The Road to Hell (50 page)
Authors: Michael Maren
I
n April of 1981, I was living in Beledweyne, Somalia. Rains in Ethiopia forced the Shebelle River over its banks and into the streets of the town. As the river continued to rise, the townspeople and the refugees from the surrounding camps evacuated to higher ground. The UN dropped in some large, white military-style tents for the expatriates, and we set up a camp on the highest point we could find. The Somalis set up a vast makeshift encampment across the plains below us.
One evening I was drinking Scotch with some of the expatriatesâdemographers, disaster relief experts of all sorts, and scores of doctors: an American from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, a French doctor from MSF (Doctors Without Borders), and several others. We were talking about the flooding, the evacuation, the suffering. We talked in numbers: 20,000 people here and 50,000 there. We came up with solutions to everything. We computed how many tons of food and how much medicine it would take to relieve this disaster upon a disaster.
It was a calm night with a cool breeze. Below us we could see the fires from the vast encampment. Then out of the darkness, a young couple approached us. The man held a bundle in his arms. As he offered it forward, the woman carefully unwrapped the package; it was a sleeping baby. As they moved toward the lights of our tent, we could see that the baby had been burned over its entire body. The man explained that a pot of scalding hot water had tipped and covered the child. If we'd been in America, if the couple had had insurance, if the child had survived, he would have spent years in a sterile burn unit and received hundreds of skin grafts to save his life. It would have cost fortunes. The parents knew how serious the child's injuries were, but they also believed they were fortunate this night. We could see that they had full confidence that these foreign doctors would give the baby some injections and some balms, and the child would be fine. The doctors knew the child would die, painfully, over days. One of the doctors went and brought some pain killers for when the baby awoke. There was nothing else to do.
We went back to drinking our Scotch, in silence.
*
ECOMOG soldiers were reported to have participated in some of the looting when fighting flared up there. And some of the troops profited from arranging charter ships for desperate Liberian refugees to flee the country.
*
Address to Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, May 24, 1996.
1960
July 1
British and Italian Somali territories join to form an independent Somalia.
1969
October 15
President Abdirashiid Ali Shermaarke is assassinated.
October 21
Siyaad Barre seizes power in military coup.
1970
October 21
Siyaad commits Somalia to “scientific socialism,” and officially aligns Somalia with the Soviet Union. The Soviets begin a massive arms buildup designed to shore up Somalia against the U.S. ally, Ethiopia.
1974
September 12
Ethiopian Emperor and U.S. ally Haile Selassie overthrown in military coup. U.S. continues to supply arms and aid to new regime in order to counter Marxist elements in the junta.
1977
February 3
Mengistu Haile Mariam takes control in Ethiopia and moves toward a radical Marxist agenda. Citing human rights abuses, the U.S. ends military and economic aid several months later.
September
The Western Somalia Liberation front launches a massive attack on Ethiopia and advances through most of the Ogaden region.
1978
April
Ethiopia retakes the Ogaden with the aid of Cuba and the USSR. Refugees flee into Somalia.
1980
August
The U.S. and Somalia sign an agreement exchanging U.S. arms for access to the abandoned Soviet military base at Berbera.
1981
January
The Somali National Movement (SNM) is founded to oppose the Barre regime.
June
CARE joins with the National Refugee Commission and forms CARE/ELU to deliver food to refugees in Somalia.
1988
April
Somalia and Ethiopia sign peace agreement forcing Ethiopia-based rebel SNM to return to Somalia. They occupy Hargeysa and the government responds
by bombing the city, killing tens of thousands and creating new refugee problems.
1989
January
The opposition United Somali Congress (USC) is founded by members of the Hawiye clan.
1990
December
USC forces approach the city of Mogadishu. Most aid workers leave the country.
1991
January 26
Siyaad Barre is finally driven from Mogadishu by the USC.
January 29
Ali Mahdi Mohamed is declared interim president by the USC. Part of the USC, led by General Mohamed Farah Aydiid, opposes the appointment.
May 18
At a conference in the town of Burao, the SNM declares the independence of the Republic of Somaliland.
July 5
Aydiid's faction of the USC, now called the Somali National Alliance (SNA), declares him as their leader.
September
Siyaad Barre's forces stage a comeback bid. He seizes Baidoa. His troops loot grain storage bins and destroy farms. Counterattacks against Barre by Aydiid's militia lead to further destruction of agriculture. Both armies pursue a scorched-earth policy in Somalia's agricultural region leading to the famine.
November 17
The beginning of four months of fighting in Mogadishu between the factions led by Aydiid and Ali Mahdi. The city is leveled.
1992
January 1
Boutros Boutros-Ghali becomes Secretary General of the United Nations.
March 3
After a conference at UN headquarters in New York, Aydiid and Ali Mahdi sign a peace agreement. Other factions continue to battle in the south.
April 24
UNSecurity Council Resolution 751 establishes UNOSOM. Mohamed Sahnoun is soon appointed Special Representative.
April 25
Aydiid drives Siyaad Barre's forces out of Somalia and across the border to Kenya. Famine conditions become serious in the south.
August 12
Aydiid and Ali Mahdi agree to the deployment of a 500-man peacekeeping force to protect humanitarian operations.
August
A unilateral American operation, Provide Relief, airlifts tons of needed food into famine regions.
September 14
The 500 Pakistani peacekeepers arrive. Famine conditions begin to subside.
October 13
The UN approves the 100-day emergency Program for Somalia. Philip Johnston of CARE heads the program. For the first time the UN begins talking about 300,000 deaths in Somalia.
