Dead Cow Road - Life on the Front Lines of an International Crisis

By Mark Wentling

Dead Cow Road is a compelling work of historical fiction that focuses on the US response to Somalia’s 1992 famine. US Foreign Service Officer Ray Read reluctantly accepts an assignment not of his liking, but he persists in doing his duty for his country in war-torn Somalia in spite of his contrary views and tortuous personal problems. Through Ray’s eyes, the reader is provided an inside account of the US government’s controversial handling of Somalia’s complex emergency. The daunting challenges of coping with the harsh realities of a ruined country while trying to do good amid dangerous chaos are amply communicated. This book also imparts key facts about the history, people, and places of this troubled region of Africa. Given current interests and issues regarding the United States’ involvement in troubled areas of the world, this book is timely. Although Ray knows virtually nothing about Somalia, he is thrust into Somalia’s intractable problems and obliged to deal with some of its most unsavory actors. He finds some relief from the stress of Somalia and his marital problems by striking up a chance romance with a beautiful Kenyan woman. Ray lays his life on the line more than once, but his sacrifices are not recognized. In the end, he is portrayed as a mere cypher in a larger and rapidly unfolding intense scene of unpredictable international consequences. This well-crafted and gripping story combines exceptional political analysis with lively human drama. It also blends fictional characters with real-life people. The author demonstrates that he is a masterful researcher who has an exhaustive command of Somalia’s grim predicament. He artfully melds the results of his research with his firsthand experiences in Somalia to produce a remarkable book that educates and entertains. His previous three books, an African trilogy, established his high reputation as an authority on Africa. This book solidifies this reputation. The author is one of the rare people on Earth who has visited or worked in all fifty-four African countries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781635684476

Book preview

Chapter One

Duty Calls

The famine had already killed tens of thousands. The Somali landscape was littered with ragged lumps of human scraps. Death by hunger had reduced once robust human beings to bare bones and flakes of flesh. Thousands more slipped silently into death’s final embrace before dissolving into a dusty nothingness. For the first time in history, this wretched spectacle was televised live, shocking people in the comfort of their living rooms with never-imagined scenes of the worst kind of human misery. The public outcry engendered by these horrific images insisted on swift action to rid the earth of this nightmare. The world was weary of witnessing the heartsickening scenes unfolding in Somalia.

On the other side of the world, Ray Read was enjoying his second cup of coffee and another glazed donut in the basement snack bar of the State Department. This middle-aged American was dressed in his favorite pinstriped suit and tie as he tried his best to fit into the glamorous world of US diplomacy. Over his twenty-five years in the US Foreign Service, he had worked hard to blend in and learn to do the walk and talk of a high-performing officer. He wanted to do all he could to obscure his humble Midwest beginnings on a hard-scrabble farm and cover up his introverted nature. Deep down, he knew himself as an introverted loner and a self-made man who had had the good fortune to transcend his natural grain so he could enjoy a successful career in the US Foreign Service.

As he munched his donut, Ray paid no attention to the horrid TV images because he was focused on his own predicament. His US Foreign Service career was in limbo. His assignment to Angola had been voided by the renewal of civil war following the 1992 Halloween Massacre. This unexpected turn of events rendered null his year of preparations, including an intensive course in Portuguese. On an interim basis, the bureaucracy tossed him into the curious bowels of the seventh floor of the State Department’s main building in Washington, DC. He was given a lead role in a task force managing the US response to the Drought of the Century in Southern Africa. He was settling into his demanding job of sourcing food for nine countries in this hungry part of Africa when a lame duck US president ordered marines into Somalia on December 9, 1992, to help save the starving. This dramatic event resulted in his reassignment to another seventh-floor task force that dealt with fast-moving events in this long-suffering country.

He did not know anything about Somalia or the northeast part of Africa, where it was located. He had never been to any country in what was referred to as the Horn of Africa. As he sat around the task force table with other colleagues to follow rapidly happening events in Somalia, he posed questions to those sitting on either side of him. He was surprised to find that they were as ignorant as he was about this war-torn country. When his six hours of task force duty came to an end, he headed to State’s reference library to find maps and information on Somalia. He was intent on being a quick study, doing as much homework as he could before his next tour of task force duty began the following day.

Ray found little relevant information in the library, but he did obtain CIA maps of Somalia and the Horn of Africa that were helpful. He read the little that was available on Somalia, including what the Encyclopedia Britannica contained. He studied the maps from top to bottom, noting all key data in his steno pad. He underlined one entry about the importance of clans. He found this factor intriguing. He knew intuitively that he would need to delve more deeply into the matter of clan structures and alliances. This thought was reinforced by reading that the attractive capital city of Mogadishu was mostly destroyed in the early 1990s by small arms fire of opposing militias led by the heads of two subclans who were distant cousins, General Mohamed Aidid and Ali Madhi Mohammed. The former-controlled southern Mogadishu, and the latter the northern part of this city. Something called the green line separated the urban fiefdoms of these two venerable warlords. It was obvious that any attempts to cross this line by one side or the other resulted in fierce fighting.

In one of his readings, he found a reference to Richard Burton, one of the most famous of nineteenth-century European explorers of Africa. He asked the librarian for Burton’s 1856 book, First Footsteps in East Africa, cited in the references. She did not have any reprints, but she did bring him a book that had a number of citations from this old book. He was able to read excerpts from the original book that were mainly about the three months Burton spent in 1854 and early 1855 in Berbera, in what he called Somali Country, and his travel over two hundred miles by camel to the forbidden city of Harar in the far northeast corner of present-day Ethiopia.

