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:1471700177:000:3976
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!jnr    Oct  7 17:22:00 1992


/* Written  5:20 pm  Oct  7, 1992 by jnr in cdp:hunger.general */
10/05 1142  WEEPING IRISH PRESIDENT SAYS UN, EC FAILED SOMALIA

By Manoah Esipisu 

NAIROBI, Oct 5 - Weeping Irish President Mary Robinson on Monday
accused the United Nations and the European Community of
"offending justice by acting slowly in aiding the devastated and
bleeding people of Somalia." 

After a nightmare three-day visit to famished Somali towns and
the northern Kenyan town of Mandera, Robinson said she was
"shamed, shamed, shamed that the developed world had lost its
humanity and watched as others suffered." 

"The U.N. and the E.C. have acted far too slowly in trying to
solve the critical Somali problem. They must remove all
bureaucracies in their operations and take the steps they must to
contain the devastation," Robinson said between sobs at a packed
news conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. 

In Mandera, Robinson said she saw a camp of between 55,000 and
60,000 people which had not a single latrine, no shelter, shallow
graves surrounding makeshift-structures and blamed the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees for the mess. 

"If rains begin in that area, there will be great danger of all
forms of diseases and suffering and death will triple." 

At the southern Somai town of Baidoa, Robinson said what moved
her were queues of children and sometimes mothers cradling their
emaciated children waiting patiently for a food ration -- "no
sound, nothing. They just sat, or stood waiting, calm and
dignified in suffering." 

"I went to talk to one mother, she held her child, revealing
sores on its head and body. It was not like my television screen
anymore, this was real. It was unacceptable, devastating." 

"I saw a mother whose milk had dried up trying to breastfeed her
baby, I saw aid workers trying to feed far-gone children they
knew would die," Robinson said as she wept. 

"I saw children, tears flowing from their almost dry eyes,
tummies protruding, flies in their eyes, everywhere." 

"I cannot imagine how people in the developed world can stand up
to make a telephone call, or make a cup of tea, so callously,
just after they have seen images of Somalia on their screens." 

Robinson said she had been asked by groups of Somali elders,
senior women and intellectuals to be a voice of their suffering
and to ask the world to act faster to help save their country. 

"I have a sense of what the people of Somalia want me to say. I
have such a sense that the world must take its responsibility.
Yes, the U.N. and other agencies must rise strongly to the
challenge, Yes, individual governments must re-identify their
priorities, and individuals must face this crisis." 

Robinson and Irish Foreign Minister David Andrews will meet U.N.
Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros-Ghali on Wednesday. 

They said they will ask him to have all 3,500 troops approved by
the Security Council deployed by end-October latest. Some 500
Pakistani troops are already in Mogadishu but they have yet to be
deployed. 

"He is going to be a very weighted down Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali when we meet. But so be it...Why haven't the
Pakistanis been deployed, Why should it take until end-November
to get other troops in?" asked Andrews. 

Robinson said Somali warlords General Mohamed Farah Aideed and
Ali Mahdi Mohamed had agreed to an international reconciliation.
Boutros-Ghali's special envoy Algerian Mohamed Sahnoun was
expected to work on details and make an announcement in a 100-day
plan for Somalia at a Geneva conference next week. 

Aideed and Ali Mahdi united to oust dictator Mohamed Siad Barre
in January 1991 and then turned on each other in clan-based
bloodletting that killed or wounded at least 30,000 people and
left the Horn of African country in a shambles. 

"I have told Ali Mahdi and Aideed I do not want to see the
shameful act of 14 and 15-year olds carrying machine guns on the
streets. There must be an end to violence, reduction of firearms