Somali disaster created by West
Socialist Outlook newspaper1990sPaul ClarkeTranscribed or corrected by hand from the printed page.
THE United Nations intervention to 'restore hope' in Somalia is the culmination of a crisis which is the product of 15 years of chaos.
Somalia gained independence in July 1960, bringing together two former colonies, British Somaliland and the Italian Trusteeship territory of Somalia.
Nomadic
Half the country's population of 6-7 million people live as nomadic herders. In 1988 almost 70 per cent of the export income was earned from livestock, while 23 per cent came from bananas. The per capita income is about £100 per head, while the foreign debt is £1.5 billion, almost twice the GNP.
After independence a series of civilian governments plagued by corruption, nepotism and favouritism made little progress in developing the country. In 1969 army and police officers, led by major-general Siad Barre seized power and appointed Barre head of state.
At first the new regime announced reforms which would benefit the rural population. A friendship treaty was signed with the Soviet Union in 1974. Moscow sent 6000 civilian and military advisors, and Barre allowed the use of the Red Sea port of Berbera by the Soviet navy.
But an increasingly authoritarian Barre tried to whip up nationalist feeling over Somalia's claim on Ethiopia's Somali-speaking Ogaden region.
Invasion
His invasion of Ogaden in 1978 led to a falling out with the Soviet Union, which then helped Ethiopia defeat the attack.
Barre responded by embracing Washington. The United States navy took over the Berbera port, and US military and economic aid began to flow to Somalia.
Clan-based guerrilla movements began to organise. Barre devastated the home territories of the various guerrilla fronts. Hardest hit was northern Somalia, where the Somali national Movement was active. In May 1988 the SNM captured and held the major northern cities of Burao and Hargeisa.
Genocide
Barre responded by launching virtual genocide against the Isaaq people, the backbone of the SNM's fighters. Somali jets and tanks decimated every village as they passed through the north. Burao was all but obliterated. Only five per cent of Hargeisa's buildings were left standing.
The majority clan in the Mogadishu area and central Somalia, the Hawiye, formed the opposition United Somali Congress (USC), which began to infiltrate the capital. Now it was the turn of these areas to face Barre's wrath.
In late December 1990, the USC launched its offensive for the capital. In a final act of desperation, Barre ordered his troops to pound the rebel-held districts of Mogadishu day and night for weeks.
Barre scuttled out of Mogadishu towards his homeland near the Kenyan border in a tank convoy on 26 January 1991. On 31 January Hargeisa fell to the SNM; on 18 March the SNM declared Somalia the Independent Republic of Somaliland.
The country's economy was smashed and its infrastructure destroyed. Millions of Somalis were displaced and unable to plant their crops.
Drought
The whole area was stricken by a drought which would have been difficult enough to cope with in normal times. The aftermath of the war to oust Barre was famine and the beginnings of a break-up of the country along clan lines.
During the last few months of Barre's rule the West had suspended aid.
It took a full 18 months of famine for the UN to order emergency food aid. Somalia is the victim of a Western-backed dictatorship, and the economic stranglehold of the West which forces Africa into poverty.
It is this western-created catastrophe which is now cynically used as the pretext for full-scale military intervention by the US.