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Somalia: Feeding the Power-Hungry?
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20564 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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11 / 1992 |
2,210 Words |
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Margaret P. Calhoun
Margaret P. Calhoun is senior Africa analyst for the
International Freedom Foundation. |
Contrary to the sharp criticism of some in the American media that the U.S. government overlooked the emergence of a major crisis in Somalia, the Bush administration has sunk enormous resources into this war-ravaged nation, where an estimated 2,000 starve to death each week. The United States is, in fact, the largest bilateral donor of emergency food and nonfood assistance to Somalia. The real question is whether we are prolonging the Somalians' agony by well-meaning food aid that, instead of reaching the needy, partially finances weapons purchases by armed thugs.
U.S. aid has amounted to a hefty $85 million since emergency relief began a year and a half ago, following the January 1991 overthrow of strongman Mohammad Siad Barre. Even before Barre's ouster, Somalia was one of the world's poorest countries with a nomadic population and subsistence agricultural economy. Some 80,000 tons of U.S. food supplies were delivered over the past 18 months, and President Bush recently pledged another 145,000 tons. All major private nonvoluntary organizations operating in Somalia, including the Red Cross, CARE, and Catholic Relief Services, finance their Somali relief effort with U.S. contributions.
Elements in the press have suggested racism caused America and the United Nations to turn a blind eye to the plight of famine-stricken Somalia, mindful only of the "rich man's war" in Yugoslavia. Yet despite much national and international news focus on the Balkan conflict long before Somalia erupted as a foreign policy issue, more U.S. relief had flowed to Somalia than to Yugoslavia. As one State Department spokesman wryly observed, "four government press conferences have been held on Somalia in the last 10 months, but only two reporters attended the first three. When Bush announced the food airlift on August 14, the press deluge began…50 journalists showed up for the fourth briefing." The Bush administration's announcement of a U.S. military airlift to increase and expedite airlift to increase and expedite food deliveries to Somalia apparently made the country newsworthy.
Media Were Late
Peter Kung, a delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) interviewed by C-SPAN, also blames the media for failing to cover the growing Somali crisis, commenting that governments respond to constituents, and constituents respond to issues conveyed by the mass media. Andrew Natsios, the U.S. special coordinator in charge of relief operations, was more blunt in his criticism of the press: "The coverage was late--we weren't. We were the
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