agreement of 20th February 1995 on how to administer the port and airports in Banaadir region, and of the joint agreement on forming an administrative and operational committee for the port and airports of Banaadir region on 5th March 1995, and of the opening of the port [of Mogadishu] on 5th March [as heard] 1995 and also of the dire need for the smooth administration of the ports and airports, the leaders [Aydid and Ali Mahdi] resolved:
1. To form a technical peace committee to mediate between port and airport officials.
2. This committee will be answerable to the joint ports and airports committee.
3. The technical peace committee is solely responsible for ensuring the safety of all workers at the ports and airports, whether Somalis or foreigners, and the smooth business administration and international communications of the ports and airports.
4. The technical peace committee is responsible for checking all matters and factors that may pose a threat to safety, stability and cooperation in all the branches of the security organs entrusted with the security of the ports and airports, with the full authority to use any powers at their disposal to tackle anything that may threaten the safety of the ports and airports.
5. The technical peace committee is required to unite all security organs and put distinctive marks on all the technicals [battle wagons] to be used for the purpose of ensuring the safety and the security of all the ports and airports.
6. Ports and airports are out of bounds to all forces and technicals other than those clearly marked and being used by the technical peace committee.
7. The technical peace committee will decide on the number of security personnel to be deployed at the ports and airports, and the logistics of the security personnel will be the responsibility of the joint ports and airports committee.
8. The police force will be deployed inside the ports and airports while the other security organs will be responsible for the safety and security of the outer perimeter of the ports and airports and all roads where merchandise to and from the ports and airports pass.
9. The technical peace committee will have to take full responsibility for the safety of all goods, food and medicine brought into the country by the international humanitarian organizations. The committee must facilitate the easy access of humanitarian personnel to the ports and airports in order for them to serve the general public of Somalia, so long as they [the aid officials] do not run counter to the interests and laws of the country.
10. All foreigners entering or leaving the country must be cleared by the immigration authorities.
11. Anyone who commits crimes against the security of the state and is apprehended will be handed over to the judicial authorities of the country and justice will be administered by the joint judicial authorities.
12. The joint ports and airports committee will specify to all concerned, by way of circulars and publications, any offence which may not currently be very clear to all users of ports and the airports of Banaadir region.
BETTER OFF WITHOUT U.N. TROOPS
(Reuter 24 Mar 95, by Aidan Hartley)
NAIROBI - The European Union's special envoy to Somalia said on Friday
the situation in Mogadishu had improved dramatically since United
Nations forces evacuated at the end of their failed mission early this
month.
"It was the best thing that UNOSOM (the U.N. Operation in Somalia) did in the last year - get out," special envoy Sigurd Illing told Reuters in Nairobi.
"There's been more progress in the last three weeks than in the last four years. There's no doubt about that," he said.
Thousands of foreign troops patrolled Somalia for the last two years while the U.N.'s diplomatic officials tried to broker peace between the warlords at a series of conferences...
"They (the Somalis) had resources lavished on them by UNOSOM which kept the strife going and as you know much of it went into their pockets. UNOSOM became part of the problem," Illing said.
Illing visited the Somali capital this week and met a wide range of Somalis, from faction leaders Mohamed Farah Aideed and his rival Ali Mahdi Mohamed to clan elders and businessmen.
The envoy, who is chairman of the Somalia Aid Coordination Body (SACB) - an umbrella for relief agencies - said he was impressed that the Somalis had agreed to share control of the air and sea port...
The Somalis have appealed for UNOSOM to return equipment that it took away but which is vital for the running of the facilities, such as tug boats, control tower communications and fire engines.
The U.N. said it would hand the material over when the Somalis agreed to establish their first government since the state collapsed into anarchy four years ago - but at the end of this month, UNOSOM's mandate expires and it will be disbanded.
Illing said he would recommend a return of the equipment once a regional administration was set up in the Benadir region, which includes Mogadishu and the hinterland.
The Somalis also told him they wanted aid to pay for public services such as the police force, a U.N.-trained body that was left without wages when the U.N. left.
The police have helped militias take control of the port and airport and keep looters out.
Illing added that relief agencies needed to have a Somali authority to deal with rather than rely on contacts with militia leaders or tribal elders...
KEY FIGURES ARGUE SOMALIA'S LESSONS
(Los Angeles Times via RBB 17 Mar 95, by Stanley Meisler)
Now that the United Nations has dismantled its troubled and lamented
mission to Somalia, the key players are producing the first
post-mortems.
In two of the most important, a pair of Americans disagree about what went wrong but agree that the United Nations must not abandon peacekeeping.
The Americans are Ambassador Robert B. Oakley, who served as the special envoy of Presidents George Bush and Clinton on two separate assignments to Somalia, and retired Rear Adm. Jonathan Howe, who served as the chief U.N. official in Somalia during some of its most controversial moments.
Oakley believes that the political inexperience of Howe and his staff led to the futile manhunt for warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid that ended in October, 1993, with the death of 18 American troops.
This is denied by Howe, who insists that the United Nations had to make Aidid accountable for his misdeeds. The deaths of the U.S. troops prompted Clinton to announce the eventual withdrawal of U.S. peacekeepers, a decision that crippled the mission and led to its demise earlier this month.
Oakley's views are set down in a book, "Somalia and Restore Hope," written with his deputy, John L. Hirsch, and scheduled for publication later this month. The publisher, the U.S. Institute of Peace, has made advance copies available.
