In this issue:
* AIDEED REELECTED CHAIRMAN OF SOMALI NATIONAL ALLIANCE
* FIGHTING IN KISMAYO
* UN CHIEF RECOMMENDS 15,000 TROOPS STAY IN SOMALIA
* WFP FOOD AID TO CONTINUE
* JUDGE INVESTIGATES UN DETENTION OF AIDEED AIDES
* SOMALIA ON SHORT-WAVE
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S O M A L I A N E W S U P D A T E
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Vol 3, No 2 January 7, 1994. ISSN 1103-1999
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Somalia News Update is published irregularly via electronic mail and
fax. Questions can be directed to
[email protected] or
to fax number +46-18-151160. All SNU marked material is free to
quote as long as the source is clearly stated.
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AIDEED REELECTED CHAIRMAN OF SOMALI NATIONAL ALLIANCE
(SNU, Uppsala, January 7) - Reuters report that Aideed, who is
currently in neighbouring Kenya, was given a fresh six-month mandate
at a congress in Mogadishu on Tuesday attended by some 200 high-
ranking SNA officials. The vote, described by Reuters as "a foregone
conclusion" was said by Abdi Karim Ahmed, chairman of the congress,
to be a show of support for the man who waged a four-month guerrilla
war against UN forces in the broken Horn of Africa country. "We
wanted to call a congress while he was out of the country as we felt
it would be good to reelect him in his absence".
Some observers are not so certain that reelection of Aideed was
the original intention of the congress. Aideed who comes from the
Jalaf lineage of the Sa'ad sub-section of the Habar Gedir clan, has
long been facing mounting opposition from other sections of Habar
Gedir, most notably the large Ayr section. However, even within the
Sa'ad ranks, for example among the Hilowle who count members such as
the famous lawyer Ali Baar and Osman "Ato", as well as the Nim'aale
lineage of the important General Aar, criticism has been heard.
Aideed's hesitance to travel to the Addis Ababa meeting last
December is also said to have reflected the insecurity of his
leadership. "The Americans gave Aideed a reputation he was nothing
before the Americans got here", said Mohammed Sheikh, an elder of the
Habar Gedir clan a few days ago. "When the Americans fought him, they
made him a hero".
The SNA congress also featured a persuasive video-show of the
successful cleaning of 18 streets in Mogadishu carried out by the SNA
since December 12. According to Abdullah Hassim Friribi, the SNA's
secretary of propaganda, the aim of the campaign was to demonstrate
to the Somali people that the SNA is prepared to work for them.
Meanwhile it has been announced that President Mohammed Ibrahim
Egal of the independent Somaliland republic in the north has held
lengthy discussions with Aideed in Kenya. "The UN should not portray
Aideed as a monster. The UN does not understand the complexity of the
Somali problem", Egal told AFP afterwards. Egal went on to suggest
that the future role of the UN in Somalia should be minimized and
that the UN "should just work as a non-governmental organisation and
leave the negotiations to the Somalis and the African leaders in the
region".
FIGHTING IN KISMAYO
(SNU, Uppsala, January 7) - Major Tim MacDavitt, the military
spokesman of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM),
reported on Tuesday morning it was receiving reports of inter-clan
violence in the Kismayo region. MacDavitt added that the reports
suggested that the fighting was more than banditry, though so far it
had been limited to small arms fire.
Control of Kismayo has been disputed between Ahmed Omar Jess,
one of Aideed's main allies who is supported by one of the Ogadeni
clans in the area, and his arch-rival Mohammed Said Hersi, known as
Morgan, the son-in-law of deposed dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Morgan
is the leader of a group of three Daarood clans collectively known as
Harti. On the 23rd June 1993 UNOSOM managed to stage a fragile peace-
accord between the main warring factions in the region.
UN CHIEF RECOMMENDS 15,000 TROOPS STAY IN SOMALIA
(Reuters, United Nations, January 6) - UN secretary-general Boutros
Boutros-Ghali will recommend shortly that a reduced force of at least
15,000 troops stay in Somalia after the United States withdraws and
that Mogadishu be bypassed as much as possible, a senior UN official
said Thursday.
But a report due to the Security Council within a week will make
clear that offers of even 15,000 troops, mainly from African nations,
are precarious because of lack of money to pay for them. Pakistan and
India, part of the current 28,000-strong force, have promised to stay
on while Zimbabwe, Uganda, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt are
waiting to see if funds are available to support them, the official
said. Nevertheless, Boutros-Ghali was reported to be confident that
he could secure the 15,000 troops, including some already in Somalia,
by March 31 when the United States withdraws.
Retired US Admiral Jonathan Howe, the special UN envoy in
Somalia, has said he wanted the troops on the ground until 1995 in
the hopes they could be slowly phased out before then.
The new strategy, outlined by Howe last month and by UN officials
close to Boutros-Ghali Thursday, is to decentralize supplies and
troops by using in southern Mogadishu and a road circumventing the
capital city from the port. Another possibility would be to remove
the fortress-type UN headquarters from Mogadishu itself, the scene of
concentrated banditry and warfare between supporters of General Farah
Aideed and those of Ali Mahdi.
Aideed, whose supporters were accused of killing 24 Pakistani
peace keepers last June, was the target of a United States-led UN
manhunt that resulted in the killing of 18 American soldiers in
October. Subsequently Washington announced US troops would be
withdrawn by March 31.
European nations with troops in Somalia, who were able to finance
their operations until the United Nations comes up with funds, have
followed the American lead. The UN officials were fairly confident
the conflict would be isolated in Mogadishu even though Aideed's
Somalia National Alliance also controls areas elsewhere.
