From: Bernhard.Helander@antro.uu.se (Bernhard Helander) Subject: Somalia News Update, No 15 In this issue: * USC IN CLASH WITH UNOSOM II TROOPS IN MOGADISHU ____________________________________________________________________ S O M A L I A N E W S U P D A T E ____________________________________________________________________ Vol 2, No 15 June 5, 1993. 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 SNU marked material is free to quote as long as the source is clearly stated. IPS articles may be reproduced 7 days after the original story date. ____________________________________________________________________ USC IN CLASH WITH UNOSOM II TROOPS IN MOGADISHU (SNU, Uppsala, June 6) The largest battle in Mogadishu for several months is reported to have taken place today as UNOSOM II troops prepared to inspect the ammunition ware houses of the Aydiid-led wing of the USC militia. According to an anonymous USC spokesman it was widely feared that the real mission of the Pakistani and US troops engaged in the mission was to gain control over the Aydiid-controlled Radio Mogadishu close to the ware houses. Hundreds of angry civilians entered into the streets and managed to capture a number of the UN troops. UNOSOM engaged two gunship helicopters in order to help their people on the ground release the captured soldiers and in the ensuing chaos three of the Pakistanis were killed. "The 25 killed and 103 wounded Somalis are not likely to be mentioned by the international media", the USC spokesman added bitterly. The UNOSOM II's spokesman, Mr. Mahlawi, said in a BBC interview that the number of casualties as well as the identity of the people resisting the UN troops were uncertain. Today's clash between the UNOSOM II troops and militia fighters comes as no big surprise to most observers. Since the Addis Ababa agreement handed over the political power to the very same militias that lay Somalia in ruins, while failing to set up a rudimentary disarmament mechanism, it has only been a question of time until new fighting was to erupt. In his report to the Security Council of March 3, the Secretary-General stated that 28 000 troops were needed to complete the mission of UNOSOM II as the UNITAF phase ended. However, the member states have pledged to supply only 18 000 troops. So far only some 10 000 of those have arrived in Somalia. UNOSOM II admits that this number is far from sufficient to achieve a complete disarmament, and UN special representative Ambassador Howe is said to have "given up hope of ever disarming the Somali factions". The Addis agreement of March 27 stipulates that "substantial disarmament" shall be completed within 60 days. Two weeks passed that deadline the disarmament committee has still not agreed on the principles by which to disarm, and it remains doubtful whether any large-scale attempt to disarm is likely to take place at all. The UN's plan of operations has also failed to give attention to the critical role played by the absence of control of the Kenyan border. Kenya remains the chief transit country for the arms that are continuosly supplied to several of the militias. UNOSOM II plans to station one senior officer in Nairobi to counter the illicit arms trade. Observers have remarked that it would be more cost-efficient to place 250 troops along the border. The eruption of violence today is parallelled by a growing annoyance among several of the Somali factions with UNOSOM II's failure to acknowledge spontaneously concluded accords between the militias. The USC spokesman mentioned that when the USC and SSDM militias met recently to discuss the problems in the central regions between the Habar Gedir and Majertayn clans "UNOSOM declared that our agreements meant nothing because the talks had not been approved by UNOSOM". A similar episode was when elders of the Rahanweyn and Digil clans met recently in Boonka outside Baydhabo to disuss a possible merger between the two factions of their militia, the SDM. The Rahanweyn and Digil are the groups of clans that have possibly suffered most losses during the civil war and their, largely unarmed, militia have been split between between Ali Mahdi who controls the nothern part of Mogadishu and Aydiid who controls the southern part of Mogadishu and heads the SNA alliance that controls extensive areas of Southern Somalia. UNOSOM denied funding that meeting as they feared that it would mean giving birth to a third SDM grouping. In reality, however, the Boonka meeting was the first chance the elders of Somalia's most severly famine-struck region had had in over a year to discuss outstanding political issues. The USC spokesman concluded his talk with Somalia News Update by saying "if the UNOSOM people were really interested in solving the problem of Somalia they should get out of their offices and walk on the streets and speak to real people... but they seem more interested in writing their reports and carry on with their paper work". With the budget for UNOSOM II during the two-year transitional phase still in the red and the meagre prospects for disarmament of the militias, it remains more likely that war will be the future of Somalia than peace. __________________________________________________________________ SNU is an entirely independent newsletter devoted to critical analysis of the political and humanitarian developments in Somalia and Somaliland.