The Washington Quarterly will publish Howe's assessment of the Somalia mission in its May issue. Howe discussed his views in a telephone interview with The Times.
To illustrate what they regard as the United Nations' lack of understanding of Somali politics and culture, Oakley and Hirsch say that soon after the United Nations took over from the American-led operation in May, 1993, Aidid and his followers concluded that the United Nations was biased against them. Aidid, according to Oakley and Hirsch, "believed that Howe had deliberately attempted to embarrass him and harm his political prospects by renouncing (U.N.) support for a Mogadishu peace conference that Aidid had convened in mid-May."
But Howe, defending his role in the U.N. withdrawal of support for Aidid's conference, said he did so only because Aidid "kept reneging on the agreements and changing the rules of the game."
Howe said the United Nations was trying to help Aidid and his opponents find some "common ground" in preparation for the conference.
Howe said the United Nations had started out trying not to play favorites in Somalia.
But, when Aidid's followers ambushed and killed 25 Pakistani peacekeepers, Howe said, "something had changed - Aidid had changed sides against us." The United Nations then mounted the manhunt for Aidid because "there needed to be accountability," Howe said.
Oakley and Hirsch criticize the Clinton Administration for failing to explain to Congress and the public that the peacekeepers in Somalia, unlike most peacekeepers, had the authority to use military power to enforce the peace.
"Thus it is unsurprising that the Oct. 3 events (when the U.S. troops were killed) generated an immediate political explosion, obliging Clinton to change Somalia policy rapidly and precipitating a general loss of support for peacekeeping," they say.
Oakley and Hirsch make a plea for backing up peacekeeping with heavy force...
Oakley and Hirsch urge the U.S. government not to abandon an active role in peacekeeping...
U.N. FUNDS HELPED MILITIAS' WAR MACHINE
(Reuter 24 Feb 95, by Aidan Hartley)
MOGADISHU - The United Nations special envoy in Somalia said on Friday
that money paid out by the world body had ultimately helped fund the
war machines of rival clan militias.
Victor Gbeho, the last of five special envoys in the U.N. Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) which is about to evacuate the anarchic Horn of Africa country, said militias had been taxing salaries of 2,500 Somalis employed by the mission for months.
"You can be sure that did not go towards building schools or hospitals," he told reporters in Mogadishu.
"You may say that indirectly, we contributed to the fighting."
UNOSOM has poured enormous sums into Somalia's economy since it first arrived in 1992. Estimates of the mission's cost run well over $3 billion dollars - and Gbeho said one of the reasons why it was being closed was financial.
In the view of most Somalis, the south Mogadishu clan militia of Mohamed Farah Aideed profited from the presence of the United Nations more than most, despite being at war with it at one stage.
"Nobody can deny that Aideed controlled this area (of south Mogadishu) for the last two years with the funds of UNOSOM," said one Somali critic of Aideed...
Most relief agencies based themselves in his territory in the south of the city...
When a larger UNOSOM "II" mission backed by 30,000 troops from 28 nations took over from U.S. command in May 1993, it made the old U.S. embassy in south Mogadishu its headquarters.
Somalis from the city's south won lucrative contracts running everything from the U.N.'s sewage to building the UNOSOM $160 million headquarters...
And despite several conferences of clan factions which UNOSOM paid millions of dollars directly to the Somalis to persuade them to attend, the mission is leaving without having brokered any kind of peace...
HEAVY CLASHES IN SOMALI CAPITAL DESPITE PEACE EFFORTS
(Reuter 20 Mar 95, by Aden Ali)
MOGADISHU - Rival Somali militias battled fiercely in Mogadishu on
Monday despite efforts to avert a descent into all-out clan war
following the departure of foreign troops.
Witnesses said militias from the Abgal and Murusade clans pounded each other's positions in the city centre with mortars and heavy machine-guns for several hours during the day, but that the fighting subsided towards dusk.
Casualties from the fighting, in the district of Bermuda - named after the Bermuda Triangle because militias boast that those who enter are lost forever - were not known.
Witnesses described the fighting as the worst in Bermuda for months. The two clans have been fighting on and off, quarrelling over anything from political alliances to whether Islamic sharia law should be imposed.
The clashes have not so far spread to other parts of the city, or drawn in other clans which would crank up hostilities to a more lethal, city-wide level.
Mogadishu has been relatively peaceful since the last foreign troops pulled out on March 2...
WARLORDS CONTINUE POSTURING
(Reuter 26 Mar 95)
MOGADISHU - Hopes of reconciling the main Somali warlords fell on
Sunday when Ali Mahdi Mohamed, head of the Somali Salvation Alliance
(SSA), accused rival Mohamed Farah Aideed of the Somali National
Alliance (SNA) of sabotaging the peace process.
Addressing a news conference at his residence in north Mogadishu, Ali Mahdi said: "I'm not going to meet with General Aideed until he accepts and endorses a widely represented national reconciliation conference."
Ali Mahdi said a conference called in south Mogadishu by Aideed was "not serious".
Aideed's supporters, however, say their conference will soon open the way for the establishment of a national government following the departure earlier this month of an ill-fated U.N. peace mission.
The SNA-sponsored negotiations, which have been going on for weeks, are at present adjourned to allow participants to consult their respective factions - which do not include Ali Mahdi's SSA.
On Sunday, Ali Mahdi called on all Somalis, including Aideed, to attend a national reconciliation conference, but gave no indication of when it would take place.
BANANA BATTLE OPENS NEW SOMALI FRONT
(AA 10 Mar 95, p.10)
MOGADISHU--Somalia's banana exporters have added a new dimension to
the country's already complex civil war: supported by their own
private armies, rival fruit companies Somalifruit and Sombana are
wrestling for control of the 200,000 boxes of bananas shipped monthly
to Europe.
Already nine people have been killed, including an Italian journalist hired by one European buyer to monitor the activities of local rivals here. Plantations at Shalambot, 60 miles south of Mogadishu, are now patrolled by militiamen wielding AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenade-launchers.
At stake is the traditional banana trade with Italy. The current EU restrictions on imports from South America have obliged buyers such as Dole and De Nadal to continue importing from Somalia in order to maintain supplies and protect their shares of the Italian market.
Commercial banana plantations were first developed by the Italians during the colonial era. In the Juba valley in southern Somalia. With the nationalisation of all foreign assets after independence, monopoly control of the trade was taken over by Somalfruit, a joint venture between Italian interests, the Somali state and local growers. Until recently this group had the exclusive right to handle ex-ports to Italy, where its fruit was marketed under the Somalita brand by the family business headed by Bianca de Nadai, who has been careful to maintain contacts with the various clan leaders here.
But in recent years, the dominance of Somalfruit and De Nadai has been challenged by a newcomer, Sombana, which was chosen as a supplier by Dole Fresh Fruit, one of the EU's major importers.
Sombana is supported by clans that are loyal to the warlord General Mohamed Farah Aidid, who controls the roads on the southern side of Mogadishu that give access to the city's port.
The situation has now been further complicated by the withdrawal of the United Nations troops who were controlling the docks at Mogadishu, through which most shipments were exported. This will further strengthen the hand of Aidid in any negotiations with banana traders. Dole and De Nadai could try to get shipments out through the southern port of Kismayu--but neither firm seems willing to strike a new deal with the southern clan leaders who control the surrounding countryside...
RIVAL MILITIA BATTLES FLARE IN SOUTH
(Reuter 5 Apr 95, by Aden Ali)
MOGADISHU - ...At least seven people were killed and dozens were
wounded in a battle between militias in the southern town of Gilib on
Wednesday, travellers reaching the capital Mogadishu said on Thursday.
The clash erupted between Habre Gedir militias of warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed and clansmen of the local, weaker Sheekhaal people.
Gilib, some 250 km (155 miles) south of Mogadishu, was deserted by its civilian residents while the two militia groups battled on until dusk, travellers said.
Clan elders then intervened to settle the argument, which started when unidentified gunmen murdered a local relief worker...
ITALY SAYS IT WON'T MEDIATE PEACE
(Reuter 21 Feb 95, by Aidan Hartley)
MOGADISHU - Italy's special envoy to Somalia said on Tuesday the
former colonial power would no longer attempt to broker peace in the
anarchic country as the last United Nations troops prepared to
evacuate.
"Italy has made many attempts at reconciliation between the Somali factions...The situation is now at a loss," Giorgio Vecchi told reporters on the Italian aircraft carrier Garibaldi off Mogadishu's Indian Ocean coast.
"The Somalis must make peace themselves."...
SAUDI ARABIA CALLS ON SOMALIS TO END THE BLOODSHED (SWB 3 Mar 95 [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Radio, Riyad, in Arabic 1 Mar 95]) An official source made the following statement to the Saudi news agency SPA:
On this happy day, in which the Muslim nation is rejoicing over the Id [al-Fitr; feast marking the end] of the blessed month of Ramadan and in which Muslims are aspiring to serve the interest of Islam and the Muslims, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia calls on the brothers in Somalia to remember the significance of this special day and urges them to end the bloodshed and start rebuilding the country in the interest of the Somali people. This can be achieved through solidarity and brotherliness and by avoiding the mistakes of the past and putting public interest above personal interest.
ETHIOPIAN DELEGATION TO SOMALIA ON PEACE MISSION
(Reuter 5 Mar 95)
ADDIS ABABA - Leaders of major Somali ethnic clans in Ethiopia left
for Somalia on Sunday in a new initiative to bring peace to the
war-ravaged Horn of Africa country.
Sultan Mohamed Hassan Gabbab, head of the 15-man delegation, told reporters at Addis Ababa airport they would try to meet all clan leaders in Somalia to build reconciliation and peace.
"The republic of Somalia and Ethiopia are close neighbours with shared cultural and ethnic ties...It was only right that we as Ethiopian Somalis try to attempt to bring peace," he added...
Gabbab said his party was carrying a message from Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi to be delivered to all clan leaders.
Ethiopia abandoned an initiative last December to arrange peace talks in the Ethiopian capital between rival warlords self-styled Somali president Ali Mahdi Mohamed and Mohamed Farah Aideed.
Gabbab said the peace mission would first visit Hargeisa, Bossaso [sic] and Borama in self-declared Somaliland in northwest Somalia before going on to the capital, Mogadishu.
An Ethiopian ministry of foreign affairs official with the delegation said the trip was the first phase of a new initiative to end conflict in Somalia and an enlarged delegation including leaders of Somali clans from Djibouti and Kenya might follow...
RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY CONCERNED AT "BLEAK" PROSPECTS FOR PEACE
(SWB 14 Mar 95 [Voice of Russia, Moscow, in English 12 Mar 95])
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Grigoriy Karasin, has
expressed concern that prospects for restoring peace, law and
statehood in Somalia remain bleak. The statement follows the
withdrawal of the last remaining UN peacekeeping troops from that
African country. With the details, here is Vladislav Chernukha.
[Chernukha - recording] ...Meanwhile the Russian Foreign Ministry has called on the warring factions in Somalia to realize that they are wholly responsible for their country's future. It is time they started looking for constructive ways for reconciliation, with an eye to a longer-term political solution. Russia, the ministry spokesman said, was a long-standing friend of the Somali people, and would do all within its power to help it in restoring peace in the country. [End of recording]
That was a commentary by Vladislav Chernukha.
SOMALIS SEE GRASSROOTS INITIATIVES AS KEY TO PEACE
(Reuter 26 Mar 95, by Manoah Esipisu)
MARERE, Somalia - Elders in southern Somalia say only a grassroots
peace campaign will avert a new threat of clan fighting and give the
stability needed to start development in the war-torn Horn of Africa
country.
"The problem with trying to reach a political settlement in Mogadishu (the capital) is that not every interested group is present. Some groups find it difficult to stick to agreements they are not directly party to," Maalim Omar Ali told Reuters at the weekend.
"We should start from the bottom...from villages, sub-clans, regions to clans and then to the country. Otherwise I see no immediate solution to our problems," he said.
Ali is heading exploratory talks in the desolate Marere settlement of Jubba Valley to "create access for everyone in this area to move freely, make possible co-existence among clans, in order to achieve lasting peace and stability".
Marere, until a few years ago a thriving sugar estate built with European and World Bank aid, is now a desolate ruin. Only 70 km (43 miles) from the Indian Ocean port of Kismayu, civilians from any faction can move freely here, but armed militias are barred.
On the banks of the mango tree-lined Jubba river, youths stand guard to ensure that no armed men cross the river.
The residents of Marere are wary of travelling to Kismayu, which is controlled by warlord Mohamed Said Hersi, known as Morgan. Marere is controlled by Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess, once an ally but now a rival of Morgan.
"We are trying to solve that. Talks with Morgan's people are high on the agenda," said Mah'ud Hire, another elder.
The communities of Marere, like those of neighbouring areas, are settling in after trekking back from refugee settlements in Kenya to reclaim the homesteads they abandoned in 1991.
Anarchy that followed the 1991 ouster of former Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre completely emptied the fertile Jubba Valley - except for a few Somalis who had no clan allegiance, elders in the area said...
[ICRC's Boris] Michel said he had received unprecedented cooperation in the Marere region, where Somalis readily repaired and cleaned the airstrip and gave accurate information on politics and security.
"These people have been nice and reasonable. They do not complain, they just seek a peaceful ordered life," he said.
SOMALI WOMEN DEMONSTRATE FOR PEACE IN MOGADISHU
(Reuter 8 Mar 95, by Aden Ali)
MOGADISHU - Hundreds of Somali women demonstrated in the war-ravaged
Somali capital on Wednesday, calling for peace in a nation abandoned
by U.N. troops last week.
In marches to mark U.N. International Women's Day, women in separate rallies in northern and southern Mogadishu hailed peace between rival warlords Mohamed Farah Aideed and Ali Mahdi Mohamed and spoke out against inter-clan conflict in Somalia.
"Somali women want peace, not war," shouted one march leader at a south Mogadishu parade ground while other women staged a rally in front of the gates of the airport, held by police and militiamen...
WOMEN'S WORKSHOP FOR PEACE IN GALCAYO
(Life & Peace Institute Mar 95)
At the beginning of March a workshop was held in Galcayo for Somali
women in Mudug and Nugal regions. Galcayo is an interesting example of
how local clan war has been solved through the efforts of community
leaders and elders, as the three former enemy clans are now living
together peacefully, cooperating on all major issues.
The purpose of the workshop was to provide opportunities for women who are already active in humanitarian work in their home communities, to come together over clan barriers and exchange ideas on how to work together for peace and reconciliation. They all expressed a willingness to reach out across clan divisions in order to form networks for cooperation and support of each other. The workshop discussed issues such as how to organize local NGOs, what constitutes genuine NGOs as compared to private income generating projects, democratic styles of leadership, and how can women take part in the decision-making processes.
The participants were convinced that peace and security must come from the Somalis themselves, and they said they were willing to work towards this end within their own immediate neighbourhood. They also expressed a strong sense of self-reliance as many of them had seen that--against all odds--they had been able to contribute to the rebuilding of their societies, even without the help of the international community.
The workshop was part of the Life & Peace Institute's ongoing work to support local Somali inititatives for peace.
MORGAN WARNS OF FRESH SOMALIA STRIFE
(Reuter 19 Feb 95, by Buchizya Mseteka)
KISMAYU, Somalia - ..."Personal ambitions between the two men will
ignite fresh fighting in Mogadishu after the U.N. pullout," General
Mohamed Said Hersi - better known by his nickname "Morgan" - told
Reuters on Saturday night.
Morgan, surrounded by gun-toting aides, condemned the persistent differences between south Mogadishu warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed and his arch rival, north Mogadishu warlord and self-styled president Ali Mahdi Mohamed...
Morgan said both men now had little or no control over their militiamen, who might want to loot whatever the U.N. would leave behind.
"Even if they had the will to abide by a peace accord, I doubt the control they have over their men," Morgan said, describing Aideed as the bigger problem of the two.
Morgan, who reigns supreme over the fertile southern farmlands surrounding Kismayu, described the U.N. Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) as a "hopeless failure".
"We will be glad to see the back of the U.N. For them Somalia was all about Mogadishu. The peaceful countryside was neglected and never encouraged at all in its efforts to restore stability," Morgan said.
Kismayu is Somalia's second largest port and capital of the country's richest farmlands. A large sugar estate, now in ruins, was built up with international aid, and at one time the European Community planned to finance a massive irrigation and hydro-electric scheme nearby.
Unlike in Mogadishu, where tension and lawlessness rise as the world body steps up its pullout, residents of Kismayu are back cultivating their fields.
Morgan, a former defence minister in Barre's government, is credited with orchestrating the killing some 20,000 people in northern Somalia in a two-year bombing and execution campaign against anti-Barre rebels.
But he now appealed to the international community to support the peaceful areas away from Mogadishu...
Morgan took control of Kismayu after a two-year war against his rival and Aideed ally, Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess.
He has imposed authority through an intricate clan alliance and the city is now calm, with few guns and "technical" battlewagons visible on its streets.
CLAN CHIEFS IN MOGADISHU REAP A HARVEST OF SCORN
(DT 21 Feb 95, by Louise Tunbridge)
...Baidoa suffered more than any other region in Somalia in the famine
that peaked towards the end of 1992, when 600 people died a day.
Today, the main street is crowded and vendors sit at stalls laden with food and the narcotic khat leaf. Boys steer donkey carts carrying water, and labourers haul sand and rocks to a building site.
But amid the bustle, the fear is that clan warfare will again spread from Mogadishu at a time of failed efforts at national reconciliation and when United Nations peacekeepers prepare to pull out.
Having suffered before, and being mindful of the continuing lack of central authority, the people of Baidoa have decided they will not let militias return to plunder their full granaries. Malak Mukhtar, the elder, said: "Baidoa is not sleeping like before. If it comes to war we will defend ourselves."
The new strategy has passed its first test. When the last Indian peacekeepers left in November, militiamen loyal to Gen Mohamad Farah Aidid, the Mogadishu warlord, tried to take the airport but were repulsed.
The local Rahanwein, like every other clan, has its share of disputes, and had been divided in its support for Gen Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohamed, his arch rival.
But leaders such as Malak Mukhtar, whose role was underestimated by the UN's political mediators, have taken on a renewed strength. He convinced community leaders that Baidoa's fate should not be tied to events in Mogadishu. Mohamed Moalim Hassan had just returned from Mogadishu, disillusioned with his erstwhile affiliation to Gen Aidid. "Every day there's fighting," he said. "They rule by the gun. The issue now is the community, not the factions."
Mohamed Ali Hamud, who was nominated to Ali Mahdi's transitional government announced in 1991 in Djibouti, said it was time for Baidoa to look inwards.
"These Mogadishu leaders committed crimes against us," he said. "But we have wise people here. We must solve our own problems."...
Malak Mukhtar said: "The UN wasted its time trying to force a national government. The money went to wrongdoers. We pushed for regional autonomy all along. If they had listened to us, by now everyone would be safe in areas they can defend."...
TWO ITALIANS FREED
(Reuter 5 Mar 95)
NAIROBI - Two Italian aid workers kidnapped in Somalia for five days
arrived in Kenya on Sunday, saying they were seized by gunmen in a
local power dispute.
Salvatore Grungo, 39, and Guiseppe Barbero, 49, landed in high spirits in the Kenyan capital aboard a plane chartered by the International Federation of the Red Cross, from the Somali town of Garoowe.
"After a few days (in captivity) we had a long discussion with the family who decided on the kidnapping," Grungo said.
"The problem is only internal... The target of the kidnappers was not Italian cooperation. That is for sure. It was a problem of distribution of power among the Garoowe families."
The two worked for the Italian branch of Lay Volunteers International Association (LVIA) on a project to install and repair windmills in Garoowe in north-central Nugaal region...
The Italian foreign ministry in Rome had said the incident highlighted the risk to Italians in Somalia, a former Italian colony, and urged volunteer groups to recall workers from the anarchic Horn of Africa country...
EUROPEAN COMMISSION WARNS KIDNAPPINGS COULD AFFECT AID
(SWB 8 Mar 95 [KTN TV, Nairobi, in English 6 Mar 95])
...European Commission Special Envoy to Somalia Sigurd Illing said
today [6th March] in Nairobi that banditry and other criminal
activities like kidnapping are likely to jeopardize rehabilitation and
development assistance to the war-torn nation. Illing was speaking in
his office after he received two Italian workers, Salvatore Grungo and
Giuseppe Barbero who were kidnapped in Somalia last month but were
released over the weekend.
[Illing - recording] Even in such an area, an act of banditry of this kind can happen. The outcome is a good one because they were released. That was unconditional release and more. There were apologies presented in the most sincere way by the authorities. If, in the future, we cannot avoid all acts of criminal nature, which you can't in any country of the world, to just admit that, at least it seems to be sure that the authorities are aware of the necessity that they have to act rapidly and they have to act in the right way otherwise they would lose all support from the international donor community...
