Word: rebels
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...rebel fighters from the United Somali Congress called in reinforcements, the U.S., Italy and France flew 800 diplomats and other foreign residents to safety in separate rescue missions last week. Soldiers looted the American embassy as soon as the last helicopter took off. Reported Italian Ambassador Mario Sica, who left Saturday: "The city is being sacked as in the days of Genghis Khan...
Another African state was lurching into anarchy last week. The disintegration of order and government in Somalia looked like an agonizing replay of the collapse of Liberia last year. Almost duplicating the stages that shattered the West African state, a group of Somali rebel armies sapped the strength of a narrowly based and despotic regime over several years. They then closed in on the capital and smashed the government's rule without replacing it. If this is the end of Siad Barre, his successor has not yet emerged...
Somalia's three rebel fronts dismissed Siad Barre's call for a cease-fire and negotiations last week, and the United Somali Congress marched reinforcements into Mogadishu for what it called the "final offensive." In a joint statement issued in London, the three groups announced their agreement to form a "transitional government that will pave the way for the restoration of democratic institutions...
That worthy objective may never be achieved. The rebel factions have no political program; the only principle that unites them is their hatred of Siad Barre and their determination to oust him. Their organizations are completely clan-based and are divided by hundreds of years of intramural fighting. With no restraining influences from abroad and the superpowers attending to other concerns, Somalia's future is likely to be sadly similar to its bloody past...
...helicopter was hit by rebel ground fire about 75 miles east of San Salvador. The F.M.L.N. said all three crewmen died from injuries suffered when the chopper crashed. But area residents claim that the rebels ordered them to drag out two of the Americans, alive and begging for water. At first they said both died for lack of medical attention, but later suggested they were shot. In Washington officials said autopsy reports showed that two of the crew were killed with gunshots to the head. Both sides have motives for fudging the facts. The rebels do not want to upset...