DURING Siad Barre’s rule, there was relative peace and development in Somalia.
Besides customarily receiving guns and ammunition from Europe and the US, Barre’s government was very Islamic and had no puppet strings behind Somalia’s leadership.
After the rise of the US post Second World War, Britain’s interests in Somalia, that is their strategic coastal area, were taken up by the US.
In 1990, the Somali population was about four million. Divisions began to ruin Barre’s rule for he was being accused by the West of being a life president and a dictator. It is typical of the US to demonise African leaders to cause division and change regimes.
Before long Barre was ousted and eventually fled to Nigeria for refuge. Then the country was deliberately flooded with arms from the West for this very purpose and Somalia became divided and warlords began ruling over sections of the country. Out of all the different warlords, the most influential and popular figure among the Somalis was Muhammad Farra Aidid.
Then Somalia was hit by a serious drought in 1992. Even Zimbabwe suffered the effects of that year’s famine. Pastures dried up and water became scarce. Somalia was affected so badly by that drought that people, along with crops and livestock began to die.
The UN sent envoys with food, medicine and water to Somalia. Though Aidid was labelled a warlord, it was his son, Hussein Aidid who had studied in the US, who worked very closely with the UN to effectively aid the Somali people.
The UN was welcomed by the Somali people and operation ‘restore hope’ was successful.
Seeing an opportune moment, the US, under George Bush Senior, decided to make its move to occupy the coast of Somalia by military means, taking advantage of the UN’s presence in Somalia.
In December of 1992 the US under the banner of the UN, sent in 20 000 of its own troops that stationed in the capital city of Somalia, Mogadishu. The US then tried to coerce Muhammad Farra Aidid to co-operate with US interests in forming a new Somali government acceptable to the international community. By international community, the US meant the Western nations of Europe and itself.
Aidid refused and swore to form an Islamic government. The US then approached all the smaller warlords in an attempt to make a coalition government against Aidid.
Most of the US troops under the UN were shortly after replaced by multi-national UN peacekeeping forces from Pakistan and India, among other places.
The remaining US troops began solely working on ousting Aidid and the UN forces started going after Aidid because he was refusing to co-operate with the UN.
Though they had initially called their rescue operation a success because they had fed millions of Somalis, the UN began making exaggerated and false reports of the diversion of UN aid by Aidid’s men. On the contrary, Aidid’s own son was behind the success of that operation because he bridged the linguistic and cultural gap between the Somalis and the UN forces.
In breach of the UN mandate to rescue Somalis from drought, the UN by 1993 was heavy in arms and military presence. The drought was over by the spring and the Somali people were now wondering what the foreigners still wanted when their help and presence were no longer needed.
The raids against Aidid, who was loved by the Somalis, also made the UN forces unpopular.
It soon became clear that the foreigners, through the UN, were interfering in Somali politics. This united the Somalis against the foreigners and they bombed UN tanks. When asked why, the Somalis cited the undermining of their authority by the foreigners, the risk of being converted to Western Christianity, the brain drain of their young and educated to the Diaspora.
The uprising of the Somali marked Aidid as an outlaw. The UN began making raids on Somali people which led to casualties of innocent and blameless men, women and children.
The UN forces became villains and oppressors to the Somalis beginning 1993, mainly because they unjustly killed their people. However, the Somalis knew that though they were being victimised by UN operations, it was US executive power behind it.
Then the US sent in Special Forces from Fort Bragg, Carolina, to deal with the problem. Aidid was given the code name ‘Gothic Serpent’. Prior to being sent to Somalia, the US troops from the army, navy and air force were put together for joint training, specifically for the Somali mission.
The marines entered Somalia claiming they were trying to secure UN food shipments, and to avoid future problems in Somalia, they were to capture Aidid and dismantle his key infrastructure.
Alongside the US troops set for Somalia, was a premier combat team called Delta Force, which comprised a small group of specially selected militia. Members of the Delta Force were trained to do special operations such as targeting individuals, acquiring (abducting) them and imprisoning them.
The best shooters and assault teams were selected from Fort Campbell in Kentucky. There was also a select unit of pilots who flew army combat helicopters called Night Stalkers. The Aidid operation, though well prepared for, was considered by the US to be a low intensity conflict.
When they stationed in Somalia, they found the whole population resentful towards them and the foreign UN troops. Lawlessness was all over the land as the people lived by the gun, resulting in the strong oppressing the weak. There is no better opportunity for invasion, than when a nation is divided.
On June 5 1993, the UN conducted a surprise search and inspection on an Aidid operation. The uprising led to the death of many Somalis, and also 24 UN forces of Pakistani nationality. The Somalis had time and again spoke to the foreigners saying, “You are all foreigners in our country, yet you go against our leader (Aidid). Shall we then yield to you, a group of foreign invaders?”
The UN started putting bounties on the heads of listed targets among the Somalis. The prize increased according to the importance of the target and the reward for capturing Aidid was set at US$25 000. The whole idea of rewarding people for abducting and killing their leaders was insulting to the Somalis.
Admiral Hal of the US marines requested for the Delta force to capture Aidid but Bill Clinton, who had just taken presidency after George Bush Senior, initially refused. That was until a similar uprising by the Somalis took place on August 8, but this time, four US soldiers were killed.
(To be continued)