A US special forces mission in Somalia goes badly wrong
2001. Directed by Ridley Scott. Written by Ken Nolan, Steven Zaillian. Cast: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Ewen Bremner, Sam Shepard, Gabriel Casseus, Ron Eldard
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Today, Somalia is a byword around the world for poverty and backwardness. No one says it but, faced with yet another famine appeal, everyone at one time or another has thought it - ÔWhatÕs wrong with these people?Õ
Well, genetically speaking at least, nothing at all. Poverty and destitution is a relatively modern phenomenon for a nation with a successful civilisation dating back thousands of years.
As long ago as 1500 BC, the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut was sending expeditions to gather the fragrant medicinal resins of frankincense and myrrh from Somalia, which they called ÔGod's LandÕ. Between the 2nd and 5th centuries, contact with Egyptian, Phoenician, Persian, Greek and Roman merchants led to the establishment of a thriving trading civilisation. In the 10th century, Chinese merchants returned home from Somalia with giraffes, leopards, and tortoises for the imperial menagerie. The capital, Mogadishu, began its existence as a trading station. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Somali warriors regularly joined the armies of the Muslim sultanates in their battles with Christian Ethiopia.
Between 1891 and 1960, though, Somalia came under attack from all sides and was carved up into five colonies: British Somaliland (north central); French Somaliland (east and south-east); Italian Somaliland (south); Ethiopian Somaliland (the Ogaden); and what came to be called the Northern Frontier District (NFD) of Kenya.
In 1960, Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland were merged into a single independent state, the Somali Republic. In its first nine years, it served as a model of democratic government in Africa. However, in 1969, President Abd-i-rashid Ali Shermarke was assassinated and Major General Mahammad Siad Barre seized power.
Over the next 21 years Siad Barre established an oppressive military dictatorship that developed strong ties with the Soviet Union. Barre held on to power by playing off clan against clan until the country was riven with factional strife and bloodshed.
In the late 1970s, Somalia began supporting ethnic Somali rebels seeking independence for the disputed Ogaden region of Ethiopia. The Soviet Union sided with Ethiopia, and Somalia won backing from the US. Fighting continued until 1988, when Ethiopia and Somalia reached a peace accord.
In 1991 Barre was ousted by nationalist guerrillas. Soon after, an insurgent group in Northern Somalia (the former British Somaliland) announced it had seceded from the country and proclaimed itself the Somaliland Republic. In the south, no one faction succeeded in establishing power. Mohammed Ali Mahdi was proclaimed president by one group and Mohammed Farah Aidid by another, and the fighting continued.
Western intervention
The civil war and the worst African drought of the century combined to create a devastating famine in 1992, resulting in the loss of around 300,000 lives. A UN-brokered truce was declared and peacekeepers and food supplies arrived, but the truce was observed only sporadically. Late in 1992, troops from the US and other nations attempted to restore political stability and establish unfettered food-aid routes by protecting ports, airports and roads. However, there was widespread looting of food-distribution sites and hostility toward the relief effort by heavily armed militant groups of Somali gunmen.
By March 1993, however, mass starvation had been overcome, and security was much improved. Gradually US policy began to shift from the limited aim of delivering food to eliminating General Aidid, who was seen as the main obstacle to a secure and peaceful political settlement in Somalia.
Somalis had so far perceived the UN peacekeepers as making a positive contribution to their countryÕs problems. But now many began to see them the enemy. Aidid felt UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was biased against him and his clan. In Boutros-Ghali's previous role as an Egyptian official he had been a supporter of Somali dictator Siad Barre, whom Aidid had overthrown.
In June the UNÕs announced it wished to close down AididÕs radio station, which was broadcasting anti-UN propaganda. However, there were no plans to close the station of his main rival, Ali Mahdi. Aidid's faction were incensed at this bias and determined to defend the station. When Pakistani peacekeepers later entered the radio station they were actually looking for weapons, but crowds gathered thinking the station was under attack. The raid was bungled and 25 of the soldiers were killed by Somalis.
In retaliation, on July 12, US helicopters (acting on behalf of the UN) carried out a surprise missile attack on a meeting of Aidid clansmen. The attack killed 50 to 70 clan elders and intellectuals, many of them moderates seeking to reach a peaceful settlement with the UN. From then on, Aidid's clan was officially at war with the US.
As the feud escalated, two elite military groups, Delta Force and Task Force Ranger, were brought in to capture key members of Aidid's inner circle and, ultimately, Aidid himself. From late August to October, they conducted a series of missions, raiding locations where either Aidid or his lieutenants were believed to be meeting. However, their intelligence was extremely limited and often wrong. On its first mission, they inadvertently arrested nine Somalian UN workers. A later mission arrested a friendly Somalian general who was being groomed by the UN to take over a Mogadishu police force. Although the Deltas and Rangers did capture some important Aidid allies, pressure from Washington for better results heightenedÉ
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