Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 7, 1993 TAG: 9310070138
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NAIROBI, KENYA LENGTH: Long
He once stayed alive in prison, it is said, by eating soap. Aidid then waited nearly two decades for the chance to take up arms and oust the dictator who imprisoned him.
To his supporters Aidid is a brave, patriotic and charismatic leader, and even his foes see the balding, 57-year-old former general as destined to be the next president of the East African country.
Aidid was trained at military schools in Moscow and Rome, but he is the son of a nomad and, in a country with a rich tradition of rhyming storytelling, fancies himself a poet. He is a Muslim with two wives and 14 children, most of whom live in the United States.
This has not deterred him from attacking American soldiers; and by any measure, Aidid has shown himself to be a man not to be trifled with. Indeed, in Somali, "aidid" means "he who would not be insulted."
Aidid has largely bottled up half of the United Nations' 28,000-soldier force behind fortified positions in the capital, Mogadishu, and forced a painful reassessment of the U.S. role in Somalia.
And he has eluded capture for nearly four months despite a high-tech effort by the United States to bring him to heel with an elite group of army Rangers and Delta Force commandos.
Although in hiding, he demonstrated his power again this week when his militia shot down two U.S. helicopters, killed 12 American soldiers and wounded 78 in a fierce, 15-hour battle.
Only a few weeks ago, U.N. military commanders said Aidid had only about 500 hard-core fighters. They now suggest he may have brought more into Mogadishu from Somalia's heartland.
Rakiya Omaar, a Somali who co-founded the London-based human rights organization African Rights and has criticized both U.S. and U.N. actions in her homeland, describes Aidid this way:
"He is not the sort of person who goes to international conferences to battle for a fair share of the power. He wants it all."
Somalia descended into chaos after Siad Barre was chased from Mogadishu in January 1991 by rebels of the United Somali Congress led by Aidid.
The congress was the political movement of the Hawaye clan, a largely nomadic group whose traditional homeland is the semi-desert brushland of central Somalia.
Shortly after Siad Barre's downfall, a split developed between Aidid's sub-clan of the Hawaye and another sub-clan led by Ali Mahdi Mohamed, a wealthy businessman. Scattered clashes between the sub-clans turned into full-fledged war in November 1991.
When the United Nations finally brokered a cease-fire in March 1992, three-quarters of Mogadishu had been destroyed and up to 30,000 people killed, mostly women, children and the elderly.
Both sides in the conflict used tanks, heavy artillery and a huge range of other weapons taken from Siad Barre's arsenals. They had been given to the former regime by the Soviet Union and the United States as they vied for influence in Somalia during the Cold War.
Aidid was left with the southern half of Mogadishu, Ali Mahdi with the north. Neither controlled much of the surrounding countryside, although both struck loose alliances with other clan chieftains who divided the rest of the country into fiefdoms in the absence of a central government.
Aidid first opposed, then accepted the arrival of the U.S.-led military coalition late last year. "The Americans are working, we believe, for the unity of the Somali people," he said at the time.
But Aidid became increasingly hostile to the Americans and, subsequently, to the United Nations as their diplomats maneuvered to lessen his grip on power and distribute it more equitably among all clans.
It was a policy applied equally to all of Somali's chieftains, but only Aidid resisted with force. He struck hard for the first time on June 5, when his militia ambushed and killed 24 Pakistanis.
That touched off what has become an urban guerilla war between Aidid's militia and the U.N. force. The United Nations has warned other warlords to stay out of the fray, fearing a return to clan warfare. Critics, meanwhile, have accused the United Nations itself of becoming just another clan, losing sight of its humanitarian mission in favor of hunting down and punishing Aidid.
Robert Oakley, Washington's former envoy to Somalia, once said Aidid "was convinced that, in part because he had ousted Siad Barre, he was destined to be the next leader of Somalia."
Aidid had risen to the rank of general in the Somali army when Siad Barre came to power in a 1969 coup.
The distrust between the two was mutual, and in 1970 Siad Barre imprisoned Aidid. It is said he ate bars of soap to survive during his six years behind bars, often in solitary confinement.
Siad Barre freed Aidid in 1976 and, in an effort to win support from his sub-clan, named him general manager of a government-owned company, then a military adviser.
But the mistrust continued and Barre finally decided to get Aidid out of Somalia by naming him ambassador to India. He remained in New Delhi until l989, when he left to take up arms against Barre.
by CNB