Burton was among the first Europeans to venture into this part of Africa. His high proficiency in Arabic and his in-depth knowledge of Islamic practices made this trip possible. The fact that he had previously masqueraded as a Muslim and gone on the hajj to Mecca held him in good stead in this land, where infidels were often killed outright. At the time, Christians were not allowed into Harar because its people believed the entry of a Christian into this Muslim city would cause it to disintegrate. Therefore, Burton and his comrades took a high risk by pretending to be Muslims so they could be among the first Europeans to visit this fabled city.

Ray was fascinated by the exploits of Burton in such a hostile part of the world over 160 years ago. He thought that much of what Burton concluded about Somalis could still be valid today. He certainly could see that Burton’s knowledge of languages, Islam, people, and their cultures were still essential to understanding present-day Somalia. In particular, his violent encounter on his return trek to Berbera with a group of raiding Somali warriors (waranle) made him pay special attention. These fearless warriors stole all their goods and tried to kill Burton and everyone in his party. He was able to escape but only after his cheeks had been pierced by a spear that entered one cheek and exited the other. His sidekick, John Speke, was wounded in eleven places but managed to reach Berbera. One of his European colleagues was killed along with many of their porters. This bloody clash reconfirmed his impressions of Somalis as being a fierce and turbulent race.

Burton’s description of Somalis caused later explorers to avoid the dangers of crossing through unfriendly Somali Country. The details he provided on the fighting spirit and fearless raiding skills of Somali warriors aroused fear among outsiders about daring to enter Somalia. Ray wondered how many of Burton’s observations still rang true today. Some of Burton’s comments reminded Ray of what the US ambassador to neighboring Kenya, Smith Hempstone, had said recently about America’s planned intervention in Somalia.

Hempstone was not a career diplomat. This fact and his previous experience as a journalist made it easy for him to express his opinions. His frank words often got him into hot water with host country officials and his superiors at State. On one occasion, he said loudly and publicly, If you loved what had happened in Beruit [referring to the 241 marines who were killed there in 1983], you would love Somalia … our involvement there would be like a tar baby we could never release. He also said that Somalia would be a quagmire for the US, as the Somalis are natural born guerrillas. They will mine the roads. They will launch hit-and-run attacks. They will inflict and take casualties. Leave the Somalis alone to work out their own destiny, as brutal as it may be . . . Much later, in hindsight, Ray would conclude that Burton and Ambassador Hempstone were mostly correct about the innate fighting nature of the Somalis and their conflictual culture. In this regard, deep down, little had changed for many Somalis since Burton’s memorable incursion over a century and a half ago.

Ray continued his Somalia studies and daily rounds of work on the Somalia Task Force. He attended an increasing number of multiagency meetings on the fast escalation of US involvement in Somalia. He tried to learn all he could about Somalia so he could make contributions to his country’s efforts to tame Somalia and feed the hungry. In spite of the buildup of foreign military forces, he believed the United States was truly on a humanitarian mission. After all, Somalia did not have any attractive natural resources and it was low on the global scale in terms of US strategic interests.

Among Ray’s favorite meetings were those with representatives of nongovernment organizations (NGOs), which already had humanitarian assistance activities ongoing in Somalia. He learned much about the realities of living and working in Somalia. He was delighted to meet people who had actually set foot in Somalia. He was impressed by how they persisted in their work despite all the dangers they faced daily. He was fascinated by the deals they cut with warlords so they could reach the people in need. He became confused when a few NGO reps informed him that the last harvest had been a good one, effectively bringing a halt to widespread famine. This made him wonder why the US government continued to ship tens of thousands of tons of food grains to Somalia and assign thousands of troops to ensure that this grain reached those whom they believed needed it.

The NGOs said the good rains in 1991 and 1992 had helped produce good harvests. These rains, and the fact that the Red Cross had already delivered substantial food to Somalia and the United States had airdropped forty-eight thousand tons of food in the six months prior to the arrival of the US Marines on Mogadishu’s shores on December 9, 1992, meant that the back of the famine had already been broken. Consequently, there appeared to be no need for massive amounts of additional food aid. Ray was happy to hear this news and was thinking that the United States should declare victory and send its troops home. On the other hand, Ray was worried that not even this positive news could slow down growing US mission creep.

Ray continued dutifully his work on the Somalia Task Force. He learned that it was frowned upon to report anything that ran counter to the wishes of the White House to show a large US presence in Somalia and how much the United States cared for the Somali people. It was clear to him that the United States was bullying the United Nations (UN) to get its way. Much of this puzzled him, so he asked during a lull in work an older and more experienced colleague sitting next to him at the task force worktable a simple question. Ralph, tell me, why are we in Somalia?

Ralph laughed in a wry manner before curtly saying, We are doing all this because President Bush wants it done. He was getting too much flak because the US was doing so much in the former Yugoslavia and nothing about those dying from starvation in Somalia. The Congressional Black Caucus was on his case about this, and the pitiful images shown daily on TV by CNN had the American people concerned about Somalia. Furthermore, he had already lost the November election to Clinton and sought to leave office on a high moral ground.

Ralph’s remarks were almost more than Ray could handle. He struggled to compute all the information Ralph had conveyed. Ralph’s comments cast the US involvement in Somalia in a totally different light for him. He could see now that his country’s involvement in Somalia was as much about US politics and unprecedented TV images as feeding the hungry in Somalia. He speculated that if it had not been for these factors, the hardworking and very able UN negotiator for Somalia, the Egyptian Mohamad Shamoun, would have continued making good progress in concluding a peace accord with Somali warlords. Comparatively, this approach was low-cost in terms of lives and money and perhaps just as effective.

