To start with, it seems as if you have totally disregarded the opening paragraph in which I made it crystal clear that M. M. Afrah’s Open Letter to President George W. Bush was posted on this Website after September 11, 2001 tragedy when the US administration threatened to attack Somalia, after Afghanistan, for harbouring Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda followers.

As for your allegation that Somalis dragged the dead bodies of US Serviceman in the streets of Mogadishu, it is well documented that General Aideed and his clan elders have orchestrated those who were responsible for these barbaric acts. Clearly this was not the work of ordinary people in Mogadishu. As a matter of fact the overwhelming majority of the people, who were weary of wars and lawlessness strongly condemned these medieval heinous acts against those who came to save them from the jaws of death and destruction.

To accuse all Somalis for crimes committed by a few is like squeezing blood from a stone.

It must be remembered here that by April 1993 the USA had achieved a considerable part of its claimed objectives. The US Marines and Army Rangers had protected food deliveries and delivery of food to some of the worst affected areas had been carried out. The US forces had gone some way towards disarming the militia loyal to the two main Mogadishu warlords, General Aideed and Ali Mahdi and the armed thugs were scared stiff of the US Army’s hi-tech weaponry, helicopter gunships, the Spectre flying fortress and night vision goggles. But for some reason, disarmament ceased abruptly and without explanations. This was missed opportunity, because the militia and their masters were ready and willing to lay down their weapons as soon as the US Marines stormed the beaches of Mogadishu.

The US presence also provided the pressure which persuaded fourteen faction leaders to attend a conference in Addis Ababa in March 1993, where they agreed to set up a Transitional National Council to appoint officials and judiciary, and to organize elected regional councils and a disarmament committee. But when General Aideed unilaterally declared himself as the President of Somalia and the UNOSOM and the Americans insisted on general disarmament to pave the way for peaceful general elections, lawlessness continued through the first half of 1993. And the hunt for General Aideed who was alleged to have orchestrated the killing in ambush of Pakistani peacekeepers gathered momentum in south Mogadishu, turning it into personal vendetta.

As for Ethiopia’s hidden agenda against Somalia, I am leaving this to historians well versed in the Horn of Africa political debacle since the days of emperor Menelik in the 18th Century to the present Tigrean oligarchy in Addis Ababa.

---The Webmaster.