From: barnhart@netcom.com (Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:SOMALIA: UN member nations must act
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 01:34:36 GMT
Organization: Netcom
Reply-To: barnhart@netcom.com

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: SOMALIA: UN member nations must act to end Somali crisis, say NGOs


an inter press service feature

by candy gourlay

london, aug 13 (ips) -- only if the world floods war torn somalia
with food -- feeding civilians and warring soldiers alike -- can
peace become a possibility, according to the somali head of the
think tank africa watch, rakiya omaar.

such action would require a massive coordinated military, civil
and political effort by the un and the security council; but aid
agencies whose calls for international help have been largely
ignored throughout somalia's long civil war are sceptical.

''it's a good idea, it's a practical idea,'' says justin
forsythe, policy adviser on africa for oxfam, britain's biggest
aid agency.

''but it has to be accompanied by dynamic un mediation... instead
of them sitting on their hands like they have throughout most of
this conflict.'' forsythe refers, not to un personnel, but to un
member nations who have avoided involvement in the crisis.

''it's not a new concept,'' forsythe says, ''africa watch and the
ngos (non-governmental organisations) have been saying it for six,
seven months. we've been saying it about other conflicts for
years. but it takes money and the political will, and there's a
distinct lack of that.''

aid agencies welcomed a un breakthrough agreement with warlords
in somalia for the deployment of 500 un blue beret troops to
protect food distribution. but they warned that this was only a
necessary first step of what must be a more enormous aid effort.

since the fall of the country's authoritaian leader siad barre in
february 1991, somalia has steadily slipped into chaos.

the north, which endured a brutal military campaign by barre's
forces, has seceded. the south is in violent clan-based turmoil
with virtually no government and various factions divided between
the warlord general mohamed farrar aideed and the interim
president mohamed ali mahdi.

the factional killing has so far claimed 30,000 lives, and almost
two million somalis are in immediate danger of starvation as
violence and robber gangs disrupt the distribution of food aid
trickling in from abroad.

the irish foreign minister david andrews, who has just toured
somalia, described it as a ''land so devastated that it looks as
if god himself has abandoned it''.  (more/ips)

somalia: un member nations must act to end somali crisis, say ngo(2-e)

somalia: un member nations must act (2)

so frustrated are aid agencies prevented from distributiong
stores of food by the turmoil in somalia, that many are quietly
campaigning at home for their governments to send the military
support needed to get food to the starving somalis.

in one instance, one of the netherlands' biggest third world
development agency novib placed large advertisements in the dutch
press wednesday calling for military intervention.

novib -- which listed a number of aid agencies as supporters of
the demand -- has since explained that it was calling for military
protection for aid corridors through somalia, not for general
military intervention.

''the point is simple,'' says africa watch executive director
rakiya omaar, ''the famine and the war in somalia feed on each
other, it is a vicious circle. food is now the main issue over
which people are fighting each other. it is the most precious
commodity, therefore it is a source of power.''

if somalia were flooded with food, she says, one cause of war
would be taken away. ''it is not a panacea to make everybody start
loving everyone else,'' she says. ''but with one issue resolved,
somalia can move on beyond hunger.''

''it's a little idealistic,'' says ron fosker, a spokesman for
the british overseas development minister lynda chalker. ''we are
talking about an enormous amount of food but there's no guarantee
that it would not be stolen anyway, the food hidden and sold on
the black market.''

fosker notes that the success of such a plan depends on the
effectiveness of un troops in deterring attacks on food convoys.

''we've got to see how (the current un effort) works first,'' he
says, ''and if it works, then we hope that more food will go in.
it's a large step to think about armed intervention, at the
moment, the un is talking about guards being there to guard the
food. if that works, hopefully it can be extended.''

to have an effect at all, the 500 un blue berets should only be a
first step towards a much larger plan, says omaar.

''if it's simply a drop in the ocean, they might as well not do
it,'' she says. ''if sending 500 troops is the only thing they are
going to do, nothing will be resolved in somalia.

''i've been hearing about so many plans from the un, a lot of
resolutions, a lot of discussion for many months. i don't think
it's a question of resources, it's a question of political will.''
(end/ips/cd/cg/rj/92)

-- 
Aaron (Barnhart@netcom.com) -- posting from Evanston, Illinois