Ray was now more confused than ever about the United States’ role in Somalia. He felt like an unwilling participant in a huge charade void of any true humor in view of the high toll of human lives and large amounts of money expended. Yet everyone was eager to jump on the bandwagon and save Somalia. No overall intervention strategy had been carefully elaborated, and no endgame plan was in place. All eyes were focused on how to move ahead. Nothing else seemed to matter except using much fanfare to show the world and the Somalis America’s bountiful goodwill.

The weeks rolled into a few months. Ray was thinking that he should not do anything to rock the US-Somalia policy boat and do the best he could to perform as requested. This thinking was largely based on the assumption that he was overdue for a new assignment and soon he would be far from the troubling obligation of dealing with Somalia. One day, in a routine task force meeting, he learned his thinking was dead wrong.

The man who had been selected to lead the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) mission in Somalia had decided he did not want this assignment. He was the perfect candidate to go to Somalia. He was single and had previously worked in some danger zones, otherwise known as hot spots. There was a rumor passing around that purported he had decided not to accept the assignment after a two-week visit to Mogadishu. It was said that the determinant factor for him was that he would have to share a room and bathroom with other colleagues. People believed his decision to refuse this assignment would ruin the career of this highly ranked senior US foreign service officer. Yet that rational belief did not prove to be the case.

The task force meeting of that day focused first on the Africa Bureau’s contention that it had too much on its plate and the Somalia program would be better served if this country were placed in the Northern Africa and Near East Bureau. The Africa Bureau thought that religion, culture, history, and geography made Somalia more connected to the Near East than the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. In reality, the Africa Bureau was trying to be relieved from the heavy and controversial burden the growing Somalia program represented. Not surprisingly, its request to move Somalia to another bureau fell on deaf ears.

The second topic to be discussed was the selection of a new USAID director. It was a short discussion. They looked around the table, and all eyes targeted Ray. Finally, the task force head said, Ray, you did not get to go to Angola as planned, so your reward is to go to Somalia. These words generated a good laugh from all those sitting around the table.

Ray was quite surprised and at a loss for words. He had mixed feelings about going to Somalia, and deep down he really did not want to go to such a messed-up country. He thought he was the wrong fit for the job. He was married, he had three children, and he knew almost nothing about Somalia. But duty called, and he had been conditioned by years of service to always say yes. On the other hand, his marriage was on the rocks, and being away in Somalia might just give him and his wife the breathing room they needed to salvage their failing marriage. Ray meekly responded, I am ready to do my duty. This was what those seated around the table wanted to hear. They needed an enthusiastic team player who followed instructions well.

Good, that’s the spirit! said the task force head. You should prepare to leave within the week so you can participate in an important meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that begins on March 13. The UN, US, and Ethiopian governments are organizing a reconciliation conference with key Somali warlords to hammer out a peace agreement. This meeting will allow you to meet and engage with some of the principal actors and contribute to this uncommon effort to achieve peace.

The next point on the agenda was about which kind of vehicle to provide for the new USAID director. For sure, all agreed the vehicle must be four-wheel drive and fully bulletproofed. A long discussion ensued about the kind of metal plating the vehicle should be equipped with, how much it would cost, and how long it would take to manufacture. Concerns were also expressed about how the heaviness of the vehicle would cause it to sink into the Somali sand.

At the end of a lengthy discussion of this thorny vehicle issue, Ray was asked, Since you are the one who will be using this one-hundred-thousand-dollar vehicle, what do you think?

Ray, with a wry smile on his wrinkle-free face, said, If such a highly armored vehicle is needed to work in Somalia, should anyone really be working there? Ray expected that his comment would entice a laugh from his colleagues, but instead, the room was engulfed in an afflictive silence.

Chapter Two

Addis Ababa

Preparing his family for his indeterminate absence was a trying task, and his bossy wife made things even more difficult. No matter how stressful it was to separate from his children, he knew he had no choice but to do his duty. Under unbearable emotional circumstances, he said his tearful good-byes to his three children. His two teenage daughters could not believe he was leaving them again and ran away to their bedroom. His thirteen-year-old son was visibly upset and blurted out, USAID sucks and so does your duty!

Ray was stung deeply by his son’s harsh words. He teetered on an emotional precipice, steeling himself against crumbling into a breakdown. He fought to maintain his resolve as he fumbled with his thoughts on how he could reply, but there was no time. His waiting taxi honked insistently. He felt terrible about his silence and turning his back on his irate son as he rushed to go to Dulles International Airport to catch his flight to Paris and then on to Addis Ababa to participate in the peace conference with Somali warlords. On his way to the airport, he could not shake the sickening cold and callous feelings generated by the awful circumstances surrounding his departure from home. The bitter attitude of his children was breaking his heart, but he was obliged to bury his feelings and respond to the best of his ability to the call of duty. This was one of many instances where duty trumped family sentiments. Separation from family was perhaps the toughest aspect of being a foreign service officer.

