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Subject: U.S. Moves to Protect Somalia Food Aid;Administration Agrees to Airlift More
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 92 04:45:04 EST
Message-ID: <26.1992Nov25.044505@AmeriCast.com>
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U.S. Moves to Protect Somalia Food Aid;Administration Agrees to
Airlift More U.N. Troops, if Requested<By Don
Oberdorfer=Washington Post Staff Writer= The Bush administration
has agreed to airlift 3,000 more U.N. troops to Somalia to pro-
tect relief operations, the State Department said yesterday, as
officials considered further steps to deal with a worsening
tragedy in that African country.

The U.S. decision, which was transmitted recently to U.N.  Secre-
tary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was made public as American
relief organizations said they may be unable to continue working
in Somalia unless security improves.

At a news conference here, spokesmen for the relief organizations
said the situation in Somalia has deteriorated in the last two
months despite international relief efforts, and complained about
a lack of security for the transportation and distribution of
food supplies rather than a scarcity of food itself.

"Millions of people are at risk of starvation.  Thousands of peo-
ple are dying daily. The only way we will stop this horror show
is to have sufficient security that food will make it to the
ports and will then make it out to the people in need," said John
Hammock, executive vice president of Oxfam America.

Several hours before Hammock spoke, gunmen from one of Somalia's
rival clans shelled a U.N. ship carrying wheat as it tried to
enter the port of Mogadishu, forcing the ship to turn back. The
port had been closed since Nov. 7 when another aid ship was fired
upon. About 11,000 metric tons of food previously delivered is
languishing at the port because of strife between rival gunmen,
according to news agencies.

U.N.  officials have been negotiating with clan leaders in
Somalia to obtain approval to dispatch 3,000 troops drawn from
Belgium, Canada and Egypt, as authorized by the U.N. Security
Council in August. The State Department expressed U.S. willing-
ness to airlift the troops to the area, if and when the United
Nations gives approval for the deployment.

Without an airlift, the troops would have to be transported by
time-consuming sea voyages while many more people die, according
to Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), who returned from a recent trip to
Somalia. To pay for the airlift, Simon and Sen. Howard M.
Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) proposed - and the administration agreed - to
count the costs as part of the $70 million the United States has
earmarked for U.N.  peacekeeping activities this year.

The United Nations has been reluctant to send the 3,000 troops,
who would augment 500 Pakistani troops already on the ground, un-
til permission is given by what a U.N. spokesman called "a grow-
ing list of local (Somali) authorities." One of the most powerful
of the Somali clan leaders, Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid, said
several weeks ago he would not agree to the deployment of addi-
tional U.N. troops.

A U.S. official familiar with discussions taking place within the
administration said a central issue is whether "we sit back and
accept" the refusal of clan leaders to agree to the deployment of
additional troops while Somalis continue to die in large numbers.

Officials said options for dealing with the deepening problem are
to be presented to President Bush today. The sources refused to
comment on how the United States could force the issue in the Un-
ited Nations or on the ground in Somalia.

Relief officials said that in addition to established groups of
rival gunmen, disorganized and often drug-crazed teenagers with
automatic weapons pose a deadly danger to humanitarian aid work-
ers seeking to distribute food and medical supplies.

Somalia began sliding into anarchy after the ouster of the
country's longtime dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, in early 1991.
Rival clan groups and eventually subgroups fell to fighting and
looting.  Rep. Bill Emerson (R-Mo.), who just returned from an
inspection trip, said "there is no civil authority in Somalia -
none." Emerson said there should be no respect for Somali
sovereignty "when there is no government and a state of total
anarchy in the country."

Expressing frustration with the slow pace of U.N. discussions
with "The only way we will stop this horror show is to have suf-
ficient security."<

-John Hammock of Oxfam America>

Somali clan leaders, Hammock said, "We cannot wait for negotiated
peace for there to be food distributed to people in need. Time is
of the essence. We can't wait for three months. We can't wait for
two months. At this time of Thanksgiving, we need to act and we
need to act now."

Another relief official quoted Barb Smith, a registered nurse
with extensive experience in disaster relief, as reporting that
"the situation in Somalia is beyond critical. The United Nations'
estimates that 250,000 people will die in November and December
are correct . . . .The situation in Somalia is so dangerous and
crazed - I do not use the word lightly - that the relief effort
will be unable prevent hundreds of thousands of people from dying
if the violence is not stopped."<02:20 11-25C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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