PETER HANSEN: UN WILL NOT SWITCH OFF SOMALIA'S LIFE SUPPORT
(UNIC 6 Mar 95 [UN document DH/1843, 3 Mar 95])
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Peter Hansen,
said Friday that the United Nations was not switching off Somalia's
life support. Mr. Hansen told correspondents that United Nations
agencies and international non-governmental organizations were staying
in the country. International agency staff had been temporarily
withdrawn from Mogadishu and redeployed to other parts of Somalia and
to Nairobi. About 50 international staff members from various United
Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations were still
managing operations in 14 regions of the country.
Mr. Hansen said the international staff would work in those areas where security had been established. Members of the United Nations Coordination Team were combining their resources and making arrangements to ensure that they would have the transportation, communications and evacuation facilities necessary to maximize their security and mobility. He stressed that Somali cooperation and donor support were necessary. However, less than 10 per cent of the $70 million requested for the January-June 1995 consolidated inter-agency appeal had been received.
AID GROUPS PLAN FOR LIFE AFTER U.N. IN SOMALIA
(Reuter 6 Mar 95, by Manoah Esipisu)
NAIROBI - Aid groups on Monday laid down terms for returning to
anarchic Somalia now their United Nations protectors have left, saying
they would not risk their lives.
But a leading official told a news conference he would meet clan leaders in the Horn of Africa country next week to present demands for security and freedom of movement for aid groups...
Sigurd Illing, European Commission special envoy for Somalia and a member of the standing committee of Somalia Aid Coordination Body (SACB) said in Nairobi a new code drawn up by aid agencies asked Somalis to punish anyone who attacked aid workers or harmed their operations.
"We are not willing to take the risk of life anymore in Somalia," he said.
"SACB will monitor closely the implementation of this code and advise donors and other international partners to take appropriate action whenever deemed necessary, including suspension of activities," Illing added.
The SACB also wants Somali clan elders to provide offices and accommodation, allow agencies to decide how to meet their own transport and staffing needs and make sure personnel and aid-related cargo are exempt from extortion by militias...
Many Somalis have said the presence of aid agencies actually fuelled fighting, because they injected huge supplies and sums of cash into the local economy which eventually found their way into the pockets of militia leaders.
Warlord Mohammed Farah Aideed on Sunday urged donors and relief workers to return, saying he was "ready to forget" past clashes with U.N. forces now that they had left...
EU: COMMISSION GRANTS 615,000 ECUS AID TO HOSPITAL
(European Commission press release IP/95/157, 21 Feb 95)
A feeding programme for children in Somalia will get continuing
support from the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) this
year. Funding has also been earmarked for the running of Merka
regional hospital, the only one currently meeting the needs of 50,000
people in southern Somalia.
A total of 615,000 European Currency Units (Ecu) will enable two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to run these programmes in Somalia over the next six months.
Action Internationale Contre La Faim (AICF), a Paris-based organisation, will implement the feeding programme it started last year. It aims to reach some 50,000 beneficiaries, children under the age of five, as well as pregnant women and those breast-feeding their infants. AICF is also implementing health education programmes for displaced people in Mogadishu.
The Coordinating Committee of the Organisation for Voluntary Service (COSV), an Italian NGO, will look after the hospital project it started, along with primary health care for the region. It aims to train local staff to take over as soon as it is practical.
FOOD AID SITUATION
(WFP 21 Feb 95)
People are no longer dying of hunger in Somalia. This is not to say
that people in this drought-prone country are no longer vulnerable to
famine. Even in a stable country such as Ethiopia, it takes years to
fully recover from a famine of the magnitude which hit Somalia in
1991/92. With no central Government, little commercial activity, high
unemployment, and scarce donor assistance for recovery and
development, the majority of Somalis remain poor and food insecure.
Since March 1993, when the emergency response to the famine began to subside, WFP's main efforts have been concentrated on using food aid in creative and useful ways which are more development-oriented. Generally, this has meant providing food in exchange for work ("food-for-work"), and selling high-value commodities not produced in Somalia to generate cash for rehabilitation/ reconstruction projects ("monetization") which pay for salaries or project material costs. As food is one of the few resources available in Somalia, these programmes help generate thousands of new jobs each month while also paying a component of the salaries of thousands of Somalis, including professionals such as teachers and health workers.
By late 1994, 'relief' food - food which is provided to vulnerable people who are displaced, or temporarily without food, or have little or no purchasing power - comprised a maximum of 10% of WFP's overall programme in Somalia. Instead, at least 90% of our programme, which benefits an average of 250,000 people each month, focuses on rehabilitation (ie the repair of canals, feeder roads, community infrastructures). More than 80% of these projects are implemented by local NGOs, administrations and communities.
WFP's 1995 budget for Somalia totals US$ 45 million. In financial terms, WFP programmes are the largest of any of the specialized UN agencies operating in Somalia...
The "Gu" harvest (the most important harvest) of Sept/Oct 1994 in the Bay and Bakool regions of Somalia, which are considered the main grain baskets of the country since they make up 70% of the rain-fed agricultural area in Somalia - reached up to 80% of pre-civil war levels. In surplus areas, WFP has been procuring cereals from local farmers to support the markets and to avoid bringing in relief food which could further depress post-harvest prices. This food is subsequently distributed to targeted programmes and food deficit areas.