"We have important local police, we have district councils, the
beginning of machinery ... and perhaps a peace agreement", the senior
UN official said. Aideed, he said, had little support throughout the
country. But he admitted there would be no lasting peace in
rebuilding Somalia unless there was an agreement that included
Aideed.
The mandate of the new contingents will remain under Chapter 7 of
the United Nations Charter which allowed the use of force rather than
Chapter 6 which authorises peace-keeping operations without force.
The secretary-general is "against returning to Chapter 6", the
official said. "The fact that you are using Chapter 7 does not mean
that you must use force. Chapter 7 means that you are allowed to use
force".
Reports from Mogadishu indicate that looters are stockpiling
goods before the US withdrawal and the general apprehensiveness by UN
forces to stop them. The bandits are operating in the Baidoa district
also and reporters of inter-clan violence are growing around Kismayo.
WFP FOOD AID TO CONTINUE
(SNU, Uppsala, January 7) - The World Food Programme (WFP) has
announced that it will supply an additional 16,900 metric tons of
emergency food to vulnerable people throughout Somalia as the first
part of the 53,289 tonnes of high value commodities that will be
needed this year. Of all WFP projects in Somalia, only 15 percent
are now emergency related but, as WFP Executive Director Catherine
Bertini pointed out, although significant progress had been made over
the last year in alleviating hunger, Somalia was still recovering
from the widespread famine. "The WFP's priority for 1994 is to
initiate activities which strengthen food security, from the national
level right down to households", she said according to a UN press-
release.
The WFP requires $50 million worth of various food commodities
to carry out its 300 food programmes in Somalia in 1994. Improved
security and increased agricultural input, combined with good rains,
resulted in a 1993 crop season of "average" to "satisfactory"
harvests. However, there are various pockets of continuing hunger in
the countryside and in some urban areas. Village and family buffer
stocks have not yet regained their pre-war levels, the WFP claims.
Food aid to Somalia has come under much recent criticism for
failing to create incentives to reconstruct the agricultural
production. However, Ms. Bertini said, "The people of Somalia
urgently need employment to get back on their feet. For this reason,
50 per cent of WFP's programmes in 1994 are food-for-work schemes
which we expect will generate around 64,000 jobs, indirectly
benefiting 320,000 people".
JUDGE INVESTIGATES UN DETENTION OF AIDEED AIDES
(Reuters, Mogadishu, January 5) - A former chief justice of Zimbabwe
is investigating whether the UN should hold eight detained aides of
Mogadishu warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed, who are suspected of being
involved in attacks on peace keepers. Admiral Jonathan Howe, UN
special envoy to Somalia, told reporters on Wednesday that the United
Nations had asked Enoch Dumbutshena, a Zimbabwe lawyer, to carry out
the investigation.
"He has already started business, he will then make a
recommendation to the secretary-general ...whether they should be
retained or not", Howe said.
Aideed and his gunmen were blamed for the June 5 killing of 24
Pakistani peace keepers, but the United Nations abandoned its attempt
to bring him to trial after 18 US servicemen were killed and 74
wounded in a battle in central Mogadishu in early October.
The UN has since come under pressure to release Aideed's men who
were arrested last September. They include Osman "Ato", Aideed's
chief financier and right-hand man.
Some 70 other detainees, arrested when the hunt for Aideed was at
its height, have already been freed but the UN has appeared reluctant
to set release some of his top allies at a time when the city is
reported to be
SOMALIA ON SHORT-WAVE
(SNU, Uppsala, January 7) - According to a list compiled by a Dutch
radio amateur, Jan Nieuwenhuis, the following radio stations operate
inside Somalia:
RADIO HARGEISA, The voice of the Republic of Somaliland.
Hargeisa; this station, which is believed to operate from a 1-kW
mobile transmitter, is scheduled at 1000-1230 and 1500-1700 on 7120v
kHz.
RADIO MANTA, Mogadishu; this station, which was originally run
by the US military under the name Radio Rajo (Radio Hope) - the voice
of the Unified Task Force, is now called Radio Manta (Somali for
Radio Today) with the handover of command from the US-led Operation
Restore Hope to UNOSOM-2 (UN Operation in Somalia Phase 2) on 4th May
1993. The station is transmitting in Somali only and has two short-
wave transmitters which operate in USB mode plus carrier with a power
of 600 Watts. Their schedule is as follows: 0415-0500, 1000-1045,
1100-1145 and 1300-1345 on 9540 kHz, 1600-1645, 1700-1745 and 1900-
1945 on 6170 kHz.
RADIO MOGADISHU, The voice of the Somali Republic. Mogadishu;
this pro-Ali Mahdi Mohammed station is transmitting on a highly
variable frequency somewhere between 6720-6890 kHz in upper sideband
plus carrier mode at 0400- 0500, 0500-0600 (Fri), 1000-1130 and 1600-
1800.
VOICE OF FREE SOMALIA [Somali: Idaacada Madaxa Banaan ee
Soomaaliya], Gaalka'ayo; can be heard with transmissions in English
at 0500-0515 on 7460 kHz and at 1800-1815 on 7499 kHz. The station
began broadcasting on 18 August 1993 and appears to be controlled by
the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF). It was set up with
assistance from the Australian-based International Amateur Radio
Network.
SNU has been informed that the group of SDM (Somali Democratic
Movement) that was formed during the Boonka-meeting in March last
year, has recently set up their own radio which transmits daily
broadcasts in the Af Maay dialect. SNU would like to call on its
readers to supply further details of Somali short-wave transmissions.
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SNU is an entirely independent newsletter devoted to critical
analysis of the political and humanitarian developments in Somalia
and Somaliland. SNU is edited and published by Dr. Bernhard Helander,
Uppsala University, Sweden. SNU is produced with support from the
Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden.
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