From: jnr@igc.apc.org (Jim Rosenfield)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Re: 10/07 Wire stories on hunger
Date: 8 Oct 92 00:22:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1471700165:cdp:1471700173:000:3664
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!jnr    Oct  7 17:22:00 1992


/* Written  5:19 pm  Oct  7, 1992 by jnr in cdp:hunger.general */
APn  10/05 1440  Somalia

Copyright, 1992. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 


By EDITH LEDERER   Associated Press Writer 

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Heavy machine gun and rifle fire broke
out at the port and airport in Mogadishu on Monday, disrupting
the unloading of food for Somali famine victims. 

U.N. officials reported an undetermined number of deaths at the
Indian Ocean port. It was not known whether anyone was killed at
the airport. 

Lisbeth Palme, widow of assassinated Swedish Prime Minister Olaf
Palme, arrived at the airport from Nairobi just as shooting began
at the nearby port. Mrs. Palme, who heads the U.N. Children's
Fund in Sweden, was quickly taken into the capital. 

Tommy Thomson, 49, of South Africa, who coordinates airport
operations for the U.N. World Food Program, said that about an
hour after Mrs. Palme left the airport, gunmen started firing
.50-caliber machine guns across the tarmac. 

"You could hear them ricochet off the ground, and you can hear
the crack before the bang, which means they're firing at you,' he
said. 

A Belgian C-130 cargo plane and a Canadian C-130 were unloading
relief goods when the shooting started, and both managed to get
about half their cargo on the ground before taking off, Thomson
said. 

It was not possible to get comment from the Canadians and
Belgians, whose airlift operations are headquartered in
neighboring Kenya. Neither group answered its telephone. 

Clan fighting, banditry and looting have crippled international
efforts to feed Somalia's starving people. Some aid officials
estimate as much as half the estimated 181,500 tons of food
delivered to the country has been stolen. 

More than 100,000 Somalis already have died from the combined
effects of drought and warfare and up to 2 million more are
threatened. 

The cause of Monday's fighting was unclear. Unconfirmed reports
said it was sparked by the refusal of the Hawadle clan, which
controls the airport, to allow Somalia's main warlord, Gen.
Mohamed Farrah Aidid, who belongs to a different clan, to enter
several days ago. 

Aidid's supporters reportedly massed men and armed vehicles in an
abandoned military barracks about a half mile south of the
airport on Sunday. 

Anticipating trouble, U.N. officials took extra precautions in
clearing all flights in and out of the field on Monday. 

A twin-engine plane chartered by the United Nations departed
seconds before the firing started, Thomson said. It had been
expected to take Mrs. Palme back to Nairobi, but she instead
remained in Mogadishu. 

Thomson said he left the airport in a four-wheel-drive vehicle
flying the flag of the International Committee of the Red Cross
and came under heavy automatic fire. 

Another Red Cross vehicle was hijacked less than a mile from the
airport and the three armed security guards had their weapons
stolen, he said. The Red Cross got the car back, but not the
guns. 

Two ships were tied up at the port, a Nigerian freighter carrying
about 4,400 tons of wheat and a Saudi vessel with 3,850 tons of
dates, sugar, rice, powdered milk and other commodities. 

Five hundred armed U.N. troops from Pakistan are expected to be
deployed at the port and airport to guard relief shipments and
protect relief workers. The battalion is being housed in a hangar
and other buildings at the airport, but was not involved in
Monday's fighting and made no effort to halt it. 

Brig. Gen. Imtiaz Shaheen, commander of the force, said he had
"no answer yet" on when his men would be deployed. 

Asked about the shooting, he replied, "This happens. Bad, isn't
it?" 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african