From: roelle@uars_mag.jhuapl.edu (Curtis Roelle)
Subject: Re: Somalia:Military Means More Death &
Organization: Johns Hopkins University
Date: 18 Dec 92 18:22:00 GMT

nyt@nyxfer.UUCP writes:


>Subject: Somalia:Military Means More Death & Hunger
>From: nyxfer!nyt (NY Transfer News)

>Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

(And so it comes out here)

>MILITARY BRINGS MORE DEATHS, HUNGER

>By Brian Becker

>The initial effect of the Pentagon intervention into Somalia has 
>been to dramatically reduce the number of people being fed by 
>emergency relief operations.

>Hundreds of thousands of Somalis depend on foreign relief 
>kitchens for their meals. Yet the U.S. military command ordered 
>all foreign relief workers to stay home for the first 48 hours 
>after the troops landed.

Altough the purpose of the mission is to provide relief, its first
step is to restore order.  It is a military operation, with many
uncertainties and in a foreign land, with a real potential for
skirmishes.  It would be irresponsible not to warn civilian relief
workers of this, and keep them out of the possible line of fire.
This is not really news.

>The U.S. invasion force is consumed not with feeding starving 
>people--but with military  sweeps, arbitrary arrests, 
>door-to-door searches, setting up roadblocks and disarming people
>with guns.

Should it come as a surprise that a military force conducts military 
sweeps?  Commonly, a military force perceives firearms as threatening,
and there are plenty of guns and amred vehicles roaming Somalia.

>Marines and French Foreign Legionnaires gunned down nine unarmed 
>Somali citizens at a roadblock Dec. 11 when their truck brakes 
>apparently failed. The media initially reported the Pentagon's 
>version--that the truck was loaded with weapons. They later 
>admitted there were no weapons and the passengers in the truck 
>may have been a family.

If this were the case, then it is an unfortunate accident.  However, 
the U.S. military has been taught some pretty hard lessons that 
might make them shoot first.  For instance the U.S. Marine barracks
bombed in Lebanon.

>Two of the nine died. The U.S. Central Command announced it would
>not apologize for the shooting since the troops acted within the 
>"rules of engagement," which allow them to shoot anyone they 
>"perceive" as threatening them.

I would think a vehicle refusing to stop and crashing through a 
road block could easily be "'perceived' as threatening them."

>U.S. troops are primarily involved in setting up a huge logistics
>operation to bring food and water for themselves, not starving 
>Somalis. To avoid criticism, however, on Dec. 11 the Pentagon did
>stage a Marine-escorted truck caravan carrying 20 tons of food 
>from a warehouse to a single feeding center in northern 
>Mogadishu.

This feeding center outside of Mogadishu is intended to be a depot
from which smaller shipments can be made.  They were stocking it,
as well as central depos in other towns around Somalia.

>The TV networks reported this as a great accomplishment, the 
>beginning of the end of the famine. In truth the caravan was just
>a publicity stunt. According to the Dec. 13 Washington Post, in 
>the three days before U.S. troops landed a single relief agency 
>had successfully moved 2,800 tons of food on its own using the 
>old system of paying Somali truckers, cargo handlers and security
>personnel.

On past shipments without military support, how much food actually
made it to the people it was intended for, and how much was hijacked,
looted, or ended up on the black market?

>CRISIS IN FAMINE BELT
...[deleted]

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