October
Aydiid decides he doesn't want UNOSOM in Mogadishu and moves his troops into the city from Bardera. Siyaad Barre's forces return from Kenya and capture Bardera leading to a spike in famine deaths. Speculation that the U.S. will send the Marines fuels press coverage of the violence and starvation.
November
WFP ships are attacked attempting to deliver food to Mogadishu. Both factions in the city engage UN troops.
November 25
U.S. President George Bush officially offers to intervene militarily in Somalia.
December 9
UNITAF forces land on the beaches of Mogadishu in full combat gear and are greeted by hundreds of journalists and cheering Somalis. The UN asks that UNITAF disarm the Somali factions.
1993
January 4-15
A meeting of 15 Somali factions in Addis Ababa agrees to cooperate with UNITAF and store heavy weapons at authorized inspection sites.
March 9
Admiral Jonathan Howe becomes UN Special Representative in Somalia in preparation for the U.S.'s handing the operation back to UNOSOM.
Late March
The forces of warlord Mohamed Hersi Morgan (loyal to Siyaad Barre) sneak weapons and soldiers past UNITAF troops into the port city of Kismaayo and defeat the forces of warlord Omar Jess, who is allied with Aydiid. Aydiid supporters feel betrayed by UNITAF.
March 26
Under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Security Council adopts Resolution 814 establishing UNOSOM II. The ambitious mandate talks of reestablishing political structures, a.k.a. nation building.
May 4
UNOSOM II officially takes over from UNITAF. The U.S. leaves behind a Quick Reaction Force to protect the UN from any attacks or to respond to emergencies.
June 5
24 Pakistani UNOSOM soldiers die in Mogadishu in clashes with forces loyal to Aydiid.
June 6
In a Sunday emergency session the Security Council adopts Resolution 837 authorizing UNOSOM II to take “all necessary measures” against those responsible for the attack.
June 12-17
UNOSOM forces, predominantly the American Quick Reaction Force, go on the offensive against Aydiid, destroying his radio station and other strategic locations.
June 17
Admiral Howe issues the arrest warrant against Aydiid and puts a $25,000 bounty on his head.
July 12
U.S. Cobra helicopters firing TOW missiles attack “Abdi House” where a group of Somali elders from Aydiid's clan are holding a regular meeting. Around 50 are killed. Four foreign journalists are killed by angry mobs.
August 8
Four American soldiers in a Humvee are killed by a command-detonated mine in Mogadishu
August 26
Task Force Ranger arrives in Mogadishu to capture Aydiid.
September 25
Three U.S. soldiers are killed when their helicopter is shot down by Aydiid's militia using a rocket-propelled grenade. Their bodies are desecrated, but the military keeps the information under wraps.
October 3
The debacle: 18 Americans and perhaps 700 Somalis die in a failed attempt to snatch Aydiid. Again the bodies of the dead are desecrated but this time a cameraman from Reuters is on hand to record the event. An American flier is kidnapped and photos of his battered body are broadcast and published around the world.
October 7
President Bill Clinton announces that the U.S. will beef up forces and also leave Somalia within six months.
October 9
Ambassador Robert Oakley returns to Somalia. The hunt for Aydiid is called off.
November 16
The Security Council agrees to an independent investigation of the events of the summer.
1994
March 26
The last U.S. forces pull out of Somalia.
1995
January 2
Siyaad Barre dies in exile in Nigeria.
March 2
The last UN forces pull out of Somalia.
April 6
The Security Council declares that “the people of Somalia bear the ultimate responsibility for achieving national reconciliation and restoring peace to Somalia.”
1996
August 2
SNA leader and self-styled “president” of Somalia Mohamed Farah Aydiid dies from bullet wounds sustained several days earlier. Within days, his son Hussein Mohamed Farah “Aydiid,” a former U.S. Marine, is named to take his place.
ABC,
212
Abdi (Somali translator),
96
Abdullahi Boqor,
100
-101
Abgaal clan,
252
Abrar, Haroun,
66
Abshir Muusse, Mohamed,
103
Abshir Waldo, Mohamed,
103
-5
Achebe, Chinua,
4
Ackerly, Dana,
159
Action for Children, Somalia and,
166
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
3
,
20
,
52
-54,
109
,
135
,
241
,
246
,
251
,
285
Aden, Mohamed Mohamoud,
107
Afghanistan, Soviet invasion of,
36
AfriAction, Somalia and,
166
,
177
African Development Company,
265
n
African Queen, The
,
4
Africa Watch,
119
Agency for International Development.
See
USAID
Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954,
192
-94
Agroindustry.
See also specific companies;
Dependency, food aid and. cargo preference laws,
189
-92; Commodity Credit Corporation and,
192
-93; International Fertilizer Association,
48
; North American Export Grain Association,
191
; Penny-Grandy amendment,
189
-92; War on Poverty and,
198
Ahmed, Elman Ali,
255
-56
Albania,
276
-77
Algeria,
214
-15
Ali, Abdi Aden (Abdi Dheere),
169
-70
Ali, Abdiwele,
225
-26
Altwegg, Peter,
185
-86
Al Uruba Hotel (Mogadishu),
30
,
38
American Council of Voluntary Agencies for Foreign Service,
194
American Legion,
28
American Optometry Association,
156
AmeriCares,
265
n; Bosnia and,
265
; Japan's 1990 earthquake and,
265
; Russia and,
265
; UNHCR and,
265
; where the money goes,
265
,
269
; Zaire and,
264
Americans for African Adoptions International, Rwanda and,
267
Amin, Idi,
4
