London BBC World Service “Focus on Africa” program (in English) — 1830 GMT

The Somali opposition, with headquarters in Ethiopia, is in trouble again. The SSDF (Somali Salvation Democratic Front) got on the wrong side of the Ethiopians, and now scarcely has a presence there. Now the USC is falling foul of the authorities. Its chairman, Hussein Ali Shido, is reported to have been arrested, to be on hunger strike and near death while his movement is in disarray. (?Yusuf) Hassan of our Somali Service has been investigating. Robin White asked him what he had found out.

[Begin recording]

[Hassan] He was arrested on the ninth of this month, and he has been held in a police station, a police custody in Dildawe, in Ethiopia, since the ninth. He went on a hunger strike for four days but as of today – I spoke to a contact some few hours ago he is taking his meals, and he is in a good condition.

[White] Now why was he arrested? Apparently there has been a squabble within the ranks of his organization, is that right?

[Hassan] That is what is emerging. It appears that the USC is split in the middle. There is a person by the name of Muhammed Farah Aideed who is claiming to be the leader, and he is disputing the position of Shido. And, it appears that General Aideed has the ear of the Ethiopian Government and, apparently, has said that Shido is not working towards the unity and for the welfare of the organization and, as a result, I think that is why he has been arrested. There might be some other reasons that we are not aware of at this particular time.

[White] Is it just a question of the squabble for the leadership, or are there fundamental things involved?

[Hassan] Well, it is not clear. I think what has happened is that since the death of the chairman of the USC, the organization has had problems in terms of its supporters. There is a split within its supporters inside Somalia, and each one of them has been claiming to be the leader of the fighting forces inside Somalia. Apparently, there have been attempts to unite the Somali opposition groups in Ethiopia, and the Somali National Movement and the USC, according to General Aideed, signed an agreement recently, on the eighth, saying that they were going to unify their forces. Now Shido has come out to oppose that and says that in fact, Gen. Aideed is not even a member of the USC, le: alone a leader of the USC. But this is the reflection of an internal squabble within the organization that has spilled over, affecting the Somali National Movement as well as their hosts, the Ethiopians.

[White] What is the matter with the Somali opposition? They do not seem to be out to agreeing and getting on with the job that they say they want to get on with, and that is [to] overthrow President Siad Barre. What is the matter with them?

[Hassan] I think [laughter] this is the question that you should pose to them [laughter]. I could not possibly answer on their behalf. I do not know. I think, basically, the problem with the Somali organizations is that they do not have a clear ideological line. What they have in common is the opposition to the regime – other than that they have not come out with anything else that can unify or create a position in which there are no squabbles or disagreements of this kind, because most of these squabbles are personal squabbles, they are family squabbles, and sometimes they are not on issues of principle.

[End recording]

_{FBIS-AFR-90-166, 27 Aug. 1990, pp. 9-10}