Somalia - A Land Divided by Media

The country of Somalia has been plagued by political chaos over the past few years. Yesterday, that chaos brought back memories of the "Black Hawk Down" incident of 1993.

Fifteen people, including several soldiers of Somalia's transitional government and Ethiopia, were killed in the capital of Mogadishu after the soldiers convened in a neighborhood south of the city to disarm the gunmen. According to the New York Times article witnesses said, they were greeted by dozens of masked insurgents who blasted them with rocket-propelled grenades.

Bodies of the soldiers were grabbed by a crowd and dragged into the streets. Soldier's bodies, some still alive, were poured with gasoline and lit on fire as crowds chanted, "We will burn you alive!"

Somalia is a nation comprised of many clans and clan rivalries. Mogadishu alone is home to several of them. The transitional government is a multi-clan enterprise, but dominated by the Darod clan. This majority has marginalized many branches of the Hawiye clan, which traditionally controls Mogadishu.

When the Islamist movement in Somalia began there was a better sense of security and less violence. However, the US regarded the Islamist movement a terrorist threat and provided Ethopia with intelligence and a small amount of ground troops to overthrow them.

Since then, hospital officials in Somalia say more than 100 civilians have been killed in the past two months and that assasinations are on the rise.

Below is the North American Al-Jazeera news report on the events that took place yesterday.



The scene was similar to the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu which involved US troops and Somalian military and citizens and where two bodies of fallen US soldiers were dragged in the streets. Two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by rocket-propelled grenades and 18 US soldiers were killed in the battle. In 2001 Jerry Bruckheimer produced the movie Black Hawk Down based off the 1999 book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War written by Mark Bowden.

When searching "Battle of Mogadishu" on YouTube and sorted by number of view, this fan-made music tribute video by user leoleonardo is the first result. The video is compiled of clips from the Hollywood film and is, by nature of the film, very violent.

The problem here is it promotes a film, a Hollywood-made production that provides the audience with drama and entertainment instead of an educational understanding of the events. YouTube does not provide Internet users an easily accessed visual understanding of historical events that lead up to these situations in Somalia.

This is raw footage taken by Somalis in the 1993 attacks.