30 March 2001
Nairobi — Interim Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galaydh said that the government was doing everything it could to ensure the safe release of two UN employees seized in Mogadishu, but criticised the UN security office for failing to alert the Transitional National Government (TNG) that a humanitarian team was arriving in the Somali capital. "We would like to see UN security and our own security rowing in the same direction," he said.
Two UN employees remain in Mogadishu after a group of aid workers, including nine expatriates, were caught up in a heavy battle round the compound of Medicins Sans Frontieres-Spain (MSF) on Tuesday. The two security officers, Roger Carter and Bill Condie, were detained by militia loyal to Mogadishu-based faction leader, Muse Sudi Yalahow. After the battle - which involved jeeps mounted with heavy weapons - opposition leader Muse Sudi told the BBC he wanted to "prove that Mogadishu is not safe for the international community". The UN security officers are believed to be safe, but no direct contact has been made with them, UN sources said. On Friday, two other UN staff involved in the incident were safely evacuated to Nairobi, Kenya.
In a telephone interview with IRIN, Galaydh said the TNG felt "very bad" about the faction-led attack on the compound of MSF, where humanitarian workers were meeting to discuss vaccination and cholera strategies. MSF said the attack was "totally unacceptable" and has since suspended its operations in Mogadishu, which included vital work on a cholera epidemic. Its compound was looted, and medical supplies stolen and destroyed.
Before the hostage crisis, the TNG had faced criticism over its failure to secure the city and also to pursue successful dialogue with major faction leaders controlling areas of Mogadishu.
The prime minister said the TNG should be responsible for the security of international staff. "If we are told when they are coming, we will be responsible for their security." The situation on Tuesday, which involved heavy fighting between pro-government and factional militia, had resulted in many deaths, Galaydh said. "At least 12 people were killed on our side, and we don't know how many on the other side." He said the tragedy was not just that expatriate staff remained unaccounted for, but that there were Somali casualties and property damage. "In our situation, that is very painful and disturbing," he told IRIN.
Galydh called for an investigation to find out who was "accountable" for what the new authority sees as a breach of procedure.
UN sources said that the Mogadishu security situation was "complex", and that aid workers "wished to remain neutral in addressing the needs of the local population". Since the TNG established itself in Mogadishu last October, faction leaders have challenged its legitimacy, and demanded that international organisations continue to pay equal attention to all political players in Somalia. Areas of the city remain under the control of opposition leaders, who run gangs of heavily armed militia. Although two Mogadishu-based faction leaders have joined the TNG, the fluid nature of the political scene meant that even established alliances were precarious, a regional expert said. The last hostage situation was resolved in August 2000, after President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan was elected in peace talks held in Arta, Djibouti. Two humanitarian workers - British citizen John Ward, and French national Francis Deutsch - from Action Contre la Faim (ACF) had been held in Mogadishu for 55 days by militia allied to faction leaders who had boycotted the peace process.
Galaydh insisted that the new authority was capable of providing security for international staff. Faction leaders and their militia operated "in a few pockets of the city", which should be avoided, Galaydh said. He described the area where the aid workers were meeting on Tuesday as being "only 200 metres from Muse Sudi's compound - it is like waving a red flag". According to Galaydh, UN security officers have been used to dealing with Mogadishu in the absence of any central authority.
A UN statement said it was "regrettable that the discussion surrounding the security incident is deflecting attention from the real impact of the situation, which is humanitarian."
Nairobi, 30 March, 2001
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