___________________________________________________________________ S O M A L I A N E W S U P D A T E ____________________________________________________________________ No 12 September 11, 1992. ISSN 1103-1999 ____________________________________________________________________ Somalia News Update is published irregularly via electronic mail and fax. Questions can be directed to antbh@strix.udac.uu.se or to fax number +46-18-151160. All material is free to quote as long as the source is stated. ____________________________________________________________________ This dispatch simply forwards articles from USENET. A word of caution about the first item: forged letters are very common in Somalia right now and that story certainly needs a lot of cross-checking.... From: bk577@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jane Bires Jiumaleh) Date: 11 Sep 1992 04:33:18 GMT Newsgroups: soc.culture.african Subject: Re: SOMALIA: As if hunger is not bad en NPR reported today that the Somali "minister of health" signed a $80 million agreement to allow European countries to dump toxic waste in SOmalia. The agreement was signed last December; was the signatory a member of Ali Mahdi's "interim govt?" In any case, the agreement was secret. No evidence of payment of dumping yet. BUT, I have been hearing rumors in the Somali community in Ottawa all summer that toxic waste HAS been dumbped in Somalia Has anyone else heard these rumors? Can anyone provide more information? Waste was to be transported by Swiss and Italian ships. It's too shocking to think that Euripe would take advantage of Somalia's lack of government to sign such a n agreement with a figurehead who needs money for his civil war effort and probably represents little of the citizens outside Mogadishu. Do I need to mention that Somalia does not have the technical knowledge to handle and store toxic w waste safely? Do we have a fax number for the Swiss? Jane Bires Jimumaleh (that should be, Jiumaleh) From: dmorse@igc.apc.org (Dorothy Morse) Date: 9 Sep 92 11:15:00 GMT Newsgroups: soc.culture.african Subject: Red Cross on Somalia needs >From telephone discussion with International Committee for the Red Cross, Sept. 8, 1992: 1. The ICRC has estimated that 60,000 tons of food a month are needed in Somalia. Whether this total amount is being shipped is still not clear, unfortunately. What is clear is: there have been some improvements in some places--kids who were starving are getting better unhappily, since the food is not yet reaching all the needy areas, the poor starving Somalians in some areas, seeing the planes, walk long distances for food, and in their weakened conditions, die by the roadside.{ 2. The food supply must keep coming. The ICRC also needs *money* for "logistics"--fuel for their trucks, and other requirements for transporting and serving food. This money can come from donor nations and from private contributions. Private contributions should say "Somali relief" on the check and on the envelope. 3. I asked if we should continue public pressure. Answer: "The ICRC of course cannot ask anyone to do any lobbying. But it wouldn't hurt, now that Congress is back in session, for people to write the Congressional Select Committees on Hunger" to keep Somalia in the public eye and keep the relief projects funded. 4. I asked about the famous media statement (found in almost every story about Somalia) that "half the food sent is looted." They said there is no practical way to determine how much food is being looted. (In a September 4 article in the New York Times, the ICRC said that much more than half its food {is getting through to the needy. I mentioned this to the spokesperson on the phone and he agreed.) They are also aware that media emphasis on looting discourages people from donating. I'll try to get names, addresses, phones and faxes for the Select Committees on Hunger and post them soon.{ Meantime, received a call from a lady in Wisconsin whose brother-in-law and family are in a Somali refugee camp on the beach at Yemen. She is trying to get on Usenet so that she can post and join in our efforts. She has a lot of information and is facing huge difficulties trying to get clothes to her relatives, for example (they say they will have no clothes at all soon). I found that talking to her gave me new {resolve to keep on going, to try to soften the effects of this tragedy to the greatest extent possible. Meantime, some wonderful people on Internet and peacenet are going ahead with their efforts to raise money. Seth Grimes and Franca Brilliant are reaching out to Jewish Congregations with an appeal, and Pete Newsome of Purdue university is working on a fundraising campaign. NOTE: I always forget this, but it's important. Checks for the Int'l Committee for the Red Cross should be made out to the American Red Cross and earmarked for Somali relief. From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr Aaron Barnhart) Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 01:00:11 GMT Newsgroups: soc.culture.african Subject: IPS: SOMALIA: European parliamentarians ~Title: SOMALIA: European parliamentarians to visit later this month brussels, sep 1 (ips) -- european parliamentarians will later this month step foot among the hundreds of thousands of starving in somalia in an effort to get the african country on the political agenda -- now primarily focused on iraq and former yugoslavia. ''somalia is not a political priority like yugoslavia or even iraq,'' said british socialist mp, michael mcgowan, a member of the 'joint assembly' grouping european parliamentarians with delegates from the 69 african, caribbean and pacific (acp) nations. the reason for the visit -- a specific date has not been announced -- is to assess if the ec should be doing more alongside the relief efforts of other international institutions and non- governmental organisations (ngos) like save the children and the international red cross. mcgowan