
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 5, 1993                   TAG: 9311050034
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

RED CROSS DECLARES VICTORY IN SOMALI FAMINE

The famine in Somalia is over, the American Red Cross declared Thursday, but it said a long recovery lies ahead for a country that still has no national government.

"In contrast to scenes of violence in Mogadishu, elsewhere in Somalia people are focused on rebuilding their lives," the relief agency said in a brief summary of the international Red Cross' year-long effort in the African country.

It said the current harvest is a good one and "Somalia is emerging from two years of vicious and debilitating civil war and anarchy."

The report came as about 3,600 U.S. sailors and Marines sailed away from Mogadishu in the continuing U.S. withdrawal and Somali clan leaders met with U.N. officials to discuss ways to improve security in the capital.

"The famine is over," the Red Cross report said, but it noted that continuing violence plagues Mogadishu, which has been wracked by factional fighting and banditry.

It said the Red Cross effort in Somalia was the biggest relief operation in its 130-year history except for World War II.

The effort included distribution of 254,000 metric tons of food, with 900 feeding kitchens set up throughout the country. At its peak, 1 million people a day were being fed, the report said.

The report said millions of seeds have been distributed throughout the country and more than 7 million head of cattle, sheep, goats, cows and camels have been inoculated to maintain herds.

Cornelio Sommaruga, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a National Press Club speech Thursday that the Somali relief operation could not have been carried out without U.S. support.

Sommaruga said relief work around the world is becoming more dangerous.

Decrying combatants who ignore the Red Cross and Red Crescent symbols and entrepreneurs who use them for commercial gain, Sommaruga said the organization's impartial role of giving assistance to victims in conflicts and natural disasters has not changed.

But the world in the post-Cold War era has changed, Sommaruga said. He said there has been a significant increase in violence against Red Cross people, with relief workers killed in Somalia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Sierre Leone.

"Even the emblem is no longer respected," he said. "Security of our delegates is a real challenge."

by CNB