His thoughts gradually began to focus on his destination. He had been to Ethiopia eleven years earlier to help for a few weeks with a massive famine relief effort. The widespread human suffering he observed and the harshness of the revolutionary regime that came to power in 1974 with the help of the Soviets reduced his interest in going there again. At that time, the country was under the brutal thumb of a communist military junta (Dreg) led by the ruthless Mengistu Haile Mariam, who had overthrown a centuries-old monarchy. Ray also recalled all the hassles he had had at the Addis airport with ornery soldiers who menaced his every step. He had heard that things were better after Mengistu’s seventeen-year bloody reign was ended in 1991 by another revolutionary Marxist group led by the current Ethiopian leader, Meles Zenawi, who had battled for years with his Tigrayan forces from northern Ethiopia to topple the murderous Mengistu.

He had a smooth change of flights in Paris and was headed to Addis in a new Ethiopian Airlines’ Boeing 707. As his night flight approached Haile Selassie I International Airport, a sense of dread and uneasiness came over him. His dread was not about dealing with Somali warlords. He basically had no feelings about that because he did not know what to expect. He finally figured out that his dread was about having to deal with Ethiopia again. He had already worked and lived over twenty years in other African countries, but Ethiopia was different than anywhere else in Africa. He did not know exactly why this was so, but he was preparing himself for the same kind of disorientation he felt the last time he was in Addis. For him, Ethiopia, the oldest country in the world, was like a different planet that had little in common with the rest of Africa.

He reflected deeply on why Ethiopia made him feel this way and what he had read about Ethiopia in the previous weeks. Maybe he felt the way he did because all his previous experiences in Africa were in countries populated by Bantu people. Ethiopia’s large population of over fifty million was largely composed of Semitic and Cushitic people. Maybe it was because Ethiopia was the only country in Africa that never had been colonized and had a long history dating back thousands of years. He knew there were citations in the Old Testament (1 Kings 10:1–10; 2 Chronicles 9:1–9) of the Bible where it was often referred to as Abyssinia and in the New Testament as Ethiopia. The very ancient and rich history of the country stood in stark contrast to other countries he knew in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, prehistoric human remains, Lucy, dated to be over 3.2 million years old, had been discovered by an American anthropologist, Donald Johanson, and his team in 1974 in Ethiopia’s Afar Depression. Apparently, ancient ancestors of the human race had inhabited Ethiopia much longer than almost anywhere else in the world.

The country was ruled by a royal monarchy that purportedly could trace its lineage back to a brief liaison between King Solomon (son of David) and the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba. The queen had traveled to visit the king because she had heard of his great wisdom and vast wealth. They exchanged many expensive gifts. That liaison in the tenth century before Christ allegedly produced Menelik I, the first king of kings, king of Axum, and first Solomon emperor of Ethiopia. The country’s last emperor, Haile Selassie (Power of the Trinity), reigned from 1930 until 1974, when he, all his family, and his imperial court officials were imprisoned by Mengistu. In 1982, Emperor Selassie, at the age of eighty-three, was reportedly strangled to death by Mengistu and his henchmen. This murderous act put an end to a royal monarchy that had endured for nearly three thousand years.

Ray knew that one thing he did not like in Addis was not being able to speak or understand a word of the main language, Amharic (one of perhaps eighty ethnic languages), which was as ancient as it was complicated and had a complex script that was thousands of years old. This script was based on Ga’ez, which came into use five to six centuries before Christ. Following the conversion of Emperor Ezana to Christianity in the fourth century, Christianity became the official state religion. Some scholars believe Christianity entered Ethiopia long before the conversion of Ezana. They refer to chapter 8 of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 8:26–39) in the Bible, where Philip the Evangelist baptized on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza an official from Ethiopia’s royal court. It is believed this treasury official, a eunuch, was traveling the same route the Queen of Sheba had pioneered thousands of years previously.

In any event, Ethiopia’s Orthodox Tewahedo Church had been a strong force in Ethiopian society for centuries. Among other things, this ancient church claims to have in its possession the Ark of the Covenant that King Solomon gave his son, Menelik I, for his mother, the Queen of Sheba (Makeda), to keep safely hidden. The Ark of the Covenant allegedly is kept in the Church of Our Lady of Mary of Zion in Axum. Ray thought the Ethiopian Orthodox church had more members than most African countries had people. He could not think of any country in Sub-Saharan Africa he could reasonably compare with Ethiopia. And he was impressed by the fact that Christianity existed in Ethiopia before it did in Europe.

Another thing different about Addis was that its geography and climate were not like the hot, humid tropical countries where he had worked previously in Africa. Addis was located in a mountainous plateau at nearly eight thousand feet (highest capital city in Africa). He could recall that the last time he was there, he had to buy a sweater and an umbrella because of the cold and rain. He told himself that he should keep an open mind and not be too judgmental, particularly as during his previous visit he rarely ventured out of his hotel. Nonetheless, he could not shake being wary of a country with such a long history of repeated wars, famines, and serious bouts of social upheaval.

Ray was pleased that his experience in the Addis airport was much better than the last time he passed this entry point into this ancient country. The time he spent with formalities and checkpoints in the airport was too long, but the atmosphere was much less threatening. He thought that maybe possessing a US diplomatic passport helped smooth his way. He picked up his suitcase in the baggage area and headed for the exit. He was happy to find his name written in big letters on a sheet of paper being held by a US embassy driver. The driver took his suitcase and led him to an embassy Ford van waiting at the airport entrance. They departed immediately through the dark and mysterious metropolis of Addis for the Hilton Hotel.

