Word: aidid
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...warlords' struggle for power that must be settled before peace can return to Somalia. Robert Oakley, the U.S. special envoy, believes Ali Mahdi and Aidid may actually turn out to be irrelevant to an eventual political solution. "Right now they are factors in the political landscape," he says. "But the Somalis don't like domination by a single political party. When people aren't fighting, they don't need military alliances." A former Somali journalist puts the issue in blunter terms: "The U.S. has to deal with these people to stabilize the environment in the short term. But when peace...
...Mahdi and Aidid, meanwhile, are trying to create new images of themselves as politicians and statesmen. Last week's green-line rally marked the first time since the two sides went to war more than a year ago that they have appeared together at a public gathering. Since the Marines landed, however, they have had several private meetings. Both grandly declared that the day of rule by rifle was over. "I believe only in democracy," said Ali Mahdi in an interview with TIME at his seaside villa in Mogadishu. "Every Somali has the right to be President. If left...
...rhetoric is suspect, however, since the warlords' rivalries simmer on. Ali Mahdi blames continuing violence along the green line on looters from Aidid's sector. He also charges Aidid with having started the civil war that has killed tens of thousands and left Mogadishu in ruins. Because Aidid is a military officer, Ali Mahdi argues, he should be disqualified as a possible future leader of the country. "We do not want another general in charge of Somalia," he says, referring to Mohammed Siad Barre, whose corrupt, quasi- Marxist regime was overthrown in January 1991 after Ali Mahdi, Aidid and others...
...eventually rule? Oakley believes that elders of Somalia's numberless clans and subclans as well as religious leaders should be brought into the process. As evidence that this can be done, he points to Baidoa, in the center of the famine belt and a town that had been under Aidid's thumb. U.S. officials have organized town meetings attended by as many as 300 clan elders, representatives of women's groups and Islamic mullahs. Over the objections of Aidid's representatives, leaders at the meetings agreed to remove technicals from the town and set up subcommittees to oversee security. "There...
...designed to set up an interim Somalian government prior to holding elections within two years. Of necessity, the major warlords are among the invited delegates, although some are not happy about the meeting. "The outside world cannot dictate or force us to do anything," says Mohammed Awale, one of Aidid's deputies...