Effort to Evacuate Foreigners From Somalia Stalls

[nuune]

Efforts to evaculate the remaining foreigners from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, were stalled today after Western governments failed in their efforts to get a lull in the fighting, now in its fifth day.

 

The Italian Government sent C-130 transport planes to Nairobi today for use in evacuation of its 400 citizens, 77 Americans and citizens of several European nations. But the Somali Government warned Italy, the former colonial power of the southern half of the country, that such an evacuation would be considered an unriendly act. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was willing to accept an Italian proposal that the Red Cross operate the Italian flights, thus guaranteeing that they would be a humanitarian exercise. The Red Cross said that the rebel group, the United Somali Congress, had agreed to the proposal but that there was no response from the Government. Fighting at the Airport

 

The head of Africa operations for the Red Cross group, Pierre Gassman, said from Geneva that the organization's workers in the capital reported heavy fighting at the military side ofthe Mogadishu airport this morning. Since the military area is adjacent to the civilian airport, it is not clear whether it would be possible to fly in with a rescue operation, Mr. Gassman said.

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The Government of President Mohammed Siad Barre, in power since a coup in 1969, has been challenged with increasing intensity by an array of guerrilla groups for the past two and a half years.

 

The United States supported the Somali President after 1977 when the Horn of Africa was considered of strategic importance in the cold war and the Soviet Union deserted Somalia,then its client, in favor of Ethiopia. But since mid-1989, as human rights violations became more flagrant, Washington has cut its economic and military aid to virtually nothing.

 

Diplomats in Nairobi who were in contact with their embassies in Mogadishu said today that the situation in the capital appeared to be degenerating, as one called it, into a "grisly" affair. A Somali man who walked to the Mogadishu airport from the rebel-held north of the city Wednesday said he counted 50 bodies along the way on the roadside.

 

A Kenyan diplomat who also flew out Wednesday said he saw indiscriminate shooting by Somali soldiers as he drove to the airport. He got a seat on the Somali Airlines plane to Nairobi by handing over the keys of his car to the airport clerk, he said. A Washington official involved in planning evacuations of the Americans left in Mogadishu said the main goal was to get everyone out. "It is illusory to think we can do anything about the situation" between the Government and the rebels, he said. Clan-Based Group

 

The United Somali Congress, the rebel group that started its assault on the city on Sunday, already controls the center of the country, which lies on the eastern edge of the Horn of Africa. Like all the rebel groups, the congress is based on clan membership, that of the ****** ethnic group, which is dominant in the area of the capital.

 

The United Somali Congress, which was founded in the late 1980's and whose military wing is said to be headed by a former senior army officer of the Government, gets much of its strength from the middle-class people in Mogadishu who resent the exclusionary, clan-based rule of President Siad Barre. The President belongs to the ******* clan and he has favored its members in virtually all appointments.

 

Another rebel group, the Somali National Movement, is based on the I**** clan of the northern region, which was a British colony until the country obtained independence in 1960. The National Movement has controlled the northern section, except the city of Hargeisa, since mid-1988.

 

These two rebel organizations, together with a third, the Somali Patriotic Movement, which controls the south, issued a statement in London pledging to unite to form a transitional government and re-establish democratic institutions.

 

By JANE PERLEZ, Special to The New York Times

Published: January 04, 1991

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

The United Somali Congress, the rebel group that started its assault on the city on Sunday, already controls the center of the country, which lies on the eastern edge of the Horn of Africa. Like all the rebel groups, the congress is based on clan membership, that of the ****** ethnic group, which is dominant in the area of the capital.

 

Nimanki dabaysha weerar ku qaadi jiray

[xiinfaniin]

I was out of Mogadishu by January 4th. We left the 3rd and arrived Kismayo by 4th. It really got ugly the third week and after.

 

Surprisingly when I got to Kismayo people were going their daily lives quite normally. The city control was manned by regular police & custom authorities, Ganaane high school was full of students, all government branches were working normal. It was beautiful midday, we headed to the property my father owned but which the family abandoned late seventies/early eighties, and informed the residents who we were. It was smooth transfer...my older brother went back to Xamar to help bring the rest of the family to Kismayo.

 

As the carnage of Xamar intensified, I and those at my age were busy playing soccer at the scenic Lido beach. It is ironic my last memories of Somalia are so beautiful...so much so that my experience of Somalia's last days are so out of touch with that of the majority of the people. I departed from Fuma with a boat, a natural harbor whose scenic images are so fresh in my mind, at February 26 and arrived Mombasa on February 28. Kenyans were so nice in their hospitality it seemed as though an order was issued from the highest echelons of Kenya's power structure ...we were joined to a number of ministers and other folks who had the means to escape to safety at the famous Show Ground...and it had a beach too where we could swim with no problems.

 

So yes nuune ...

[nuune]

Xiin, those were the dayz, and the Utango life(visited Utango recently and the whole place is glittering with villa houses owned by Somalis), you and your family got out very quick before things got much uglier, well we were not so lucky enough, those were the days indeed, it is a history, and I hate anyone who tells me to forget it, I can't forget when 400+ people died in front of me(xididkii nixidda waagaas buu iga dhaqaaqey), it should be written, told as it happened, a relative of mine in Canada said he will write a book about a particular dhacdo where we(200+families) got trapped a whole day at one section of Xamar.

[Tillamook]

^

I urge you to stop dwelling on the past.