When he entered the car, the driver handed him a large manila envelope. As it was too dark to read in the car, he told himself he would carefully check its contents once he was safely inside his hotel room. They arrived in less than thirty minutes under the entrance canopy at the Hilton. Ray initialed the sign-up sheet presented by the driver and followed the porter carrying his suitcase into the spacious and interesting hotel lobby. In one corner of the lobby, he spied people sitting on low stools being served coffee by an Ethiopian woman dressed in a traditional ornamented white shemma, a gauze-like hand-spun cotton robe. This sight reminded him that the origin of Arabica coffee was in Ethiopia, which was still the largest exporter of coffee in Africa. He had read that coffee ceremonies had been an important part of Ethiopian life for centuries. He made a mental note to partake in this ceremony before leaving the country.

He rapidly dispensed with hotel formalities at the reception desk and was handed his room key by the attractive female clerk who smiled widely, showing her beautiful white teeth while she wished him a good stay in Ethiopia. He followed the spiffily dressed porter to his room on the third floor of this aging twelve-floor hotel. After the porter opened his room door and assured that all was in good working order, he tipped him a couple of dollars and thanked him for his assistance. The first order of business before catching up on his sleep after such a long and exhausting flight was to see under good light the contents of the manila envelope. He found a handwritten note from Ambassador Overholster, the US president’s special envoy to Somalia, welcoming him. Also included was the instruction to meet him and the US negotiation team in the lobby at 7:00 a.m. so they could quickly review matters before arriving for a 9:00 a.m. meeting at the Africa Hall in the nearby building complex where the Organization of Africa Union (OAU) maintained its headquarters.

Also contained in the envelope was a list of eighteen Somalis and the factions they represented. The information contained on this list made little sense to Ray. Many of the names seemed to resemble one another, and for sure, there were many names that contained Mohammed in the usual listing of three names for each participant—their first name, middle name, and father’s last name. He was not yet versed in the names of the factional party organizations, so that part of the list also made little sense to him. He could see that he had a lot to learn and doubted that he would be able to contribute anything to the peace conference. He did expect that meeting all these people would be of use to him during his assignment in Mogadishu, which would begin following this conference. Anyway, he was too tired to deal with any of this now.

He quickly unlocked and unpacked his suitcase and arranged his clothes and toiletries. He called the hotel front desk to verify the local time and asked for a wake-up call at 6:00 a.m. He did not want to be late to meet the ambassador and the team. The reception clerk informed him the time was GMT plus three hours. She also told him that Ethiopia uses the Coptic liturgical calendar and it was seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar used in the rest of the world. That interesting calendar fact was something Ray did not know.

He jumped into bed, but before falling off to sleep, he wanted to see the contents in the hotel information folder lying on the nightstand next to his bed. There were a number of brochures. One told about the founding of Addis Ababa (New Flower) in 1886 by Emperor Menelik II and his wife. Although Addis was only eight degrees north of the equator, it had a temperate climate because of its high altitude. One brochure mentioned that the hotel had been inaugurated by Emperor Haile Selassie in 1969 and was sitting atop a geothermal spring that provided natural warm water to the hotel’s huge swimming pool. The hotel design was based on the architecture of the famous Lalibela Cross church, an important up-country tourist attraction sometimes referred to as the eighth wonder of the world. There was also mention of many tourist attractions in Addis, including the Mercato, the largest open air market in the world.

Ray fell asleep as he read. He felt as if he had only dozed off for a few minutes when he heard the phone ringing. He picked up the phone and heard a gentle feminine voice say cheerfully, Good morning, sir. This is your 6:00 a.m. wake-up call. Have a good day.

Ray forced himself to say Thank you, but all he wanted to do was go back to sleep. He noticed daylight creeping into his room around the edges of the heavy curtains. He then thought of Ambassador Overholster’s instruction and sprang out of bed, ready to do his duty. He pulled back his curtains and was blinded by the bright sunlight. He was pleased to see sunlight in a city that could often be wet and cloudy. On the other hand, he was appalled by what the sunlight revealed outside of his hotel window. As far as he could see, there was a sprawling urban slum overflowing with people and their makeshift abodes jammed against one another.

This heartrending sight prompted him to recall what he had read about the scale of abject poverty in the second most populated country in Africa (Nigeria is first). He had read that 78 percent of Ethiopia’s over 54 million people in 1993 lived on less than 2 dollars a day and nearly two-thirds of the people were illiterate. The national population had tripled in 50 years and was projected to double by 2020. Addis had 1.5 million people in 1993 but was projected to have 4 times that population in 2025. As most of Ethiopia’s people were dependent on rain-fed agriculture, every periodic drought created a deathly calamity of huge proportions. Recurrent drought in Ethiopia had caused major human catastrophes over the centuries. It was estimated that the severe drought in the 1983–85 period caused a million people to die from starvation. Of course, two decades of insurgency and civil war during the 1970s and 1980s made these numbers of deaths higher than they would have been otherwise.

With these somber thoughts swirling around in his head, Ray quickly bathed and put on a suit and tie. Even though he did not feel like a diplomat, he thought it best for this auspicious peace-making occasion that he appear to look like one. He grabbed his slim leather briefcase and rushed out of his room only to become immediately lost. It took him a few minutes to get his bearings and find the elevator that would take him to the lobby. He stepped through the opening doors of the elevator and quickly recognized Ambassador Overholster from photos of him that he had previously seen. He was standing straight and tall with a small group of people congregating in one corner of the lobby. They all looked like cutouts from a foreign coloring book. Ray marched forthrightly up to the group, extended his hand to the US special envoy for Somalia, and said, Mr. Ambassador, Ray Read reporting for duty as instructed.

