NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #1/NN_1993_1.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9920

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From: Hank Roth <[e-mail]>
Subject: THE TRUTH ABOUT SOMALIA
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{From LIVING MARXISM, January 1993}
THE TRUTH ABOUT SOMALIA
by Kenan Malik

A land where millions starve while warlords pillage and kill. A
country in which bandits and common criminals loot Western aid
before it can reach those dying from hunger. A nation of anarchy
in thrall to ruthless gunmen. These are the images of Somalia in
the West. When US president George Bush announced that he was to
dispatch 30,000 troops to guard aid convoys most people welcomed
the move. "At least somebody is doing something about it", was
the general reaction.

In fact the picture of Somalia as a country which is being torn
apart by warlords, and desperate for Western intervention, has
been manufactured to provide a pretext for just such an
intervention. Western intervention, far from solving the
country's terrible problems, was responsible for causing them in
the first place---and can only exacerbate Somalia's plight now.

SUDDEN CONCERN

Somalia is certainly a desperately poor country whose economy has
been destroyed, whose infrastructure is in tatters and whose
population is haunted by hunger. But the whole country is not
ravaged by famine and nor are two million people in danger of
dying from starvation.

The famine is restricted to the south-west corner of the
country. According to independent observers about 150,000 have
died so far and another 100,000 are at risk, more from disease
than starvation. All this amounts to a terrible toll of
suffering. But the situation in Somalia is no worse than that in
other parts of Africa---such as Angola or Mozambique--which for
years have been ignored by Western journalists and politicians.
The sudden concern about Somalia has little to do with the real
sufferings of the people there.

Somalia is not in the grip of anarchy. Most of the country is
relatively peaceful and stable. Central authority in Somalia has
certainly collapsed. But this has been caused not by feuding
`warlords', but by American interference. The current civil
conflict and fragmentation of the country are the direct
consequences of America's political manoeuvrings in Africa during
the Cold War.

Accoring to the GUARDIAN'S Martin Walker `as much as 80 percent
of relief supplies are being stolen by the warlords', But as
Rakiya Omaar and Alex de Waal of the Africa Watch organization
have observed, the Save the Children Fund `have distributed 4000
tons in Mogadishu without losing a single bag' (GUARDIAN, 6
December 1992). Other relief agencies, they say, have lost
between two and 10 percent of supplies. The one organization to
suffer higher losses has been the United Nations. This is because
unlike the other agencies, the UN has ridden roughshod over local
people and is widely regarded with suspicion and contempt.

"THE OPERATION STINKS OF ARROGANCE. ALL THIS BULLSHIT ABOUT 80
PERCENT OF FOOD BEING LOOTED AND ALL THAT---IT'S ALL VERY STAGE-
MANAGED BY THE UNITED STATES...THIS WHOLE OPERATION IS A TEST
CASE FOR FUTURE CONFLICT RESOLUTION. IT'S AS IF THE US HAD A NEW
VACCINE THEY WANTED TO TEST. NOW THEY HAVE FOUND AN ANIMAL TO
TEST IT ON." (United Nations Ofical in Mogadishu, as the U.S.
marines came ashore on 8 December 1992)

REAGAN EXPLAINS

Why should the USA want to manipulate the facts about Somalia in
order to justify an invasion? American intervention has nothing
to do with Somalia itself. It is a result of the uncertain nature
of the New World Order.

While the marines were on their way to Somalia, former US
president Ronald Reagan admitted in a speech in Britian that the
end fo the Cold War`has robbed much of the West of its common,
uplifting purpose'. How could it find such common purpose again,
asked Reagan. By uniting, he said, `to impose civilised standards
of behaviour on those who flout every measure of human decency'--
-and pointed to Somalia as an example.

This is the real reason for the US invasion of Somalia.
Washington needs a `common, uplifting purpose' which, like the
fight against the Soviet `evil empire', can be used to assert
America's international leadership against potential rivals
within the Western Alliance. Somalia, and the rest of the third
world, has been set up as `civilised' in an attempt to provide
America with a new moral authority.

What we are witnessing in Somalia is not a humanitarian mission,
but a new colonialism. It has become widely accepted that the
West is morally superior to, and more civilised than, the third
world. But the West is the cause of, not the solution to, the
problems of the third world. And, however worthy the motives that
inform the call for more Western intervention, the consequences
for the peoples of the third world will ultimately be
devastating.

The Americans might be able to show the world some quick pictures
of marines handing food to hungry Somalis. But in the end, the
record shows that Western intervention, motivated as it always is
by great power politics, can only make things worse for those on
the receiving end.

---------------------------------------------------------------
LIVING MARXISM is the monthly review of the Revolutionary
Communist Party. Published in England by Junius Publications Ltd,
BCM JPLTD, London, WC1N 3XX.
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