Word: clan
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...three armed Somali vehicles that had opened fire on the American gunship. Relief workers groused about poor communications and stalled food shipments; more urgent were the calls for help from Good Samaritans trapped in their compounds in outlying towns where marauding gunmen were still stealing, fighting and killing. Somali clan leaders pitched hard for at least a yearlong commitment, and Somali children vied for attention. "There is a lot of confusion as to who is in charge," observed a U.S. relief worker...
...agreement on whether the U.S.-led troops are only to guard supply routes or are to go out and disarm the thousands of ragtag fighters who are terrorizing the country. U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali told the Security Council he wanted the intervention force to disarm clan fighters and confiscate their heavy weapons. Officials in Washington said only that they were considering various methods of taking weapons out of circulation, but there was no way all of them could be seized. Nor is January a realistic date for departure: it will be a month before all the force...
...attempt to head off armed resistance, U.S. officials are meeting in Ethiopia with representatives of the major Somali factions. Some clan leaders, including the Mogadishu kingpin Mohammed Farrah Aidid, claim that they welcome U.S. intervention; Aidid even staged pro-American parades last week. But Western analysts suspect he simply hopes to improve his own position. If he and his rivals feel power slipping away, their attitude could quickly change. Clan chieftains do not, in any case, control all the thugs marauding through the country...
...convoys can, or should, be separated from rebuilding the nation. The use of troops initially is a good idea, says Howard Bell, acting director of CARE-Somalia, "but only if it is put within a well- thought-out program of national recovery that involves factional leaders, community elders and clan representatives." A Western diplomat in Somalia agrees. "The troops will be able to achieve their objective of securing relief shipments," he says. "But the bigger question is, Then what...
More questionable was Bush's decision to announce a speedy cutoff for U.S. participation. It makes the operation less controversial at home, but could complicate life for U.S. commanders in Somalia and the peacekeepers who will replace them. The clan chiefs and gang leaders know that the big U.S. force is a lame duck, and they may delay, obstruct or simply dodge the Americans while they are there...