'OLD SOMALIA' LIES BEYOND SECURE TOWN
By Keith B. Richburg
April 3, 1993
BELEDWEYNE, SOMALIA -- In this dusty frontier town, which escaped the worst of Somalia's suffering and death, a teacher training school helps nearly 300 former educators brush up on lost skills. The Canadian army is helping to construct a new schoolhouse for 800 students. A Somali police force, as yet unarmed, patrols the streets in crisp new uniforms. A functioning jail even holds bandits and lawbreakers.
In many ways, Beledweyne -- site of the first Somali food airlift by the U.S. military last summer -- represents a success story. Since the arrival of the Canadian heliborne forces, clan fighting has been limited, banditry has been checked, and the economy, based mainly on livestock, has revived.
But the Canadian forces cast a wary eye to a barren area just to the northeast, across an invisible line in the sand that marks the limit of their secure area of operation. A few miles beyond, outside the reach of the Canadian troops, is a violent no man's land of tanks, converted "technical" vehicles mounted with heavy weapons, and large, hostile, rival clan armies that have never been told to disband or disarm.
The central region, northeast of Beledweyne, is in many ways Somalia as it was before the U.S.-led military intervention in December -- gripped by the rule of gun, feuding warlords and clan violence. "All the standing armies left in Somalia are in that area," said Col. Serge Labbe, commander of the Canadian forces here. "All the working tanks in Somalia are in that area."
All of that is supposed to change sometime around the beginning of May, when the United Nations is scheduled to officially take over peace-keeping operations from the international force, of which Canada is a key participant. The U.S.-led military coalition confined its operations to the "famine zone" in Somalia's south, going no farther northeast than Beledweyne. The incoming U.N. forces will be responsible for the entire country. Most U.S. and U.N. analysts say taming the violent central region may prove the world body's most daunting -- and important -- task.
The main front line in the ongoing, low-level war in central Somalia is the town of Gaalkacyo. The home town of Somalia's premier warlord, Mohamed Farah Aideed, it is in the hands of a rival warlord, who is the military leader of the Marehan faction recently loyal to ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The Marehan militia calls itself the Somali National Front and is commanded by Mohamed Said Hersi Morgan, Siad Barre's son-in-law and a former defense minister under him. Aideed's United Somali Congress militia and Morgan's force engage in periodic skirmishes around Gaalkacyo -- facing off with tanks and artillery in hit-and-run grabs for territory.
For Aideed, this battle is personal. The central region is the traditional area of his Habr Gedir faction, and he is fighting to reclaim territory he sees as rightfully his. For the Marehan, the battle is over survival. Members of the faction fear a victorious Aideed would continue to sweep north into their traditional territory, and they are trying to hold the line at Gaalkacyo.
According to Canadian military intelligence officers, who have made several reconnaissance missions into the area and who maintain contact with the local warlords, Morgan's Somali National Front is believed to have about 1,000 regulars and can draw on an additional 5,000 fighters from the Marehan. The standing force is equipped with more than a dozen tanks, six armored personnel carriers, 32 technicals and several antitank guns and artillery pieces, the Canadian sources said.
Aideed is believed to have fielded about 5,000 men in the area, mostly deployed in a line from the tip of the Canadian-controlled sector along the Ethiopian border to a point just south of Gaalkacyo. The Aideed forces are divided into three divisions, each with a handful of tanks and technicals, that combined would appear to have more weaponry than Morgan's forces.
The Canadians say Morgan's militia is operating with the tacit backing of local Ethiopian military commanders, who allow Marehan fighters to cross the border freely and use Ethiopian territory as a kind of safe haven for hit-and-run attacks on Aideed's forces.
In many ways, the conflict between the two factions at Gaalkacyo capsulizes the power struggle between the two major clan factions battling for dominance throughout this war-torn country. Many analysts say a settlement here is crucial to finding any kind of long-term resolution to Somalia's continuing warfare. "This whole area out here is the focus of the military conflict going on in the whole country," said Canadian Capt. Paul Hope. "Unless this is resolved, the situation in the country will not be able to be stabilized or resolved."
Already the Canadians have seen the impact that the central region's conflict has had on their own efforts to establish a secure environment in Beledweyne. While Canadian officers have been successful in establishing cease-fire agreements between the two factions in this town, and getting the bulk of the rival armies in the town confined to designated camps or cantonment sites, they concede that any local accords they reach are subject to the orders of the higher-ranking clan warriors outside the Canadian-controlled zone.
The Canadians also realize that getting the factions inside the Beledweyne sector to disarm totally remains elusive as long as the area just across the line from this sector remains a full-fledged war zone.
Fifteen Somali factions, meeting for more than two weeks in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, recently agreed to a cease-fire and complete disarmament within 90 days, and both Aideed and the political leader of the Somali National Front, Omar Mohamed, were among the signers. This week, a cease-fire committee has been meeting in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, to hammer out specifics of the accord.