The "Deyr" season harvest is presently being brought in. The main crops of this season traditionally constitute sesame, water melon and various vegetables. However, this season about fifty percent of the cultivated land in the Middle and Lower Shabelle areas was planted with maize...
Overall production from the Deyr harvest is expected to be some 50% to 60% of pre-civil war levels, and immensely better than 1994...
REFUGEES ARE RETURNING TO SOMALIA
(IND 4 Mar 95 [AFP])
Geneva - Refugees are still returning home voluntarily under a UN
programme, after more than 900,000 fled in 1991 and 1992, a UNHCR
spokesman said yesterday.
Since December, it has recorded more than 9,000 returns with a further 6,000 in Kenya signed up to go home. Last year 60,000 were repatriated.
REFUGEES RETURN HOME TO NOTHING
(Reuter 24 Mar 95, by Manoah Esipisu)
HARGEISA JEREY, Somalia - Somali refugees have been forced to hit the
road for home as camps are closed down in neighbouring Kenya - but
they are returning to a wasteland of disease and death.
Four people, including a 12-year-old boy, have died from cholera in the small settlement of Hargeisa Jerey in southern Somalia over the last week and dozens more are afflicted with bilharzia and malaria.
"There is hardly any medical support here. People are likely to die from any illnesses," said a nurse at the settlement.
Rains have begun in southern Somalia but this settlement in the fertile Jubba Valley still has no seeds to plant and so must hope for handouts from foreign relief agencies after the next harvest time is due...
Hargeisa Jerey is 60 km (38 miles) from Somalia's coastal city of Kismayu. It is a collection of 60 to 70 new houses - structures built with sticks and roofed with plastic sheeting provided by [Boris] Michel's ICRC field team.
On Friday, the ICRC flew mosquito nets, plastic sheets and fishing nets to returnees to help them settle in.
"These are basic items the returnees need to settle in. This place has been completely empty of any assistance. People get back having nothing to start with. The only thing they have is hope," said the ICRC's Michel.
A youth trying to coordinate a school programme there said he had "no chalk, no blackboard, no books, nothing...". The Kenyan government has in the last two years closed down most of the camps dotting its coastal strip and the north, which once teamed with close to 500,000 refugees.
Relief workers say refugees have felt more obliged to leave after the Kenyan government this month said it wanted the U.N. refugee agency to repatriate all refugees still in the nation.
"It is good to struggle on your own... So many Somalis are now on the move back home," said Hassan, dignified in his tattered clothes.
AMERICAN REFUGEE COMMITTEE TO CONTINUE HEALTH SERVICES IN SOMALIA
(PRNewswire via RBB 6 Mar 95)
MINNEAPOLIS - The American Refugee Committee (ARC) announced today
that it will expand medical services and training programs in Somalia,
despite last week's withdrawal of U.N. peacekeeping forces from the
country.
Karen Johnson Elshazly, director of American Refugee Committee's international programs, said community leaders in Afmadou, a city of about 30,000 in inland Somalia, have asked ARC to expand primary health services and medical training for Somalis who are returning to or passing through the Afmadou area.
The American Refugee Committee had reduced its operations in Afmadou following a shooting incident during the landing of ARC personnel in April 1994, in which a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees was killed. ARC had previously closed its Somalia operations in Bardera and Sael Huen because of direct threats to its volunteer workers and materials...
"With the support of Afmadou community leaders, the American Refugee Committee will expand operations to provide full time basic health services, including immunizations, mother and child health care, and a mobile clinic. In addition, we will help upgrade the skill-base of the society by training Somalis as traditional birth attendants and as maternal-child and community health workers...
UN `HANDS BACK GUNS' TO SOMALI MILITIAMEN
(Observer via RBB 5 Mar 95, by Mark Huband)
Twenty tonnes of automatic weapons and heavy machine guns were
secretly handed over by United Nations troops to militiamen in the
Somali capital just before last week's evacuation of UN forces from
the city, The Observer has learnt.
An official close to the north Mogadishu faction leader Ali Mahdi Mohamed confirmed last week that eight containers filled with AK-47 assault weapons, anti-aircraft guns, ammunition and other military equipment, which had been confiscated by UN troops in north Mogadishu during the past two years, were returned to Ali Mahdi's militia when Pakistani UN troops withdrew from positions at the old port in the north of the city.
The official, who requested anonymity, said that many of the weapons had originally been handed over to the UN by Ali Mahdi's militia voluntarily when the UN began disarming Somalia's warring factions in 1993.
He later asked for the return of the weapons as a counter to the power of the rival clan leader General Mohamed Farah Aidid, who had been unsuccessfully hunted by US troops through the streets of Mogadishu in 1993.
The official said: 'Unosom refused to return the weapons ... [They] remained stored in Mogadishu's old port, which is in our territory, first under Italian guard, then Nigerian, then Pakistani. But we kept telling them that we wanted them back, and they were returned to us just before the Pakistanis withdrew ... What the UN did was extremely controversial and serious, so we have taken all eight containers from the old port to a safe place.'...
Ahmad Fawzi, deputy spokesman for the UN Secretary-General's office, denied last night that the UN had deliberately given any weapons to the Somalis. He suggested that the arms which had fallen into Somali hands were from confiscated containers which had been 'left behind' in the haste of withdrawal. 'There is no policy to return any confiscated arms to any of the factions. Ali Mahdi's men must have got to some of the containers, but they were sprayed with salt water so they were useless anyway.'...