In his pronounced Texas drawl, the ambassador gave Ray a warm welcome and introduced him to his two assistants and two people from the US Embassy in Addis. The ambassador’s Texas origins reminded him that Ethiopia was a relatively large country because it was about twice the size of Texas. The ambassador invited everyone to a breakfast discussion meeting in a side room he had reserved. Ray felt like a fish out of water, but he knew that his baptism in the complex and harsh realities of Somalia was just around the corner.

Chapter Three

Peace Seeking

As soon as everyone was seated around the breakfast table, Ambassador Overholster lost no time in giving a quick and precise brief on what the US government wanted to achieve at the Somalia Conference of National Reconciliation. He made it clear that they would negotiate with the Somali faction representatives for as long as it took to gain their agreement to cease all hostilities so that the UN’s humanitarian mission could proceed in a peaceful environment. In particular, he noted that it was most urgent to obtain the agreement of the two most important faction leaders, Aidid and Ali Madhi, who controlled Mogadishu and had the biggest and strongest-armed militias. A truce between these two warring factions was needed to allow the arrival and passage of food and humanitarian supplies through the Mogadishu airport and seaport to the hinterland, where aid was needed the most.

Overholster reminded everyone that Aidid’s militia controlled the southern part of Mogadishu, where the US and UN missions were located, and Ali Mahdi controlled the northern part. There was something called the green line that divided the city between them. It is interesting that they were possibly cousins and both belonged to the same clan, Hawiye, but led different subclans, Habr Gedir (Aidid) and Abgal (Ali Madhi). They had been locked in a violent struggle to replace the former dictator, Siad Barre, since he fled the country in 1991, following their joint effort to oust him. Barre had been in power with an iron grip since 1969 and had received much support from the United States to counter Soviet influence in Ethiopia and other parts of the Horn of Africa. Aidid and Ali Madhi’s battles against Siad Barre and between themselves had reduced most of Mogadishu, the White Pearl of the Indian Ocean, to rubble.

This historic capital city of about a million people had been destroyed by mostly small arms fire. Over fifty thousand people had been killed in warfare the decade prior to the arrival of American forces in December 1993. This number of deaths did not include the hundreds of thousands of people who died across the country because of endless war and food shortages. Nor did it include the hundreds of thousands who became refugees or displaced. The number of camels and goats that died is unknown, but it is logical to assume in this largely pastoral country that tens of thousands of livelihoods provided by the raising of animals were lost.

The ambassador stressed that the key to achieving peace in Somalia was to understand well the clan structure, the most important Somali social unit, and getting the leaders of major clans to agree with one another. He said he was not sure how many clans there were, but he thought there must be at least a dozen. He underscored that the larger clans with the best-armed militias were the ones on which to focus. This included the factions headed by Aidid and Mahdi and those clans aligned with them. Following clan alliances was necessary but fraught with challenges. Alliances were constantly shifting as clan leaders jockeyed to gain greater advantages in terms of territory and resources. The ambassador handed out maps and papers with more information about clans and the different factions and their leaders.

Ray quickly glanced at these papers and readily saw that he had much to learn. One thing he noticed was the divergence in the way the names of the leaders and place names were spelled. His head was spinning as he struggled to comprehend the Somalia clan system and how clan history and pride played such an important role in the Somalia conflict. He found it difficult to grasp how Somalia could have so many divisions. After all, it was one of the rare countries in Africa that had a single dominant national language and religion, and most Somalis claimed to be descended from a common ancestor. In spite of all they had in common, they appeared to have developed dozens of divisions among themselves, and they were all too ready to fight over their differences. He did not know then that it would take him almost six months to gain a good handle on Somali clan structure, who was who for each clan and important subclans, and how each clan related to the others.

The ambassador continued by saying that the Ethiopian government was the official host for this conference, but the Somalis had insisted on an independent mediator from the UN. He said he was not sure how the conference would be organized, but each person on the US team must be ready to do as requested and prepared to work long hours for as long as it took. He noted that today was March 15 and that they should plan on being assigned to this task for several weeks. He also said that he would not play a direct role in any of the discussions, but he would count on all to make US positions clear to all participants. He would be an observer and be providing team members with advice as needed during breaks and on the side. He stressed that the United States needed to be seen as an honest broker that had the best interests of the Somali people in mind. Of course, the US Embassy in Addis was supporting their mission and would help transmitting to Washington and other concerned posts daily situation reports.

Ambassador Overholster looked at his watch and asked if anyone had any questions. He also advised if anyone needed to go to the restroom, now was the time to do so. They would have to board in fifteen minutes an embassy van waiting for them at the hotel entrance for the short drive to the Africa Hall. He mentioned that the Somali delegations were staying at Hotel Ghion in another part of Addis, and the US government was responsible for the cost of their stay and all their travel arrangements. They had all been flown to Addis directly from Somalia on a US military aircraft.

Ray timidly raised his hand to ask a question, Is disarmament an objective of the conference?

Ambassador Overholster wryly replied, No, not explicitly, but that will be up to the Somalis to decide. Personally, son, I believe it would be easier to disarm the state of Texas than to relieve the Somalis of their guns.

The brashness with which the ambassador replied to Ray’s query made the others reluctant to question this highly ranked US foreign service officer. Everyone felt that they were flying by the seat of their pants and on a fast learning curve. Nobody knew what to expect today or in the days to come. They did not know that they would all have to become Somalia experts and capable negotiators in the briefest of time. They wondered how such an important matter could be left in the inexperienced hands of so few.

