Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Somalia relief at risk Date: Wed, 4 Nov 92 16:16:30 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Somalia relief at risk \SH Gunman threaten U.N. personnel \BY Jonathan Clayton \CR REUTERS NEWS AGENCY \DT MOGADISHU, Somalia MOGADISHU, Somalia - Famine relief operations in Somalia risk collapse, with Somali gunmen sending death threats to foreign aid workers and warlords warning U.N. troops not to leave their barracks. Somali factional leaders have warned several aid organizations in the last few days of the danger of "accidents" and hinted at possible kidnappings because of the worsening security situation. "It's very unpleasant. The U.N. has got caught up in internal Somali politics, that's very dangerous," said one U.N. source who requested anonymity. Political analysts say the sudden hostility toward foreigners and the United Nations is the direct result of changes in the complex web of Somali interclan alliances taking place in the ruined Horn of Africa country. All sides are eager to keep operations of the United Nations and other nongovernmental agencies outside the turf of their enemies. "They see the U.N. presence legitimizing the other side," said one expert on Somali politics. "For Somalis, if you are working with their enemy, then you are the enemy. That's the mess the U.N. has got itself into." He also said the United Nations paid large sums of money - up to $5,000 a month for a house alone - for support operations and warlords were competing for cash. Many relief workers linked the death threats to the country's most feared warlord, Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid. He wants to prevent the deployment of U.N. troops until he has regained ground lost to his foe last month. Some 500 Pakistani U.N. troops sent to protect the relief operation are virtually confined to barracks at the end of Mogadishu's airport. Gen. Aidid talks of "unprecedented bloodshed" if they take up positions without "permission." The Somalian people remain the weakest party in this conflict but are paying the highest price. "We are almost back to square one. It's terribly depressing," said Rakiya Omaar of the human rights group Africa Watch. With fighting on the increase across the devastated south, aid workers say the death toll has almost returned to the levels seen in July, when a shocked world was jolted into action by one of the worst famines of this century. A Reuters correspondent who visited the southern town of Bardere, which Gen. Aidid lost last month to an alliance of southern clans led by a son-in-law of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, said about 200 people were dying each day. Gen. Aidid has warned aid agencies who used to run feeding centers in Bardere not to return. Relief groups say if they ignore the advice, their staff will become targets. They say Gen. Aidid is becoming so desperate to shore up his power base that he is preparing to try repair a former alliance with his sworn rival and so-called interim president, Ali Mahdi Mohamed. Both men, who belong to different subclans of the Hawiye tribe, were allies against Mr. Siad Barre, ousted in January 1991. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM