SOMALIA: THE 1RAR GROUP TOUR OF THE BAY REGION 1993

IT IS almost ten years since a little known civil war in the Horn of Africa, saw the Australian Defence Force dragged out of it's post Vietnam torpor. While a number of smaller non combatant contingents had been deployed to Namibia, Cambodia and Uganda, and a major commitment of maritime assets to support US naval efforts in the Red Sea during the Second Gulf War - the Australian Government had become gun shy during the 70s and 80s and was almost allergic to military activity.

The issue was forced by the USA, in the post Gulf War period when Australia was pressured to deploy ground forces to Northern Iraq in 1991 as part of multinational efforts to shield the Kurdish minorities from Saddam Hussein's wrath after media coverage of the tragedy forced a united Western response. A similar situation arose in mid 1992 when media coverage of the genocidal civil war induced famine in southern Somalia brought horrific images of starving children into loungerooms around the world.

Making matters worse, were the wild bands of speed using militiamen who were attacking relief supplies - using food as a weapon in the Clan wars. Relief convoys were constantly attacked and looted. Food was worth more than life in the Somali badlands.Shocked by what they saw, and knowing nothing of the chaotic madness of Somalia, well meaning people throughout the West demanded that their Government's do something.

In the months immediately after the defeat of Iraq in Kuwait and the collapse of Communism, the Western powers were gripped with a victory induced euphoria. President Bush (I) announced that there was a New World Order. Many people, who should have known better, believed that most global wrongs could be put right with a little multinational military intervention, plenty of groovy young relief workers and lots of love and kisses….

The pressure to take part in this madness was intense. So intense that even Germany was forced to deploy military support units to be seen to be doing something. Australia was in a no win situation. It was easier to go along for the Somali ride than argue the country had no peace to keep.

By the time that US Forces had landed amidst a battalion of camera crews at Mogadishu airport in December 1992, Australia was preparing to take its share of the New World Order load and the Government authorised the deployment of a Battalion Group built around the 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) to the Bay Region in southern Somalia as part of the United States led United Task Force (UNITAF) under Operation Restore Hope. The 1RAR Battalion Group's mission was codenamed Operation Solace, it's goal was to restore order in the Bay Region of Somalia around the old city of Baidoa which had recently earned the nickname 'the city of death'.

A LITTLE HISTORY

In a little over a decade, Somalia had devolved from one of the most powerful states in black Africa to a nightmare of compounding insanity that was feeding on itself. In the 1980s, Somalia was powerful enough to conduct military incursions into its much larger neighbour Ethiopia and boasted the most modern Air Force in the region with the exception of Egypt and Israel.

Somalia had played both sides in the long Cold War using its strategically important location to gain support in turn from both the Soviet Union and the United States. Like so many African states, Somalia squandered the ocean of aid money donated by the Superpowers spending the bulk of the money on arms and luxury cars and palaces for the ruling elite. While playing lip service to international socialism, the Somali dictator Saide Barre was basically a victim of his culture and used his position to spread wealth and power through his quabilla (subclan).

Somalia seemed to have many advantages over other post colonial African states. It was all but monoracial, monocultural, monolingal and almost every Somali was a Moslem. While Somalis seemed to have everything in common, an ancient tribal clan based culture deeply steeped in the warrior tradition and harbouring centuries of bad blood managed to corrode any sense of nationalism that could have held Somalia together when the aid money stopped in the late 1980s.

As things soured, Barre became more and more tyrannical, even turning his armed forces onto major Somali cities. Barre's increasingly brutal attempts to hold power eventually shattered Somalia along Clan lines. Regional insurrections exploded into all out civil war to topple the socialist Barre dictatorship in 1990/91.

Within hours of forcing Barre to abdicate, the sub clans of the dominant Hawaye Clan of Mogadishu began to fight amongst themselves over which of their Warlords would become the new President. What little remained of Somalia civil infrastructure broke down was soon destroyed as fierce intra-tribal warfare broke out.

Without the civilising yoke of the Barre dictatorship Somalia soon reverted to type, breaking down into armed tribal groups fighting for water, wheat and women just as they had done for thousands of years. As resources dried up and pre-civil war food stocks were exhausted, even the Clan structure began to disintegrate.Soon even the all powerful elders were simply easy pickings and power moved from the nomadic tribal chiefs to groups of out of it armed bandits whose rule came out of the barrel of a gun.

The remnants of Somalia's once powerful Army fled to the south west border with Kenya and devolved into just one more rag tag Militia. The tanks, artillery guns and rockets which had been a large part of the firepower used in the civil war ground to a halt for lack of parts and Somalia's choas carried on as a disorganised shitfight fought from cutdown 4WDs (called Technicals) with old AKs and Rocket Propelled Grenades.

What the Somalis lacked in modern weaponry was more than made up for with basic warrior instinct. Generations of skirmishing for water, camels and women had created an entire society adept in Close Quarter Battle - where an early death was seen as inevitable and the young men would prefer to die than compromise.

By December 1992, Somalia had descended in anarchy. Even the Clan Militia's were losing cohesion. The bulk of the wild boys on the Technicals had gone freelance and were now working for the highest bidder. Eventually they would turn on their own people, killing women and children for a bag of rice. It was insane. The streets of Somalia were a bizarre mix of Arabian Nights and Mad Max II. A population of five million was scattered or starved until less than 25 percent remained in the country. It was worse than the end. It was a devil's nightmare.

A NEW WORLD ORDER

A few weeks prior to the massive US Marine Amtracs clanked ashore at Mogadishu , a small group of Australian Defence Personnel movements and airport management personnel were deployed to Somalia as part of the ill fated United Nations Operations Somalia (UNOSOM) making heroic efforts at the devastating heights of the madness to deliver supplies to the NGOs in remote famine scourged provinces.

The ADF Contingent was tasked with the movement of food aid to the starving but was essentially confined to bunkers for much of its early deployment as the local sub Clans in Mogadishu slugged it out for control of the Port and Airport where the UN was based.

The area had turned the area into a low tech Stalingrad. Security was non existant, and every effort to move emergency food supplies was either attacked by bandits, or held up by local Warlords who demanded huge fees to allow the UN to use roads and airstrips in their areas.

Things had to change. The mad Mohammeds in their cut down gunned up Toyotas had to be stopped. The world could not bare to watch any more. The Cavalry was on its way however. US Navy SEALs and Marine Force Recon were caught in the farcical glare of the television cameras on their initial insertion at Mog Airport as a media circus gathered to film the rescue mission.

The US had learned a thing or two since Vietnam, and hit hard - launching a well supplied and coordinated expansion Op that saw US and European forces quickly secure the bulk of Somalia's population centres and supply routes and read the riot act by the time the advance party of the Australian Battalion Group arrived in Mogadishu just before Christmas 1992.

The 1RAR Battalion Group Advance Party established itself at UNITAF's Headquarter infrastructure at the huge derilict US Embassy Compound in south western Mogadishu. The Embassy Compound had been heavily fortified by the US Marines, but was close to areas of the city where their was Clan fighting.

While the Diggers, Pussers and Airmen of the 1RAR Advance Party and the Australian Service Contingent to UNOSOM had a ring side seat to the openning phase of Op Restore Hope, the bulk of the Australian commitment did not arrive in Mogadishu until mid January, 1993.

The Aussies deployed to Mogadishu in Qantas 747s, with approximately 10 percent of the force and the heavy equipment making the passage to Somalia on board the RAN ships HMAS Jervis Bay and HMAS Tobruk.

The 1RAR Battalion Group consisted of 930 personnel predominantly drawn from the Townsville based 3 Brigade. Consisting of the 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR), a reduced B Squadron 3 /4 Cavalry Regiment, A Field Engineer Troop from 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment and supporting elements from 3 Brigade including medical, Military Police and Intelligence units.

Somalia turned on the fireworks for 1RAR's arrival. The Qantas 747 came under fire on the tarmac, forcing the newly arrived and still unarmed Diggers to take cover within minutes of arrival. Down at Mogadishu's New Port, the locals greeted the arrival of the Group's vehicles and heavy equipment by raining rocks, bottles and insults down onto the hapless Marines tasked with keeping Mogadishu madness out of the SeaHead.

With the Group and its gear on the ground, the next move was direct to Baidoa - the infamous City of Death - 320 kilometres south west of Mogadishu in the famine and war ravaged Bay Region. The main force was flown to Baidoa Airport aboard USAF C-130Hs to meet the vehicles which deployed to Baidoa in two convoys negotiating a combination of ruined roads and dusty camel tracks during the journey.

BAIDOA - CITY OF DEATH

Once the scene of heavy fighting, Baidoa had already been secured by the 3rd Battalion, 9th US Marines and the ruined city was quiet and had been fed when the Australian Battalion Group moved into the Marine's makeshift base at Baidoa Airport between January 19 and 21.

A makeshift flag raising ceremony marked the passage of control of the 17,000 square kilometre Baidoa Humanitarian Relief Sector (HRS) to the 1RAR Group and the 3rd /9th Marines departed the Bay Region after a tough five weeks. USMC engineers and an aviation detachment of AH-1F Cobra crews remained for a short period, before the Aussies were on their own.

Baidoa was the regional base for many NGO Aid Agencies which had arrived during the famine and attempted to distribute food and medicine. While much of the aid had been looted, the NGOs had managed to establish a series of IDP camps and feeding stations for the locals who had homes around Baidoa and its surrounding areas. The Marines had seized thousands of weapons from the locals, collecting a motley collection of firearms ranging from near antique Enfields and Thompson submachineguns through to more modern M-16s, H&Ks, AKs, PKs, RPDs, SLRs - even rare WW2 era MP-44 Gesturmgewehr assault rifles.

But the entire Bay Region was still awash with weapons, ammunition and unexploded ordnance with the local Somali National Congress (SNA) Militia boasting firepower up to 106mm. A larger worry was the remnant Somali Army which was holed up to the south. Commanded by an ex Regular Officer, General Morgan, the Somali Army was a fragment of its old self but still fielded operational armour and anti aircraft capability.

The Marines had told the Aussies to hang tough with the locals, and the 1RAR Group followed the Leatherneck's lead instituting round the clock overt and covert security patrols throughout the Baidoa region. 1RAR Digs in full armour pounded Baidoa's decimated streets in a show of professional force designed to discourage the bandits and provide visible security for the savaged population.

Early patrols went out light, without body armour, until the Group found out that the Somalis though that kevlar made soldiers bulletproof so 1RAR decided to reinforce the delusion. B Squadron 3 /4 Cav's 36 M-113A1 APCs were also put to work running security patrols and roadblocks to reinforce the Australian position.

The Somalis respected armour and firepower, and while the APCs were already almost 20 years old they were more than enough to convince the local gunmen to pull their heads in. The tracked vehicles were also relatively immune to the thick camel thorn scrub which was so vicious it had confined the Marine's wheeled LAVs to formed roads, and were able to patrol in areas that the Marine's had been unable to reach.

Alongside security patrols, the 1RAR Group was charged with protecting the distribution of relief aid. 1RAR's Digs were soon riding shotgun on convoys of dilapidated Somali trucks filled with grain and providing security for food distribution points.

While the convoy's were never challenged directly by bandits, the situation at the distribution points frequently got out of hand as desperate Somali mothers stormed the relief supplies forcing the Digs to enforce order with long sticks. Chaotic scenes often ensued, but the Somalis had been too ill treated for too long to believe that there would be plenty of food and that everyone would get an equal share. It was a problem that was to bedevil Ops throughout Somalia - how do you do good, when half the population is visibly dangerously insane.

The 1RAR Group's Engineers were faced with a job of enormous proportions. Every inch of Baidoa's infrastructure had been devastated. Even the underground wires had been dug up for their precious copper and everywhere was littered with weapons, mines and dangerously degraded explosive ordnance that needed to be cleared. It was a job that a Division of Sappers would have baulked at.

GRASPING THE SOMALI TAR BABY

Somalia was not a place that let fools prosper for long. While the initial US onslaught had dampened the gunmen's enthusiasm for prominent public displays of gun ownership, the nature of Peace Making and modern Rules of Engagement allowed the Somali bandits to survive the arrival of UNITAF by lying low.

The bandits and the fragments of the remaining Clan militias were however tied to a pillage economy driven by the widely used local narcotic Quat (cat) and paid for with looted goods and standover cash. They needed to rob to eat, and soon found themselves in direct conflict with 1RAR.

At 2235 hrs, 24 January 93 a routine APC/infantry patrol through Baidoa became part of Australian military history when a gunman fired at a carrier from the roof of a house. The APC crew commander fired a short burst from his turret mounted .30 MG to suppress the incoming fire forcing the bandit to leg it. An insignificant contact in the long flow of ADF experience, but the event was significant in that it was the first 'angry shot' fired by the ADF in 21 years and effectively broke the post Vietnam era drought.

Three days later, a patrol from 7 Platoon Charlie Company had assisted CARE distribute Australian wheat at Danyonay about 40 klicks east of Baidoa when their switched on Lieutenant decided to double back to the community after the ADF had officially left the town. The Digs had only been gone a few minutes when they returned to find that the women and children were being held up by six armed thugs. Five of the thugs ran when challenged by the Charlie One Digs, but one AK armed individual tried his luck. After being bracketed by burst from the 1RAR grunts he decided to call it a day and became the ADF's first battlefield detainee since Vietnam.

On February 17, an infantry section was monitoring the central area of Baidoa near the main community well when they were ambushed at close range by a group armed with automatic weapons. The gunmen were trying to extort money off the civilians by blocking off access to the well and didn't want to tolerate any interferance from the 1RAR Group. A fierce firefight ensured, with the Diggers responding to the Somalis with F-88 and F-89LSW fire before a reaction force mounted in APCs arrived to add weight to the Aussie firepower. One Somali was killed and two were wounded in the short battle.

The next day (18 Feb 93) a 1RAR patrol was fired on by armed Somalis employed as guards at the Somali Islamic Relief Organisation (SIRO) compound and one Aussie was hit during the incident. Three days later (21/2) the same guards in the same compound fired on the Australians a second time. While other contingents were putting up with this kind of crap, the Aussies were not about to play ball and entered the SIRO compound in force detaining and imprisoning those responsible. The incident ruffled some feathers in the NGO community, but the message was unmistakable - the blokes from downunder play by Big Boys Rules.Ironically SIRO has since been connected with Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qa'ida.

In between the first contacts, 1RAR Diggers and support units disrupted dozens of armed attempts at robbery, kidnapping and blackmail. Saturation patrol were paying dividends. Known militia and bandit figures left the area, unable to move without the Big Blue One breathing down their necks. On Feb 27, another 1RAR patrol was fired upon by gunmen in Baidoa with one Somali killed and an assault rifle captured during the Digger's reaction drill.

More contacts followed. On March 11, a 1RAR patrol clashed with a group of bandits at Gasarta south of Baidoa after 1RAR Digs interfered in a standover stunt. One bandit was killed during the firefight and one Somali civilian was wounded by the bandits during the incident.

A week later on 18 March a food convoy protection party was fired on at Buur Haybo, one bandit was killed during the Digger's response. On 26 March, another Somali employed by an NGO fired at Aussie Diggers on NGO Road in Baidoa and was killed during the Australian return fire. This incident was responsible for a number of Somali pay back attempts including one where a heavy stick grenade was thrown into a group of Aussie Diggers but fortunately failed to properly detonate.

By April, the security situation in Somalia began to heat up. UN Contingents throughout the country, but particularly in Mogadishu were starting to come under repeated attack from bandits and militia groups. The Aussies were not immune to the renewed bought of hostilities.

On April 7, another incident during a robbery investigation at Dayuunay resulted in an Aussie patrol involved in a firefight - wounding two bandits and capturing two others intact. A week later a patrol west of Baidoa was moving through the village of Berdaale when the Diggers were fired at by a gunman who had barrackaded himself in a shop and put up resistance until killed by the Aussies.

OUT OF AFRICA

As the UNITAF deployment drew to a close and the handover to the United Nations Operations Somalia Two (UNOSOM II) approached, the 1RAR redoubled its efforts to destroy the bandit groups and their leadership infrastructure before the Group had to ship back to Townsville.

In downtown Baidoa, the simmering feud between the 1RAR Group and the local NGO guards was heading for a showdown. Because of their semi-official status the NGO guards had been getting away with carrying weapons. The problem was that many of them were also the same bandits that were causing the chaos during their off hours.On Anzac Day 93, a 1RAR patrol clashed with a group of bandits on NGO roads which left one gunmen dead. It was thought that the bandits involved were linked with the SIRO guards through clan connections and were attempting a pay back killing.

The final 'hot' incident took place on 14 May 1993, just a few hours before the 1RAR Group handed over control of Baidoa to French forces and began their Return to Australia. Sentries manning a position securing the northern approach to Baidoa Airport came under fire from two gunman who had approached the position. One of the attackers was wounded in the Australian return fire. It is thought that the attack was a final attempt at payback from the local SIRO guards after the Aussies effectively overturned their rule of Baidoa.

Alongside the direct Military activities, the 1RAR Group commenced investigating the crimes that had occurred in the Bay Region during the famine and civil war and collecting evidence of War Crimes.

At the same time, Group Intel ran parallel investigations into the military capability and clan and militia power structures of the area. The results of both investigations kept coming up with the same names, and the Australian Command determined to disrupt and if possible detain key figures involved in the madness and hopefully bring them to justice.

1RAR hoped to solidify its control by shaking the Militia tree with or without direct provocation. During its occupation of the Baidoa HRS, the Australians were able to capture, detain, try and eventually force the execution of the highest of the local heavies - Mohammed Gutaale who oversaw the destruction of Baidoa in his position as local head of the SNA (Aideed faction). Gutaale was nailed for multiple murder, principly when he used his APC to crush a group of starving women and children during the famine in 1992. See Death of a Bandit.

While the 1RAR Battalion Group excelled in the 12 contacts it fought with local bandits and militia, the true success of Operation Solace was in its multi-layered approach to the military establishment of order in a failed state. Evidence of the Big Blue One's success was evident a year and one half later when SASR and MSU phots returned to Baidoa where they were greeted by a huge enthusiastic crowd who cheered them and shouted, "Come Back Australia," "We Love Australia" much to the embarrassment of the Indian Army Brigadier who was showing the Aussies around what was now his patch.

Much has happened in the ten years since the Somali famine first drew Australian awareness to the remote Horn of Africa. Not much was achieved despite the best efforts of a united world community, which despite the mistakes made was trying to do the right thing by the Somalis. The situation in Somalia is still chaotic. Since the UN withdrawal, Islamic fundamentalist have managed to fill some of the leadership and law enforcement gaps left by the anarchy but even they have been unable to restore much semblence of order in the Somali madhouse. .