Apr
26
Somalia – victim under super power rivalry
April 26, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
By Emily Tsang The image of starving children has become symbol of Somalia which was once one of the most flourishing African nations. But today, even emergency food that around 4 million homeless and jobless people are living on, required army escorted to carry them for distribution. To the frustration of emergency relief organization like Unicef, there are lorries and lorries of emergency food currently piling up in storage for being immobilized while some people in the refugee camp are starving to death. What obstruct to the transportation are gangs of teenage gunners who are robbing and seizing all food for the consumption of their own clan without understanding why they should do it.
It seems that the country is trying to kill itself, and such madness is totally incomprehensible to outsider. The former president of Human Right Group, the Africa Watch, expressed that super power rivalry should have much responsibility on what is happening in Somalia right now.
In an CBS interview, she explains how General Barre, a ruthless and brutal dictator, come into power with Soviet backing. He declared Somalia a socialist state and reinforced the clan system which he believed was good for his rulings. He seeded mistrust among clans and divided the nations to have all clans loyal only to him. Under his “dynasty”, thousands of opponents were brutally killed. But still, he gained U.S support for strategic reason, since, a former US general explained that, it was valuable for U.S to have back up asset in Africa against Soviet if they needed at that time.
Once the cold war ended, both the Soviet Union and U.S saw no interest in Somalia and left the land without plan. Many places declared separation and civil wars started all over the place again under the weakened transitional government. The Africa Watch explained that, although Somalis bear the responsibility on support dictators such as Barre settled the country to the road of chaotic, they would have get rid of him much easier and quicker if he had not received economic and military support from both Soviet Union and US government. In the end, Somalia became the ultimate victims under the superpower rivalry.
