Word: siad
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...foreign residents, but neighbors and the world community are making little effort to halt the carnage. Only a few years ago, it would have been different. Superpower rivalry in the Horn of Africa, near the entrance to the Red Sea, was intense; both Moscow and Washington had stakes in Siad Barre's rise or fall...
...Somali dictator was in fact a client of both superpowers at different times. The Soviet Union supported his brand of "scientific socialism," then also lent its backing to his neighbor, Ethiopia, when it turned Marxist in 1977. Somalia was at war with Ethiopia over the disputed Ogaden province, so Siad Barre reversed his allegiance and appealed to the U.S. Washington was happy to provide him with $100 million in military and economic aid annually in the mid-1980s to counter Moscow...
Washington did not finally cut off aid until 1989, when Siad Barre's massacres of rival clans became too blatant to ignore, but the level of its contributions had been sinking steadily. Now that the cold war is over, Third World conflicts no longer figure as potential victories or losses for the U.S. or the Soviet Union, ironically making the world safer for brush-fire wars and insurrections...
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...