SOMALIA HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION 1992-1993 by G. P. ...

Somalia - Humanitarian intervention 1992-1993 631
The quick decolonization of Italian Somalia can be put down probably to the
feeling of nationalism and the unity of language and religion of the Somali people.
Nevertheless, the problem of the Somalies arose due to this conscience of
nationalism prevailing in an area much bigger than the one under Fiduciary
Administration.
Although it happened in a too fast and disorganized way, the British Somalia
gained its independence five days before those territories under Italian
administration. And, thus, on July 1st of 1960, the representatives of the two
countries assembled in Mogadishu formed a National Assembly of the Sovereign
Republic of Somalia. (iii)
However, some important communities in the lowlands of oriental Ethiopia,
in the district of the northern boundary of Kenya and in the small but important
French territory of the coast - whose capital Djibouti, still remained outside the
boundaries of the new state. In 1967 the people in the territories under French
administration voted for remaining under it. Nowadays, this region is known as the
Territory of Issa and Afar. (iii)
2. FROM I960 TO 1991. PRESIDENT SIAD BARRE. INFLUENCE OF THE
WORLD SUPERPOWERS IN SOMALIA.
In 1960 when the Italian administration came to an end after ten years, the
Somali tried to establish the basis for an incipient democracy.
Among many other important issues, the concept of "The Great Somalia",
which had kept the northeastern Africa in a state of war for seven years, was given
up, and in June 1967 the world witnessed a radical modification in the internal and
external policy of the country, after the peaceful and constitutional appointment of
Mohamed Egal as Prime Minister. (iii)
This proved to be an exceptional change in the pattern of violent changes
that normally occurred in the African countries.
However, that government would be toppled by a military coup led by Major
General Mohammad Siad Barrath or Mohammed Siad Barre in 1961. He searched
for a way to replace the loyalty of the Somali to their clans by a new Somali
national conscience, centralizing his political base and his best army forces in the
city of Mogadishu at the expense of the elders of the tribes and lords of clans.
The Somali Flag has got a white star with five points, which stand for the
five regions inhabited by the Somalies: Northern Kenya, the region of the
Ethiopian