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Text File | 1994-05-02 | 29KB | 542 lines

<text> <title> Somalia: At War with Itself </title> <article> <hdr> Current History, May 1992 Somalia: At War with Itself </hdr> <body> By Rakiya Omaar, a Somalian, is executive director of the human rights organization Africa Watch. Nineteen ninety-one is the year Somalia died. Since full-scale civil war broke out on November 17, at least 14,000 people have been killed and 27,000 wounded in the capital city of Mogadishu. Most of the casualties are civilians. Rivalry between the forces of two ruthless men--interim President Mohammed Ali Mahdi and General Mohammed Farrah Aidid, both of whom belong to the same clan and the same movement, the United Somali Congress (USC)--has made Mogadishu an exceptionally dangerous place. In addition to troops loyal to both men, hundreds of armed "freelance" soldiers and looters contribute to the violence. The large number of causalties can be explained by several factors: the war is taking place in an urban setting; there are about 30,000 armed men and youths in and around Mogadishu, with easy access to a huge arsenal that includes weapons intended for field combat and air attacks; and many of those armed are completely untrained in the use of these weapons. Lack of adequate medical care is another reason for the numerous casualties. Both factions have been extraordinarily callous, attacking hospitals and periodically interfering with the work of doctors, nurses, and aides. Hospitals do not have minimal nursing support, suffer shortages of medical supplies, and are swollen to three times their capacity. The lack of medical facilities has left many of those wounded who might have survived in a hospital to die in their homes or on the streets. In the next few months, the already staggering numbers of casualties will be dwarfed by the tens of thousands of people, especially children, who are likely to die from malnutrition and disease. After the rains begin in late April, international relief agencies expect outbreaks of particularly virulent forms of meningitis and infectious hepatitis, as well as cholera. Mogadishu and south-central Somalia also face the worst famine in the country's history. Drought has played only a minor role in this crisis. The famine, which has already begun, is largely man-made, the result of warfare during the past two years. Along the lower Jubba River, cultivation was disrupted in mid-1991 by battles between the USC and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM). Crops, seeds, tractors, and irrigation pumps were stolen, villages destroyed, and people displaced. Farmers planted smaller areas, and often consumed their crops before they ripened, both to preempt looters and out of sheer hunger. In March 1992, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that "horrifying levels of 90 percent moderate and severe malnutrition" had been found in the area surrounding Belet Huen in central Somalia and in the camps of displaced people around Merca, south of Mogadishu. It estimates that 1.5 million people in and around Mogadishu may be affected by famine, and puts at 4.5 million the number throughout the country who are threatened by starvation. Democracy Sidelined The Western media has portrayed the war in Somalia as a clan conflict, ignoring the complex reality that is also an intense power struggle between two ambitious men and a struggle for basic resources, including food, by groups of impoverished but heavily armed men and boys. The savagery of the fighting points up the absence of civilian institutions to mediate the conflict--an absence that is the legacy of 21 years of dictatorship under Mohammed Siad Barre. After only nine years of post-colonial civilian rule. Siad Barre, the commander in chief of the armed forces, seized power in a coup in October 1969. (Somalia became an independent country in 1960 with the unification of the northern region, the former British Protectorate of Somaliland, and the south, previously an Italian colony and a UN Trust Territory between 1950 and 1960.) The constitution was suspended, the National Asssembly dissolved, political parties disbanded, and professional associations prohibited. Leading civilian politicians were arrested, most of whom remained in detention for years. Civic organizations not expressly sponsored by the state were banned. The new regime announced radical plans to transform overnight an underdeveloped, conservative, Islamic country, inhabited primarily by nomads and semipastoralist nomads into a modern socialist state through "scientific socialism." Banking and insurance institutions were nationalized, as well as most of the country's limited industry. Management of most of the economy was entrusted to government agencies. Determined to create a political system without constitutional, legislative, or judicial restraints in the exercise of executive power, Siad Barre worked to cement his control of the country. A vigorous personality cult was encouraged. Public adulation was nurtured by constant references on the radio and in the press to the actions and words of the nation's "Father." Radio newscasts and Siad Barre's public appearances began with a song dedicated to "Our Father, the Father of Knowledge." A forceful and brilliant public speaker whose mastery of language and of Somalia's history and clan structure was unrivaled, Siad Barre quickly dominated the political landscape. An array of legislative provisions made it a capital offense to be a member of an opposition group or any organization the government considered unacceptable, including trade unions outside the government controlled federation. Siad Barre's political system, like all oppressive regimes, also relied on security agents and secret informants whose function was to police hearts and minds and stamp out attempts at peaceful dissent. The most feared agency of the security apparatus was the National Security Service (NSS), for years headed by Siad Barre's son-in-law. But there were others, including the ubiquitous Victory Pioneers, a uniformed paramilitary group consisting mainly of uneducated youth that has been compared to Haiti's Tontons Macoute. What the regime could not achieve through terror, it attempted to accomplish through the control of information. The government nationalized printing presses and the media, which was subject to strict and pervasive censorship. Most foreign journalists were denied visas, and contact between Somalis and foreigners living in the country, especially Westerners, was discouraged. In accordance with the need to create a "modern" country, the government declared war on what it called the "scourge" of tribalism. To discourage clan affiliations, private arrangements for social gatherings, such as engagement and wedding ceremonies and funerals, were forbidden in 1973. Gatherings like these had to be held instead at orientation centers, where courses in political indoctrination were compulsory. During his two decades in power Siad Barre proceeded, with studied deliberation and thorough effect, to dismantle the institutions that allowed people to articulate their grievances and that provided a framework for the resolution of conflict. Powerless to bring about the change peacefully, many people left the country or turned to violence, setting the stage for the current turmoil. A Cold War Pawn Immediately after he seized power, Siad Barre forged close links with the Soviet Union, which provided economic, technical, and military assistance. Even before Siad Barre came to power, many officers had been trained in the Soviet Union, but the military links became closer after 1969 with Siad Barre's commitment to "scientific socialism." East Germany also provided training for the police and security forces, and during the drought that ravaged the country in 1974 and 1975, Moscow provided generous humanitarian assi