Word: somali
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Part of our account of the safe rescue of the passengers and crew members being held hostage aboard Lufthansa's hijacked Flight 181 at Mogadishu, the Somali capital, came from an unexpected source: Israel. Jerusalem Correspondent David Halevy obtained from an Israeli short-wave radio enthusiast a tape recording of fragments of the communications he had monitored. They were between Flight 181, two other planes carrying the West German negotiator and anti-terrorist commandos, Lufthansa headquarters and Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's crisis group, which was directing the operation...
...Somalis, a proud, clannish people whose skin is black and whose heritage is Arab, regard the Ethiopians as the most persistent of a long line of colonizers that has also included the Egyptians, British and Italians. Over evening fires, the Somalis often recount the exploits of the revered Ahmed Gurey, perhaps the first of the Somali freedom fighters; he attacked Ethiopians in the Ogaden in the 16th century...
...Somali hatred for the Ethiopians could hardly be more intense. Husein Liban, a Jijiga elder, recalls how the Somali nomads once killed an Ethiopian policeman who tried to collect a tax that they regarded as unfair. In revenge, he recalls, they "took 35 of our people and shot them. They would cut the breasts of our women to prevent them from suckling our young. When the fighting increased, the Ethiopians took 150 of our people as hostages. They shot them all, including my brother Odowa." Liban proudly claims to have been a guerrilla for 31 of his 71 years. "There...
...Somalis, by contrast, lack the arms to wage a prolonged desert war. Despite some limited help from the Arabs, they may soon run low on fuel, spare parts and ammunition. Earlier this year, the U.S.-an ally of Ethiopia's during the late Emperor Haile Selassie's day-had thought of improving its ties with Somalia by sending some military aid. But after the Somali drive on the Ogaden began in July, Washington decided that it had better stay out of this murky conflict. The Somalis accuse the U.S. of breaking its word-although, in fact, no firm...
...will it all end? "The last victor is always the one with the most resources," observes a diplomat in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. "The Somalis control the Ogaden, but how will they maintain it? The Somali people now think the W.S.L.F. is some kind of superman. There will be great disillusionment if the front should lose." Perhaps, as has happened so many times before, the war will end in a stalemate of exhaustion. But given the passions of the Ogaden, the chances are that, after an interval, the fighting will begin again...