The Canadians, who have had the most contact with the warlords out in no man's land, are convinced that despite past cease-fire violations and empty pledges, the warlords -- even in the disputed area around Gaalkacyo -- may now be ready to make peace. "They are ready" to put their troops in cantonment, Labbe said. "But we have to move fast, before one of them changes his mind."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...64d5f11/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6c7e943b1be6
By Keith B. Richburg
April 3, 1993
BELEDWEYNE, SOMALIA -- In this dusty frontier town, which escaped the worst of Somalia's suffering and death, a teacher training school helps nearly 300 former educators brush up on lost skills. The Canadian army is helping to construct a new schoolhouse for 800 students. A Somali police force, as yet unarmed, patrols the streets in crisp new uniforms. A functioning jail even holds bandits and lawbreakers.
In many ways, Beledweyne -- site of the first Somali food airlift by the U.S. military last summer -- represents a success story. Since the arrival of the Canadian heliborne forces, clan fighting has been limited, banditry has been checked, and the economy, based mainly on livestock, has revived.
But the Canadian forces cast a wary eye to a barren area just to the northeast, across an invisible line in the sand that marks the limit of their secure area of operation. A few miles beyond, outside the reach of the Canadian troops, is a violent no man's land of tanks, converted "technical" vehicles mounted with heavy weapons, and large, hostile, rival clan armies that have never been told to disband or disarm.
The central region, northeast of Beledweyne, is in many ways Somalia as it was before the U.S.-led military intervention in December -- gripped by the rule of gun, feuding warlords and clan violence. "All the standing armies left in Somalia are in that area," said Col. Serge Labbe, commander of the Canadian forces here. "All the working tanks in Somalia are in that area."
All of that is supposed to change sometime around the beginning of May, when the United Nations is scheduled to officially take over peace-keeping operations from the international force, of which Canada is a key participant. The U.S.-led military coalition confined its operations to the "famine zone" in Somalia's south, going no farther northeast than Beledweyne. The incoming U.N. forces will be responsible for the entire country. Most U.S. and U.N. analysts say taming the violent central region may prove the world body's most daunting -- and important -- task.
The main front line in the ongoing, low-level war in central Somalia is the town of Gaalkacyo. The home town of Somalia's premier warlord, Mohamed Farah Aideed, it is in the hands of a rival warlord, who is the military leader of the Marehan faction recently loyal to ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The Marehan militia calls itself the Somali National Front and is commanded by Mohamed Said Hersi Morgan, Siad Barre's son-in-law and a former defense minister under him. Aideed's United Somali Congress militia and Morgan's force engage in periodic skirmishes around Gaalkacyo -- facing off with tanks and artillery in hit-and-run grabs for territory.
For Aideed, this battle is personal. The central region is the traditional area of his Habr Gedir faction, and he is fighting to reclaim territory he sees as rightfully his. For the Marehan, the battle is over survival. Members of the faction fear a victorious Aideed would continue to sweep north into their traditional territory, and they are trying to hold the line at Gaalkacyo.
According to Canadian military intelligence officers, who have made several reconnaissance missions into the area and who maintain contact with the local warlords, Morgan's Somali National Front is believed to have about 1,000 regulars and can draw on an additional 5,000 fighters from the Marehan. The standing force is equipped with more than a dozen tanks, six armored personnel carriers, 32 technicals and several antitank guns and artillery pieces, the Canadian sources said.
Aideed is believed to have fielded about 5,000 men in the area, mostly deployed in a line from the tip of the Canadian-controlled sector along the Ethiopian border to a point just south of Gaalkacyo. The Aideed forces are divided into three divisions, each with a handful of tanks and technicals, that combined would appear to have more weaponry than Morgan's forces.
The Canadians say Morgan's militia is operating with the tacit backing of local Ethiopian military commanders, who allow Marehan fighters to cross the border freely and use Ethiopian territory as a kind of safe haven for hit-and-run attacks on Aideed's forces.
In many ways, the conflict between the two factions at Gaalkacyo capsulizes the power struggle between the two major clan factions battling for dominance throughout this war-torn country. Many analysts say a settlement here is crucial to finding any kind of long-term resolution to Somalia's continuing warfare. "This whole area out here is the focus of the military conflict going on in the whole country," said Canadian Capt. Paul Hope. "Unless this is resolved, the situation in the country will not be able to be stabilized or resolved."
Already the Canadians have seen the impact that the central region's conflict has had on their own efforts to establish a secure environment in Beledweyne. While Canadian officers have been successful in establishing cease-fire agreements between the two factions in this town, and getting the bulk of the rival armies in the town confined to designated camps or cantonment sites, they concede that any local accords they reach are subject to the orders of the higher-ranking clan warriors outside the Canadian-controlled zone.
The Canadians also realize that getting the factions inside the Beledweyne sector to disarm totally remains elusive as long as the area just across the line from this sector remains a full-fledged war zone.
Fifteen Somali factions, meeting for more than two weeks in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, recently agreed to a cease-fire and complete disarmament within 90 days, and both Aideed and the political leader of the Somali National Front, Omar Mohamed, were among the signers. This week, a cease-fire committee has been meeting in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, to hammer out specifics of the accord.
The Canadians, who have had the most contact with the warlords out in no man's land, are convinced that despite past cease-fire violations and empty pledges, the warlords -- even in the disputed area around Gaalkacyo -- may now be ready to make peace. "They are ready" to put their troops in cantonment, Labbe said. "But we have to move fast, before one of them changes his mind."
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