CHRONOLOGY OF U.S., U.N. INTERVENTION
(Reuter 2 Mar 95)
MOGADISHU - The following is a chronology of U.S. and U.N. military
intervention in Somalia where the last U.N. troops withdrew on
Thursday just before a U.S.-led protection force.
- - - - Dec 9, 1992 - U.S. marines hit Mogadishu's beaches under the glare of television arc lights in "Operation Restore Hope". They fan out to stop a reign of terror by bandits and militiamen and end a famine fuelled by civil war that killed 300,000 people.
Jan 15, 1993 - At U.N.-brokered talks in Addis Ababa feuding clan militias sign the first of many pacts to stop fighting.
March 17 - U.N. suspends Addis talks after renewed clan fighting in port city of Kismayu.
March 28 - Warlords agree to set up first government since the 1991 fall of president Mohamed Siad Barre. None is formed.
May 4 - U.S. hands over command to the U.N. Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM), headed by retired U.S. admiral Jonathan Howe.
June 5 - Gunmen ambush Pakistani troops in Mogadishu, killing 24 and kidnapping five. Up to 35 Somalis are killed.
June 12 - U.N. forces begin assault to curb militiamen. U.S. AC-130 "Spectre" gunships blast buildings controlled by south Mogadishu warlord General Mohamed Farah Aideed.
June 13 - At least 20 Somali civilians killed in a crowd of anti-U.N. demonstrators by Pakistani U.N. troops.
June 17 - UNOSOM orders Aideed's arrest for killing Pakistani troops and launches air and ground assault on his stronghold. Militiamen kill five Moroccans and one Pakistani. Hospitals report 63 Somalis killed and 123 wounded.
July 12 - U.S. Cobra helicopters attack the house of an Aideed deputy. The International Red Cross estimates Somali dead at 54. Mobs kill four foreign journalists at the scene.
Aug 24 - Four hundred U.S. Army Rangers fly to Mogadishu.
Sept 5 - Somalis ambush Nigerian troops, killing seven.
Sept 9 - One Pakistani soldier killed and eight other U.N. peacekeepers wounded in clashes with militiamen. U.N. helicopters wound more than 100 and kill at least 16 Somalis.
Sept 25 - Three U.S. servicemen killed and two wounded when Somali gunmen shoot down a U.N. Black Hawk helicopter on routine patrol. Six peacekeepers are injured in a ground battle.
Oct 3 - Eighteen U.S. Army Rangers and one Malaysian killed and 74 U.S. servicemen wounded when Somali militias shoot down two U.S. helicopters in Mogadishu. The corpses of Americans are dragged through streets by mobs. Red Cross reports 500 Somalis wounded and reporters see truckloads of dead. Somalis capture U.S. helicopter pilot Michael Durant and Nigerian peacekeeper.
Oct 4 - U.S. President Bill Clinton orders 5,300 more troops, warships and AC-130 "Spectre" gunships to Somalia.
Oct 7 - Clinton announces he is reinforcing U.S. task force, narrowing their mission and setting a deadline of March 31 for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Somalia.
Oct 14 - Aideed militiamen release Durant and Nigerian.
Nov 16 - U.N. Security Council calls off hunt for Aideed.
Nov 26 - U.N. conference on Somali billed as last chance for peace opens in Ethiopia but is boycotted by main warlords.
March 2 1994 - Somali factions meet in Cairo to discuss formation of central government. Aideed refuses to attend.
March 14 - U.N. opens peace talks to bring peace to Kismayu.
March 17 - Self-styled president Mohamed Ali Mahdi and arch-foe Aideed meet for the first time in a year in Nairobi.
March 24 - Aideed and Ali Mahdi sign a ceasefire pact.
March 28 - U.S. mission formally ends. On the same day two Indian U.N. peacekeepers are shot dead in a bandit attack.
April 18 - $3.9 million stolen from UNOSOM main compound.
Sept 30 - Security Council renews Somali mandate for one month despite strong protests from the United States.
Nov 4 - Security Council orders withdrawal by next March 31.
Jan 2 1995 - Former President Mohamed Siad Barre dies.
Jan 22 - French aid worker Rudy Marq is freed after five weeks of captivity in Mogadishu. Several foreign aid workers were kidnapped in Somalia last year but all were freed unharmed.
Feb 9 - Italian television cameraman in Mogadishu is killed in an ambush blamed on a "banana war" between rival gunmen as Western naval forces build up strength off the Somali capital.
Feb 28 - Some 1,800 U.S. Marines and 400 Italian troops storm ashore onto Mogadishu's beaches to cover the withdrawal of a rearguard of 1,500 Pakistani troops at the start of Operation United Shield backed by a 32-ship flotilla and air support. U.N. Special Envoy Gbeho leaves Mogadishu and UNOSOM commander hands over to U.S. Marine Lieutenant-General Tony Zinni. Two Italian aid workers are kidnapped in north-central town of Garoowe.
March 1 - Mayhem erupts at Mogadishu airfield after U.N. troops abandon the outer perimeter and hundreds of gunmen and looters invade. A U.S. marine shoots and kills a Somali gunman after he fires a rocket-propelled grenade towards U.S. lines.
March 2 - Evacuation winds up.