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               S O M A L I A  N E W S  U P D A T E

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No 16               September 16, 1992.               ISSN 1103-1999

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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.
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A Swedish TV-journalist said this Sunday that something has happened
to the media reports over the last two weeks. During the summer TV stations
have had a wealth of recent films to choose from in editing their reports, but
this flood of reports does now seem to have come to an end.

The reports that we get over here have a new tone. At last journalists are
beginning to look for the underlying causes of the conflict, realizing that
it is not just a question of severe famine but that famine has been generated
by a brutal civil war. Last night the French TV5 showed one of the best
reports I have seen. While most of it was shot in down town Mogadishu and
the port it showed that the war has affected the character of interpersonal
relations. Two men were fighting over a half-filled sack with food aid. They
were yelling insults at one another and all of a sudden one of the men raised
his sub-machine gun with its bayonett....Another scene: some kids quarrelling
in a street corner. All of a sudden one of the younger ones raises an 
enormous automatic gun against another one... 

Mohammed Sahnoun said tonight in a BBC interview that the security problems
remain a majaor obstacle for the UN operations in Somalia. He added that 
the UN expects to ship 100 000 tons of supplies over the next 100 days.

The security problems were aptly illustrated in a candid article in Africa
Confidential, September 5. The article claims that UN and other international
bodies are subjected to outright blackmail by the different factions. As
awareness of this spreads we are likely to see demands for more a more 
radical role to be played by UN troops.

Ken Menkhaus sent me this report:

>From KEMENKHAUS@apollo.davidson.edu Wed Sep 16 21:43:21 1992

	Two days ago, one of our major news programs (MacNeil-Lehrer News
Hour) devoted nearly one-half hour to the Somali crisis.  It included
a brief documentary by a British journalist in Somalia.  What was 
interesting and important about the report by the journalist is that
it was the first time (to my knowledge) that a news story has explained
the fact that most of the famine victims are Rahanweyn et al.  The report
wasn't very accurate on that score, but it was a start.  At last someone
has begun to talk about the ethnic component of the famine.
	Next followed an interview with four people, all involved in
some way with relief efforts in Somalia.  Kofi Annan was one; the US 
guy who's been handling US airlifts was another; then there was a guy
from CARE and a woman from International Medical Services.  The discussion
focused first one the usual security problems, but then took an interesting
turn when the CARE rep stated that the only effective way to insure
relief to the starving will be large-scale UN military intervention, AND
the imposition of UN administration over the ocuntry -- in effect, 
a trusteeship.  The IMS woman agreed, and said up until recently PVOs
were against such intervention, but now most have changed their minds.
Kofi noted that the UN counldn't act without the approval of the UN
member-states, who had numerous reasons to oppose such a move, but 
hinted that he too thought a much larger effort will be needed.  The 
US rep was put on the spot by a question asking why the US wouldn't 
support such a move, and he said the US is in fact encouraging the UN
to take greater measures to bring in UN troops.  All in all, it was
a real shift in tone from earlier discussions, when talk of unilateral
intervention was taboo.  Yesterday, NPR's "All Things Considered" interviewed
Said Samatar briefly, and he concurred that many Somalis themselves are
now hoping for international intervention to stop the fighting and insure
relief supplies get through.
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