As the ambassador said Let’s go team, Ray was scratching his head and thinking about how tough it would be to disarm the state of Texas. He could see that this would be impossible to do. So if it was impossible in Texas, how could it be done in Somalia? As far as he was concerned, as long as the Somalis had guns, they would be fighting for clan greed, pride, or loot, just like they had done since Burton visited Somali Country in the nineteenth century. It was a way of life. Ray was trying to keep an open mind, but this thought made him skeptical about achieving any real progress at the conference.

They all squeezed into the van for the short hop to the Africa Hall. As they arrived at the imposing entrance, Ray noticed a bronze plaque next to the main door with an inscription conveying that the hall had been inaugurated by HIM Haile Selassie in 1961. There was another plaque that noted that African heads of state adopted on May 25, 1963, the charter for the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Yet another plaque indicated that this was the center of the UN Economic Commission for Africa. They entered the vast conference auditorium and were met by Ethiopian hostesses, who assisted them to sign in and obtain their security badges and name tags. They took their seats in a row near the front reserved for the US delegation. There were many Somalis already seated, but he was told that the faction leaders had not yet arrived. The people present were invited by the UN to represent Somali civil society and traditional authorities. The UN wanted this to be a conference for all Somalis and not just for the factions that controlled armed militias. Ray thought this was a good idea, but he suspected that bringing peace to Somalia was only possible if the factions could agree to stop fighting one another.

The faction leaders arrived as a group. If Ray had not known differently, he would have thought they were all best buddies, as they all had big smiles on their faces and acted as if they were on the best of terms. They made Ray feel like they had already made peace and were looking forward to rebuilding their country. They greeted all those who had already arrived and took their seats at the places reserved for them. There was a row of seats marked with the name of each faction. This marking of the rows helped Ray begin to know who was who, although many of them looked alike because most had a receding hairline or were bald. The style of their mustaches or beards, or absence thereof, was helpful in distinguishing one from another.

The meeting was brought to order by a senior UN staff member who spoke from behind a podium located in the center of the stage they were facing. The unknown UN person used the microphone to welcome all and introduce himself. As he spoke in English, the several dozen Somalis who were in attendance used the headphones attached to their seats to listen to a simultaneous interpretation from English to Somali. The same translation service would be offered for translating Somali into English. Ray found that all this necessary translation turned long meetings into longer meetings, and he did not fully trust the interpretation that was being communicated. This made him wish that he knew some Somali words.

Following the introductory remarks by the UN official, a representative of the Ethiopian government spoke, saying that his prime minister, Zenawi Meles, would be monitoring closely the progress of the conference and, if needed, would participate at certain times. The UN official then explained how the conference would be organized. They had set up an agenda according to specific major topics, and people would be divided into groups to discuss these topics. He noted that many of the topics would be the same as in their previous Addis conference in early January. This was the first time Ray had heard there had been a previous conference.

The UN official called everyone’s attention to sign-up sheets on tables placed at the side of the room and asked everyone to write their names under the topical group in which they wanted to participate. But before doing this, he asked each person to introduce themselves. All present in the room took a turn in stating their name and affiliation. Ray’s turn came, and he told himself to follow his ambassador’s example, but he then discovered his ambassador was not in the auditorium. He and his colleagues politely said their names, noting they were members of the US delegation. Ray was puzzled. Where was his ambassador? And if the UN and the Ethiopian government were managing the conference, what was the role of the United States? It took him some time to learn that his government preferred working from behind the scenes, although it was really calling most of the shots and footing the bill. The United States was agreeable with everything as long as things went the way it wanted.

Ray’s ambassador was purposely being aloof and observing from a distance. He only became involved when he saw that it was necessary for him to weigh in with his authority. Ray learned later that one reason the ambassador was keeping a low profile was that he said some things in the previous January conference that the Somalis did not like. In any event, the core idea was that if a lasting peace agreement was going to be achieved, it had to be elaborated by Somali leaders without undue outside involvement. For Ray, it was as if he and his colleagues were there just to show the US flag, particularly as the UN and the Ethiopian government seemed to have the conference fully in hand.

The UN moderator said there would be a short break to allow people to sign up for the groups in which they wanted to participate and, if they wanted, have a cup of coffee and use the restroom facilities in the foyer area at the hall entrance. He said all groups should be ready to begin discussing their topic in thirty minutes, and each group would need to name a chairperson and a notetaker. If they had any problems, they should ask him or one of his assistants for help. He also said that because it was the holy month of Ramadan, no lunch would be provided, but snacks for non-Muslims would be made available. He noted that if meetings went too long, there would be time allotted each evening just after sunset for Muslim participants to break their daily fast with tea, milk, and dates, followed by an iftar dinner.

Ray thought that if peace were indeed possible, maybe it was a good idea to seek peace during the holy month of Ramadan. He did worry that daytime fasting may make it more difficult to have productive discussions in the afternoon. Later he would learn that he had totally underestimated the Somali ability to perpetuate an almost endless palaver. As he stood to begin the break, he asked his embassy colleague, Fred Eckhart, sitting next to him about the fascinating stained glass mural that stretched across the outside wall of the foyer where coffee and tea were being served. Fred said, "Oh, yes. This is a very famous work by a renowned Ethiopian artist, Afework Téklé. This is one of the largest stained glass triptychs in the world. It is about one hundred fifty square meters and intended to depict African unity, showing Africans in the past, present, and future in their struggle for freedom and prosperity. This entire majestic mural is called Total Liberation of Africa."

