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- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ukma!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!daemon
- From: dmorse@igc.apc.org (Dorothy Morse)
- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Subject: Somalia food news
- Message-ID: <1992Aug28.174008.23364@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Date: 28 Aug 92 17:40:08 GMT
- Article-I.D.: mont.1992Aug28.174008.23364
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
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- Resent-From: Dorothy Morse <dmorse@igc.apc.org>
-
- /* Written 5:39 am Aug 28, 1992 by dmorse in cdp:reg.africa */
- /* ---------- "Somalia food news" ---------- */
- Morning Edition, National Public Radio, reports this morning that the
- 145,000 tons of food ordered by President Bush to go to Somalia will
- not reach that country until December.
-
- Thus this food cannot count as part of that needed to keep millions of
- Somalians from starving by Christmas.
-
- Some additional food is being flown in by the World Food Program. I
- believe the amount is 5000 tons.
-
- I spoke yesterday with a representative of the International Committee
- for the Red Cross, Ann Stingle. She said the need now is 60,000 tons of food
- a month. The current supply is 20,000 tons a month, and US additional
- aid is expected to add something to that, but how much is not sure.
-
- I also am uncertain as to the source and amount of food that starts to
- go into Somalia today on US planes--four flights will carry 9 1/2 tons of
- beans, rice, and cooking oil. whether this is additional food or exiting
- existing supplies that can be moved into Somalia on Pentagon planes is
- unclear.
-
- In addition, the commander of the US military personnel there says that in view
- of the fact that his soldiers are to be unarmed at Somali request, he will
- pull out if a single soldier is killed. This seems totally reasonable to
- me, but it opens up another pitfall for somalian aid.
-
- I think we need to keep trying to find out the real facts, so that if
- the whole thing rolls back down hill (for example, if public attentio
- turns away, and governments just stop shipping additional food) we
- can publicize these facts. The old hamburger commercial used to ask
- "Where's the beef?" I think that in the case of somalia, we should
- keep asking, "Where's the food?'
-
- It seems to me that we can consider this problem solved not when governments
- announce what they are going to do, but when relief agencies in Somalia say,
- "We are finally getting an adequate flow of food and we are confident it
- will continue."
-
- There are high hopes for the present initiative, but concerns remain.
- Dorothy
-