In this issue: BAIDOA LIBERATED VAGUE STATMENTS ON DISARMAMENT ____________________________________________________________________ S O M A L I A N E W S U P D A T E ____________________________________________________________________ No 43 December 17, 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. ____________________________________________________________________ BAIDOA LIBERATED WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Thousands of cheering Somalis welcomed U.S. Marines and French Foreign Legionnaires Wednesday who rolled into the inland city of Baidoa, stricken by famine and, until then, by food thieving armed bands. "I have heard nothing but joy, waving and smiles," said Paul Jones, the deputy director for World Vision, one of the relief agencies working in Baidoa. "There's a lot of enthusiasm. The people were really looking for what we saw when the Marines came in." The Marines and their French allies moved quickly in delivering food to an orphanage supported by Jones' organization. The children welcomed their armed but humanitarian mission visitors by rhythmically clapping and chanting "welcome friends" in Somali. Some clasped the outstreched trooper's hands many times the size of their own tiny ones. Many were smiling. Another military delivery of relief supplies, into the stricken countryside outside Baidoa, is planned for Thursday. The region is one of those hit hardest by Somalia's famine. The Franco-American move into Baidoa, where at least some Somali gunmen lingered Tuesday night, went almost exactly according to the plan outlined by Marine Lt. Gen. Martin Brantner, the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Shortly after midnight Somali time, a 70-vehicle armored convoy of 532 Marines and 140 French Foreign Legionnaires set out by road from their base at the former Soviet airfield of Bale Dogle, which the Marines occupied Sunday. Driving in darkness over rough, pitted and washed-out roads, the overland convoy reached Baidoa at first light. Although they avoided the most congested central parts of the city, their way was lined by crowds of cheering Somalis. The convoy's objective was Baidoa's airport, a major storage center for the relief supplies which the U.S. Air Force has been flying in from neighboring Kenya since last August. As the Marines and French fanned out to secure the airport, helicopters bearing even more Marine reinforcements appeared after a 45 minutes, 150 mile flight from Bale Dogle. The troops moving by truck arrived in four and a half hours. A ragtag, irregular Somalia airport guard force of 100 stood stiffly at attention to turn the facility over to the Marines and French. They had earlier stowed their weapons. A Marine officer saluted the guards, who had protected the vital airfield and its supply dump against armed roving gangs for months. The Joint Chief' current intelligence officer, Navy Rear Adm. Michael Cramer, had earlier hailed the airfield security effort as "very well-organized" and "in good hands." Cramer also proved right in his earlier prediction of "no organized opposition or resistance to our coalition forces as they enter Baidoa. "There was none. All the armed Somali gangs had either left town or hidden their weapons. In the Somali capital, Mogadishu, the man whose negotiations with local warlords in Baidoa earlier this week contributed to the ease of the operation, special U.S. envoy and former Ambassador Robert Oakley, predicted more help to the stricken city would soon be on the way. "There will be a 10-truck convoy escorted from here to Baidoa this weekend," Oakley promised. "We're not sure whether it will be Saturday or Sunday." Opening of a safe land route between the capital and Baidoa had been a major objective of the military relief effort. But Oakley cautioned that the relief operation elsewhere in Somalia might not go as well as it had in Baidoa and in Mogadishu, where the first Marines landed a week ago. "We can't say that the examples of Mogadishu and Baidoa will automatically be replicated elsewhere," he warned, "because there are parts of the interior where there's more trouble, where the situation's more tense." Also in Mogadishu, American Red Cross President Elizabeth Dole toured relief facilities supported by her organization and said she would go to Baidoa as well. "My message to the American people," Dole said, "will be that they can give their money now and that the food supplies will all get through to the victims. A portion of it will not be ripped off in the process by looting." The Red Cross president praised the work of her organization's Somali counterpart, the Red Crescent. "Many of them have lost loved ones, people who have died from starvation," she said. "They have experienced all kinds of pain and suffering, and yet they are out there helping their neighbors, helping other Somalis." Relief workers in the inland southern city of Bardera reported that 10 people were killed and 10 wounded by gunmen who raided a relief camp there earlier this week. Like the southern port of Kismayo, Bardera is not scheduled to be secured until the third phase of the current armed relief effort. Wednesday's occupation of Baidoa only marks the completion of the operation's first phase. VAGUE STATMENTS ON DISARMAMENT (SNU, Uppsala) U. S. Secretary of State, Lawrence Eagleburger, who has been visiting Stockholm during theis week told journalist that disarming the Somali military factions falls clearly within the mandate of the U.S. forces. However, the very same day the Marine Lt. Gen. Martin Brantner said in an ITN interview that disarmament was too big a task for the U.S. and French forces. Media reports make it clear that hand guns are routinely confiscated by the Americans, although most heavy weaponry seem to be hidden away. It would seem fairly obvious that without disarmament as one of the main objectives of the operations the fighting will resume when the Americans leave. There are also signs that the some armed bands already have moved into the neighbouring countries. Relief workers on the Kenyan border reported already last week that heavily armed Somali units had crossed the border and looted a camp run by MSF. _________________________________________________________________ Posted by Bernhard Helander in Uppsala, Sweden.