European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 05, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 the stars and stripes monday december 5,1994  _ Somalia Heads Back to Square one gone but clan strife just As ominous by Keith  Washington Post Mogadishu Somalia the ubiquitous technical Are Back pickup trucks mounted with anti aircraft guns once again blowing the Dusty rubble strewn streets. " Back too Are the swaggering Young men in to shirts and sandals with assault rifles Slung Over their shoulders extorting Money from passing cars and buses at makeshift roadblocks. One militia con trolled neighbourhood in Mogadishu is so heavily armed that locals refer to it As Bosnia Herzegovina. Travelling around the City s mean streets today is strikingly reminiscent of the Days in 1992, when chaotic warfare among rival militias plunged Somalia int anarchy and a famine that prompted a  military intervention. Once again to traverse Mogadishu travellers must hire a Carload of armed thugs hop ing they will deliver Protection for a Hun dred Bucks a Day plus time off for lunch. Gone Are most of the foreign troops who staffed sandbagged checkpoints although the sandbags Are still there. I think the looters use them one somali said of the deserted bunkers. . Marines first landed on the beaches of the Seaside capital two years ago this week to launch operation re store Hope an unprecedented humanitarian Mission aimed at ending the devastating famine and imposing some order on the chaos. T billions of dollars were spent and total of 41 americans died during the Mission 30 in combat before . Force were pulled out in March. Today there is no famine in Somalia the country is enjoying record harvests and no open warfare for the  the capital is bracing for a new clan War that most somalis and foreigners fear is inevitable. And the United nations technically in charge of the humanitarian Mission since May 1993 but really Only in command since the Ameri cans left has been reduced to irrelevancy. " -. The . Mission is due to pull out Early next year and its leaders appear to be More concerned with planning the withdrawal than with what is happening on the streets outside the fortified  compound. Many somalis in Mogadishu say they see few tangible benefits from two years of foreign military intervention. " the United states has spent a lot of Money but we Don t see where All that Money has Cone said 33-year-Oldahmed Sheik Ibrahim. The americans have shown a bit of kindness to us. But we never got any Money from  now outside the Gates of the sprawling , compound unemployed Young men disgruntled Job seekers and hang ers on watch angrily As millions of dollars of equipment and with it their Hopes is locked in crates and loaded onto trucks to be shipped away. There s no one getting assistance from the .," Ahmed Mahamud Farah said. There s fighting in Somalia every Day. There a refugees. If they re no helping these people they should just get on their boats right now and  As they speak somalian militia Mem Bers brandish assault rifles directly oppo site the main Gate of the . Compound one african Diplomat who has Bee trying to mediate Between the factions said most people in Mogadishu question whether the foreign soldiers have done americans in the Horn of Africa . Service members above sur rounded by members of the Media As semble their gear after Landing on a Beach near Mogadishu Airport dec. 9, Apfl to is file Vine Crawley with the american led intervention came doctors who were Able to treat injured somalis such As this child waiting at the Bairoa Hospital in no vember 1993. _ . Army chief warrant officer 3 Michael Durant below appearing on videotape oct. 4, 1993, was captured by a warlord s forces and held hostage for 11 Days. The image of his battered face helped Lead the Clinton administration to order a withdrawal of All it forces by March 1994. Anything for the somalis he pointed out that people in places such As Bairoa and Barbera where famine was most acute remember the Aid brought in but the Overall impression is that the foreign troops have come and gone without Chan Ging things fundamentally. . Peacekeepers already have abandoned most outlying somalian towns Roost recently Bairoa the scene of the most devastating famine images of 1992. Troops Are now concentrated Only in Mogadishu and the Southern port town of Kismay but the remaining Indian con Tingent is expected to vacate Kismay inthe next few Days. In january the troops in Mogadishu will shift to the City s Airport and port abandoning the . Compound where the world body is still spending millions of dollars on a sewer system and prefabricated housing for 800 civilians. What Many in Mogadishu expect i that once the last troops leave the com Pound crowds will storm the fences to loot whatever equipment and supplies Are left. They will try to get hold of this building said pakistani maj. Zubair Chattha the . Military , we will not be  the port and the Airport will be a big problem said a top . Official who did not want to be identified there going to be a big Battle for  a few blocks from the . Compound at the Headquarters of Mohamed Farra Hadid s somali National Alliance militia there is a swirl of activity. Crowds of Job seekers gather hoping for positions in the new government aided is expected to declare. Asked about the departing peacekeepers aided s supporters Are say ing Only one thing Good riddance. Our country is free said Abdulkarim Ahmed Ali the Secretary general of Ai did s faction. We feel some sort of Independence now. Their policy was the new world order and it failed. We were the testing ground and they failed. They tried everything and everything is . Aided has been holding a monthlong conference of his factional allies hoping to put together some kind of interim government that can claim somalian sovereignty and therefore the right to the keys to Mogadishu s lucrative port an Airport once the . Troops withdraw. I wish we will have our own govern ment before they leave Abdulkarim  . I but on the opposite Side of the divided City past the abandoned . Sandbag bunkers aided s chief rival Ali Mahdi Mohamed is holding his own conference of allies trying to beat aided to the punch by declaring his own interim government if aided declares a government Weill be compelled to form a government for our part Ali Mahdi said in an inter View. He added that he hoped his govern ment not aided a will have the support of the somali people Ali Mahdi s words also Are reminiscent of the darkest Days of 1992. Fighting had raged Between his faction arid a did since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in january 199l artillery Battle Between the rival militia armies had reduced much of Mogadishu to rubble by the time . Forces intervened and factional fighting in the Countryside had exacerbated the famine to the extent that More than 300,000 people died. We Hope that War will not come Back Ali Mahdi said. But realistically War can come Back. War can Start fro anything. It can Start from control of the Airport. It can Start from control of the seaport. It can Start from control of equipment left at the .  he said the United nations must safely remove everything of value As it goes. 4 since the Start of warfare betwee Naidis and Ali Mahdi the soviet Union has collapsed Israel has granted limited autonomy to the palestinians and South Africa has abandoned apartheid. So Why can t the somalis come together although they Are from the same  Are both Muslim and speak the same Lan Guage Ali Mahdi and aided cannot even agree to a face to face meeting. The Las time they saw each other was in March. It s True that the world has been mov ing in the past years towards peace in jct and a Over the world Ali Mahdi said. We somalis Are in conflict Over an Issue that maybe the outside world does t understand. We have had 21 years of dictatorship. We have had clan favouritism. Thousands of our people have died to have a system based on Equality. Democracy Means alot to us.". \