Law of jungle prevalentDon’t forget Somalia [Archives:2004/712/Opinion]

By Dr. Talib Ali Yusof
For Yemen Times
Somalia, historically one of the biggest countries of East Africa, saw many merchants and traders from India and the Arabian Peninsula.
For many years the Somalis fought against colonialism, and on July 1, 1960 Somalia became an independent state. For 30 years Somalia were progressive in agriculture, livestock fishery, industry and building, and the capital Mogadishu become a new crown.
But in 1990 a heavy civil war began in Somalia. It became one of the failed nations of the 21st century, when Somalia turned into a lawless land, with outside clan militias traumatizing the one of most fertile economically self-sufficient regions of the country.
The civil war coupled with land expansion policy of tribes from the central region has caused the death of over 100,000 innocent people.
In the last 12 years, the country has experienced one of the worst terrors of human kind. The law of the jungle has become part of normal daily life.
The massacre, looting raping and enslaving become practically routine in the ordinary life of the people. The world has abandoned Somalia after so-called Operation Restore Hope led by the United States.
In October 1993, the United States decided to pull out of Somalia after 18 of its Rangers were killed. Their plan was to restore the peaceful flow of humanitarian relief to those areas of Somalia most affected.
The United States, along with the international community and private organizations, were to deliver humanitarian relief to those areas of Somalia severely hampered by the lack of governmental authority, in particular by armed bandits who made it a habit to steal relief and commodities for their own benefits.
As a struggling nation, Somalia has the potential to be the center of international terror. With the longest unguarded coast lines in Africa the country will remain a suitable operative center of the local and international Mafia.
Regardless of weather those is the presence of terror organization in Somalia or not, the United States and the international community should intervene in Somalia to help relief the country of its present misery.
The majority of Somalis still retain the memories of the 1992 mission that ended without achieving peace and stability in the country. It is therefore important that the international community should help the Somali people.
The world should be aware that there is no group that can claim leadership of the country, and thus all the factions and militia groups should be forced to lay down their arms, so a broad-based national government be formed.
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