tuesday criticised the slow reaction of some international bodies and the poor coordination of on-the-spot relief efforts. but before pointing any fingers, he said it was necessary for the parliamentarians to go and see for themselves what is happening. although the parliamentarians have no hold on the ec's purse strings, their voices often put pressure on the decision makers. former prime minister of belgium wilfried martens, a well-known christian democrat, returned here from a weeklong visit tuesday, saying that the priority at this moment is to provide greater security for the food aid, rather than make bigger food commitments. save the children and many other ngos are however calling for the flooding of somalia with food aid to prevent looting. the argument is that the warring factions would no longer loot the aid if it was abundant. the united nations has already sent 500 blue berets to somalia to prevent looting of donor aid, but dr pierre harze of the medecins sans frontieres (msf), does not think this is enough. ''somalia is an immense country, even 3,000 blue berets could prove insufficient,'' said harze. ''we are facing colossal difficulties. in the port of kissimayo (southern somalia), there are five msf expatriates working with 42 locally recruited armed guards, surrounding our feeding centres,'' he added. ''i take my hat off to anyone working there.'' earlier this week, save the children director nicolas hinton, described the u.n.'s efforts to date as ''ill-equipped, ill- informed and uncoordinated''. (more/ips) somalia: european parliamentarians to visit later this month(2-e) somalia: european (2) and while the ec has been responsive in terms of funding, it too has come under fire for its bureaucracy which delays the release of funds, and its insistence of prioritising security measures as a prerequisite for sending more aid. the msf, like mcgowan, feels that the political will to organise long-term efforts and confront the security problem is lacking. ''just look at how many people are working on the yugoslavia files in the ec, compared with somalia,'' said one msf official. the european community's representative in mogadishu was recalled several months ago as violence in the civil war which has gripped the country for the last 20 months, escalated. no ec member state has any representative in the country, which is why there is a general lack of accurate information coming out, says mcgowan. but he insists that the ec is by far the largest donor of humanitarian aid to somalia. over the past 18 months the ec has contributed over 40 million european currency units (52 million dollars) in humanitarian aid and 20 million ecus (26 million dollars) worth of logistical support.(end/ips/ip/dp/cpg/92) -- Mr. Aaron Barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us -- posting from Evanston, Illinois From: Dorothy Morse Date: 10 Sep 92 19:13 PDT Newsgroups: soc.culture.african Subject: SOMALIA: new action appeal Please call the House Select Committee on Hunger at 202-226-5470. Or fax them at 202-226-0034. The members of the International Task Force of this committee are Vic Fazio, California Peter H. Kostmayer, Pennsylvania Byron L. Dorgan, North Dakota Bob Carr, Michigan Timothy J. Penny, Minnesota Albert G. Bustamente, Texas Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, American Samoa Alan Wheat, Missouri (the above are Democrats) Benjamin A. Gilman, New York Robert F. (Bob Smith), Oregon Doug Bereuter, Nebraska Duncan L. Hunter, California Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Christopher H. Smith, New Jersey (the above are Republicans) If any of the above are your representative, it would be quite effective to phone that representative personally, or fax him. Please phone or fax the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on African Affairs Phone: 202-224-4651 Fax: 202-224-5011 Ali Mohamed of the Save Somalia Project also strongly advises continuing to fax and phone Boutros-Ghali, Secretary General of the UN. That fax number again is 212-963-4879 For Internet users, you may fax for free using the number Boutros_Ghali@f00912129634879.fax.sunet.se IGC (peacenet, etc.) may also fax with this free SUNET number. Do as you do for email. At the "To:" prompt, simply type in the free number "Boutros_Ghali@f00912129634879.fax.sunet.se" (don't use the quotes and don't use the prefix "Fax:"). This is treated as email by IGC and there is no charge. However, it generates afax a fax at SUNET and comes out the UN fax machine. Thank you for helping. Let's give it all we've got and perhaps we will save many innocent lives. From: llk@kepler.unh.edu (Local Genius) Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 18:32:58 GMT Newsgroups: soc.culture.african Subject: The OAU/AFRICA AND SOMALIA According to Boutros Ghali, the UN Secretary General, and as most of the readers already know, there was very little presssure, if any, from African countries to get the UN to help Somalia. Speaking to Ted Koppel on Nightline last night (09/09/92), Ghali said that this was in sharp contrast to the situation in the former Yugoslavia where European members of the UN made all kinds of noises. The OAU has been shameful (immoral?) in its handling of the famine in Somalia. Although it is probably impractical to expect African countries to send food aid to Somalia, there is a lot they could have done. For example, the OAU and the African countries could have said to the UN, you find the food, we'll make the neccessary logistical/security arrangements. Surely, the UN didn't have to look to Pakistan for the security personnel. Perhaps we need to pressure African leaders and the OAU to play a more active role, especially since some continue to use the security "problem" as an excuse for delaying food aid to Somalia. -- lk(with the man in the yellow hat) Hamba Ine, Adada cha! ** I take one day at a time but lately, several have attacked me all at once **