Sss&ftu. News digest
U.S. soldiers facing unpredictable conditions
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Andy
Milburn’s foot patrol turned left at
Death Bridge into the Bermuda Tri
angle, trailing a wake of laughing
kids. Then a single shot sent them
scrambling for cover.
The 12 Marines crouched in a line
behind a low white stucco wall peer
ing into Indian Country, their comer
of the bombed-out, starving, clan
ruled and grotesquely complex ruins
of Somalia.
Up close, the Marines saw that to
deliver food, they would have to
pacify Somalia. Some of them won
dered whether they had taken on more
than they had reckoned.
“It’s hard to define a clear mis
sion,” said Milbum, a U.S. Marine
lieutenant. “Our rules of engagement
change by the day.”
His job Sunday was to take a sec
tion of men into the worst part of town
— an enclave the South Mogadishu
warlord left to northerners — “to act
friendly and show some force.”
The section left their base at
Mogadishu in high spirits.
“This isn’t a war movie,” Milbum
barked at one man who seemed overly
relaxed. “Get both hands on that
weapon.”
For a while, there were smiles on
all sides. “Welcome, welcome,” So
mali market women and youngsters
chanted as the Marines strode down a
busy street.
Some Somalis, led up with the
chaotic rule by armed gangs, yelled
encouragement: jet the guns from
those bandits.”
Then the men, sweating in their
camouflage, headed for Death Bridge,
a short white span named for recent
mayhem.
They walked through an ominous
canyon of tin shacks rising on both
sides, dotted among forests of long
spiked pear cactus.
Then Osman Hussein, 15, tugged
at Milburn’s sleeve. “Guns,” he said.
Milburn followed the boy’s finger
to a bank of whitewashed houses over
the bridge. A shot cracked. “Get
down,” the lieutenant yelled, and ev
eryone did.
“I don’t want to be ovcrdramatic,
but that kid probably saved my point
man’s life,” Milburn said. “We were
going over that bridge and would
have walked right into it.”
The patrol moved on. Then the
radio ordered them back. It wasn’t
because of the incident but rather
some communications problem.
Such regular foot patrols show the
flag, but they also remind the Marines
what the U.S.-led U.N. forces arc up
against on a grander scale.
“We’re so vulnerable, if they want
to take shots at us, what can we do?”
said Gunnery Sgt. Robin White from
Indianapolis.
At night, snipers fire into the port
camp. Marines cleaned out the roof of
theold prison, aconvcnicntovcrlook,
and shots diminished. But the danger
is there.
Already, Somalison the streclcursc
French Foreign Legionnaires who
they say arc too rough. The French
shot dead two Somalis Friday when
their truck’s brakes failed<at a road
block.
Military officers acknowledge that
as time moves on, more disgruntled
people in this volatile society could
make life miserable for armed troops
and all other foreigners.
On an earlier patrol, Milbum seized
an assault rifle from a Somali, and the
crowd cheered. A half hour later, the
man sent a friend to the port to de
mand it back.
Milbum received orders to hand
back the weapon since the owner
argued he needed it for self-defense.
Two hours later, the man used the gun
to rob a Swedish cameraman.
“Thcguy made the Swede lay down
and threatened to kill him,” While
said. “He kepi screaming thal he wasc.
getting back at the Marines who took
his weapon. This is complex. Big
time.”
Food shipment, troops arrive
MOGADISHU, Somalia —
Under U.S. Marine guard, the first
food relief ship in eight weeks
docked Sunday at Mogadishu, and
American troops extended their
operations.
It was a busy day for the Ma
rines, but it still did not bring them
to the areas where hundreds of
people are dying of starvation and
disease each week. And there were
signs of the lough job ahead, in
cluding continued violence by clan
gunmen.
Cynthia Ostcrman, a CARE In
ternational spokeswoman, esti
mated that 350,000 people have
died in Somalia this year and that
1 million to 2 million arc endan
gered. The last estimate of deaths,
more than a month ago, was
300,000.
Ms. Ostcrman said the major
problem was moving food into the
countryside, where the U.S. forces
have yet to deploy in large num
bers.
“It’s very tough to deliver. The
roads are very bad, some mined,”
she said.
In the capital. Marines escorted
food convoys to both sides of the
divided city and relief officials
worked to restore water service to
Mogadishu for the first lime in two
years.
The arrival of the first U.S. Army
soldiers from the 1 Oth Mountain
Division at Fort Drum, N.Y., and
Belgian and Italian soldiers brought
the numberof troops to about 4,000.
More than 30,000 troops will
eventually participate in the U.S.
led UN coalition.
In the capital, scattered shots
still rang out on Sunday, and loot
ers were preying on the cars of
relief workers, despite a ccasc-firc
agreement announced last week by
the two main warlords, Ali Mahdi
Mohamed and Gen. Mohamcd
Farrah Aidid. The truce was sup
posed to have taken effect Sunday.