The bright morning light was pouring through the floor-to-ceiling stained glass window, creating a dazzling mosaic of sparkling colors that reflected brilliantly off the white marble floor. This reflection almost prevented Ray from seeing Ambassador Overholster signaling to him and others in his group to join him at the far end of the foyer. He quickly marched over to the ambassador and, along with his three colleagues, listened to him bark out some instructions, There are four groups that we must observe and participate in as needed. These are [1] disarmament and security, [2] rehabilitation and reconstruction, [3] restoration of property and settlement of disputes, and [4] transitional mechanisms. Fred, I want you in group 1. Ray you are best suited for group 2. Alice, you are in group 3, and John, you go with group 4. I will be sticking my head into all groups to see how things are going. I want each of you to take good notes and to only participate if you think you have something to contribute that will help move things along. It is important that you use this opportunity to size up and get to know the Somali participants. Are there any questions?

Nobody had any questions. Everyone was reeling with the thought that they were being given so much responsibility for something they were so ill-prepared to manage. They had the barest of clues about what they were getting involved in and had no idea of what lay before them. As there were not any questions, Ambassador Overholster said, Okay. Every evening, we will be meeting with a small team from the embassy to share and discuss meeting highlights. The conclusions of these meetings will be used by me and the embassy to send out a daily situational report to Washington and other concerned posts. I wish all of you best of luck. Go get ’em, team!

If the ambassador’s intention was to raise Ray’s spirits, his words had failed. Ray felt more overwhelmed than ever and was wondering what in his background had qualified him for this heavy and unsavory duty. He skipped the drinks and reentered the hall auditorium to sign up for his designated group. As he walked toward the sign-up tables located at the side of the vast hall, he raised his eyes and saw protruding from each of the front sides of the hall the sculptured busts in stone relief of the thirty-two founding fathers of newly independent countries of Africa who had signed the charter establishing the OAU in 1963. Ray recognized most of them immediately and found it abhorrent that some of them continued to be honored in this fashion. This feeling of disgust stemmed from the fact that a few of those former presidents portrayed ended up being bloody dictators who ruined their countries. Also, some were killed or overthrown. Ray wanted to recommend that they chisel out the images of a number of these presidents. He thought the continued presence of their images was something of a sick joke and dishonored this diplomatic center of Africa. Perhaps they should refer to this center as the Africa Hall of Shame. Ray believed this perverse display was supported by the number of bloody African dictators who had been named chairpersons of the OAU since its founding in 1963. It was hard to imagine that the distasteful likes of Mobutu, Idi Amin, Siad Barre, and Mengistu had all been elected at one time or another to be chairpersons of the OAU between 1967 and 1984. It made him sick to his stomach to see how this august body was capable of naming the worst of people as its chairpersons. In his mind, such intra-African politicking diminished greatly any respect he could have for the OAU. How could so many with blood on their hands, large bank accounts abroad, and responsibility for the demise of their countries be held in such high esteem? For him, it was all so unbelievable and contributed to the rest of the world not taking Africa seriously.

He stopped gazing at the sculptured busts and proceeded toward the sign-up tables. He could see many Somalis mulling around the tables. He braced himself to be ready to meet and greet for the first time a good number of them. He had a sinking feeling that he would be shaking the hands of men who had much blood on their hands and who had contributed to the destruction of their country. He steeled himself so he could put on a happy face and do his diplomatic duty with people he would otherwise shun. Pursuing his assigned mission would require that he bury his feelings and focus on the objectives the US government wanted to achieve. He felt as if he had been cast into the lion’s den with the mission of dealing with the devil to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse—all in the name of achieving a written agreement signed by the Somali participants that committed them to peace and reconciliation. Rarely had so much been asked of so few.

Chapter Four

Peace Diplomacy

Ray adopted his charming diplomatic persona and introduced himself, shaking hands with as many of the Somali participants as possible. He noted to all that after this conference, he would be going on assignment to Mogadishu. When the Somalis heard him say this, they took more than a casual interest in him. Ray did not know it, but from that moment, the Somalis were sizing him up in terms of what he represented to them as a potential resource. They would be watching him closely to see if he was a potential friend or foe and how they might use him to serve their purposes. If they perceived him as being helpful to their cause, they would determine the best way to approach him and gain his support. If he were judged to be of no value to their cause, he would be ignored and considered expendable. If he came across as a threat to them, he would be treated politely but marked for potential elimination. The Somali faction leaders really had no friends. They only catered seriously to those whom they believed could serve their interests.

Ray came across to the Somalis as another do-gooder American who was all smiles and all too ready to do what he believed was right for the long-suffering Somali people. Many of the Somali participants saw him as naive and ignorant of what they and Somalia were all about. For the Somalis, Ray was an easy mark who should be exploited to the fullest if that was what they wanted. They too could put on happy faces and use their knowledge of American culture and customs to make Ray think they were well-meaning, good people who wanted the same things as he did. Ray did not know it, but Somalis were experts at pulling the wool over one’s eyes and making you believe that they were well-intentioned people who wanted only the best for their country and its inhabitants. Ray would find out much later that some Somali leaders were capable of going to great lengths to orchestrate complex scenes that made you believe in their sincerity and good will.

It was difficult for the naturally good-natured and optimistic Americans to accept that the main thing that motivated Somali leaders was their interest in power and profit. They would portray themselves as angels singing heavenly songs if that was what it took to preserve and expand their territory, increase their grip over their followers, and augment their sources of booty. Deep down, all the faction leaders—commonly referred to as warlords—wanted to have what Siad Barre had had for so many years, and that was