From: hrcoord@igc.apc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: Somalia: food delayed, mass deaths
Date: 11 Sep 92 19:22:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700443:000:5003
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Sep 11 12:22:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: Somalia: food delayed, mass deaths

/* Written  7:00 pm  Sep 10, 1992 by dmorse in cdp:soc.cult.afric */
The death by starvation of 1 1/2 million Somalians is now underway, according
to Ann Stingle, International spokesperson for the American Red Cross.  She
says that food is still not reaching places where it is needed.

Reasons for this tragedy appear in a New York Times article of September 7,
1992, by Jane Perlez.

1.  American airlifts so far are going only into Belet Uen (already served
by the Red Cross) and Baiadoa.
   Americans so far are ignoring other places..."In Bardera, about
16,000 people have gathered in the last few weeks.  "  (Americans initially
went in there and cut down trees around the airstrip to fly in food.)
But the US decided later *not* to fly in food for "political reasons..."
They said they were "leery of giving too much of a boost to Gen. Mohanned
Farra Aidid, whose HQ is in Bardera."  Aidid is oposed by Mohamed Ali Mahdi,
who "controls the northern sector of Mogadishu (capital city of Somalia)."
Jane Perlez, the reporter, writes "by not sending food to Bardera, the US
appears intent on not offending Mr. Mahdi--even at the cost of many more
people dying.

    The US wanted the UN's World Food Program to fly food in, but they
say they are "strapped for aircraft" and haven't been able "to keep up
a steady flow of food," Perlez reports.  (NOTE: there are said to be
500 airplane trips a week bringing relief to Yugoslavia.)
    
     Perlez also describes a little boy, "a lone figure," in the bleak
Somalian landscape, struggling toward the feeding center, his parents and
three brothers all dead from starvation at home.  The little boy was
holding an empty cup and a bowl with a few drops of water--all he had.

    "Untold numbers have died in the sandy tracks into town, and at least
60 people die there every day," Perlez writes.

    2.  The second problem appears to be that total food shipments are
insufficient.  Last week the UN announced they were sending 72,000 tons
of food.  Mohamed Sahnoun, a special UN envoy to Somalia, criticized the
amount, saying this is "not much."  "So far they've given only
30,000 tons.  What's 30,000 tons?  We should be sending 50,000 tons a month."
        Sahnoun said the UN has been "embarrassed into working harder."
Sahnoun indicated that in the past the UN staff sent to Somalia had shown
a lack of commitment, and left for the beaches of Djibouti while Save
the Children, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Committee
for the Red Cross were left to struggle against the horror.

     3. UN delays seem to lengthen into more delays.  The 500 Pakistani
soldiers who were to be dispatched in mid-August and rushed in on Pentagon
planes are still not there, and, according to the NY Times Sept. 7, 19912,
1992, "are not expected for several weeks."

     Boutros-Ghali was on Nightline last night (according to Ali Mohaned
of the Save Somalia Project in Atlanta, GA) and told Ted Koppel the
500 Pakistanis would be in Somali by today.  But Ali Mohamed predicts
further delay.  Ali Mohamed also said he thinks that in the past the
UN personnel (who make large sums of money) vacationed in Nairobi instead
of working in Somalia when they were sent out to deal with the Somalian crisis.

     4.  As we have noted before in this conference, the 145,000 tons of food
announced by Bush August 14 as aid for Somalia (along with the Pakistani
troops--this was just before the Republican Convention)  will not 
even start to arrive in Somalia until after October 1.

     Furthermore, the NY Times says, only 10% of that will go in airlifts.
The rest will be "sent on ships and sold to Kenya merchants who, according
to American officials, will resell it at monitored prices."

    Thus this food and this "monetization" program are not at all likely
to help the 1 1/2 million starving right now.




   The bottom line:  governments and the UN need to be stimulated to
move faster and with more total commitment to keeping Somalians alive.

More food must move now.  The relief workers still maintain their call for
"a flood of food."  The 500 Pakistanis, so much talked about, must actually
get there and start guarding convoys, which must actually move food.
Airlifts must go where the people are.

    Goverments and the UN must do more than make promises to appease
public opinion and then sink back into bureaucratic indifference.
They must act immediately to stop the tragic mass deaths beginning in 
Somalia now.


     The electronic-network community has acted to great effect recently.

Phone calls and faxes from peacenet and usenet people and Internet people
are probably part of the reason Somalia got any media or government
attention at all.

I'm hoping these compassionate efficient people still follow the Somalia
story and will have the time and energy and inclination to act again.

Please see next post "Somalia: new action appeal."