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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 34                 November 3, 1992.               ISSN 1103-1999

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Somalia News Update is published irregularly via electronic mail.
Questions can be directed to antbh@strix.udac.uu.se or to fax number
+46-18-151160. All material is free too quote as long as the source 
is stated.
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   RIFT IN THE USC?

   (SNU, November 3) For some time now there have been indications that the 
USC are deep financial crisis. It has been alleged that some of the 
business men, e.g. Osman Ato, in charge of the proceeds from the khat 
import are no longer as willing as before to see their profit turned into 
ammunition. With UN and other Aid agencies withdrawing support from 
Kismayo, the popular support for the hardliners surrounding general Aydiid 
may also be decreasing. The official USC stance throughout the Kismayo 
crisis has been that, "tranquility reigns". The USC has clinged so hard to 
this version that they demanded that the head of Medicin sans frontiere be 
replaced for claiming anything else.
   Now there are signs of a political rift inside the USC. In last week a 
person called Mohamed Kanyare Afrah claimed to have "replaced Aydiid as the 
leader of USC". He also announced that on Ocotober 31 a meeting would be 
held in Mogadishu between several of the military factions fighting in the 
South. The factions mentioned apart from the USC itself were: Somali 
National Front (SNF), Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), United Somali Party 
(USP), United Somali Front (USF), Somali Democratic Alliance (SDA), and
Somali Democratic Movement (SDM). 
   In a statement quoted by IPS Mohamed Kanyare went on to say that there 
is "a national outcry for the restoration of peace, law and order in 
Somalia. Somali elders, religious leaders and intellectuals have
committed themselves to exploring ways of re-establishing peace and 
tranquillity in somalia".  According to the same IPS telegram, Mohamed 
Kanyare also surrprisingly, appealed to the united nations to send more 
troops to the country in order to create peace corridors to ensure relief 
food reaches the starving population.
   Several things are unclear with these statements. Several times 
previously "new spokesmen" for one or the other faction have surfaced. 
However, even if Mohamed Kanyare Afrah should turn out not to represent USC 
officially, his statements do reflect attitudes within the USC membership. 
USC has long argued that they are in a position to maintain law and order 
on their own and do not need any involvement by the UN troops. General 
Aydiid in July conceded to have 500 UN troops deployed in Mogadishu. 
However, he ahs so far not agreed to have any other troops stationed in the 
country. 
   In August USC allied with the Ogadeni (SPM) forces under the leadership 
of Omar Jees. The alliance, SNA, was also scorned by Mohamed Kanyare in his 
statment.
 
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Posted by Bernhard Helander in Uppsala, Sweden.