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Minnesota residents rally against
state-licensed home of molester
WELCH, Minn.—The sign on the
gravel road winding through the
wooded hills of Ravenna Township
cautions motorists to watch for chil
dren. But children don’t walk the
road alone.
Another roadside sign, this one
hand-drawn with an arrow pointing to
a nearby house, gives the reason: “A
child molester lives here!”
Twice a day for almost eight
months, residents have protested out
side Ravenna Ranch, where Peter G.
Anderson, one of four developmen
tal I y-disablcd tenants, lives.
They have sued to close the state
licensed home, and face two lawsuits
themselves, one accusing them of
harassing residents and workers at the
home, the other seeking legal costs,
which amount to more than $77,000.
“The issue is not over mental retar
dation, it’s an issue over sexual of
fenders being moved into a neighbor
hood full of kids without the knowl
edge of residents,’’said Tim Hoffman,
who lives across the road with his wife
and their 4-year-old son.
Anderson, 37, is on probation for a
1986 conviction for exposing himself
to a 9-year-old boy. Before that, he
had been placed on probation for
sexually assaulting girls, aged 6 and
9.
Neighbors learned that Anderson
had moved into the home only when
he was spotted by the girls’ mother.
Now the area is dotted with hand
lettered signs, which read “Warning:
We protect our children.”
The Hoffmans and another couple
sued in February, seeking to have the
home closed. The case is scheduled
for trial Thursday.
David Peterman,co-owner of Tho
mas Allen Inc., which operates the
home, argues that its residents
shouldn’t be held to a different stan
dard than anyone else.
“When you or I move into a new
house or apartment, we do not ask the
neighbors for their approval,”
Peterman said.
“As long as an individual resides
within the law, neighbors do not have
the right to decide who docs and does
not live next to them.”
Mara Thompson, an attorney for
Thomas Allen, argued at a March
hearing that neighbors wrongly as
sume Anderson cannot be rehabili
tated and that he requires constant
supervision.
Anderson was placed at Ravenna
Ranch under a contract with the
county. ,
Still, neighbors are frightened.
“None of the people responsible
could answer our questions about the
level of risk,” said Curt Weber, who
lives behind the home. “That’s a wor
risome issue to me because I don’t
know. Someone’s got to look out for
these kids.”
While neighbors battle Ravenna
Ranch, which is 35 miles southcasiof
St. Paul, advocates for the disabled
have taken up the cause of the home’s
residents, filing a lawsuit against the
neighbors that contends the protests
have destroyed the privacy of the men
living in the home.
“They have the right to be free
from intimidation and interference in
the home they arc living in,” said
Luther Granquist, deputy director ol
the Minnesota Disability Law Center
Peterman says protesters have fired
guns into the air, chanted, played loud
music and harassed residents and staff.
After coastal storm, victims ponder future
In the calm Sunday that followed a
lethal storm that tore apart seaside
homes, pul city streets under water
and buried wide regions of the North
east in snow, those hardest hit pon
dered what to do next.
“It’s wide devastation the entire
length of New Jersey,” said Stephen
Kempf, Jr., the New York City-based
regional director of the Federal Emer
gency Management Agency. “It’s
going to take a while to clean up.”
At least 17 deaths were blamed on
the storm that hit New Jersey, Con
necticut, Massachusetts, New York
and parts of other Eastern states Thurs
day and lasted well into Friday.
Winds, rain and snow acted up
again Saturday in spots and thousands
of people remained without power
Sunday. Some who fled to shelters
stayed there.
“I’ve lost everything and I’ve got
two children,” Sherlyn Gandy told
New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio at a
school which is being used as a shelter
in Atlantic City, N.J. “I’m trying to
find somewhere to live.”
Her husband, Claude, asked where
the family would go if the school
reopened on Monday.
“We can assure you you arc not
going to be put out on the street,”
Mayor James Whelan said. He added
that shelters would be available.
“That’s the real personal, heart
wrenching part of this,” Florio said.
The storm dumped up to four feet of
snow on western and central Massa
chusetts and pounded coastal areas
with high wind and rain Friday and
Saturday.
Sea walls incoastalcilicscrumblcd
and winds, heavy snow and fallen
trees downed power lines every where.
Crews came from as far away as
Canada to help restore power. About
1,000 National Guardsmen also as
sisted in the cleanup.
It was loo soon for overall prelimi
nary damage estimates, but damage
to boardwalks and beaches in Atlantic
City alone were estimated at SI0.1
million or more. The figure doesn’t
include damage to homes and busi
nesses.
—
NelfraSkan
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1992 DAILY NEBRASKAN