access the civilians as “resources under the control of one or another warring faction help buttress the power and continuing legacy of that warring faction” aggravating instead of solving conflict. 221 This fuels the conflict and contributes to the factions ‘war economy’. Evidence of this is shown in Somalia where UNOSOM were fired upon and had their vehicles stolen in Mogadishu 222 and that “large sums of cash and relief aid were being extorted from donor agencies and organizations”. 223 The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that: the level of diversion by the factions had reached a systematic and planned level, that it was integrated into the war strategy.... It had become obvious that the factions were opening the doors to humanitarian aid, up to the point where all the sophisticated logistics had entered the zones: cars, radios, computers, telephones. When all the stuff was there, then the looting would start in a quite systematic way. 224 Supporters of aid agencies argue that these thefts and taxation of supplies do not contribute a massive amount to faction’s war economies as, much of the loot stolen, finds its way into the local markets, which then have the effect of lowering prices thus making goods more affordable to the poor, this 221 Ibid. 222 United Nations, UNITED NATIONS OPERATION IN SOMALIA I (UNOSOM I) - 223 Ibid. 224 Sarah Kenyon Lischer, 'Collateral damage: Humanitarian assistance as a cause of conflict', International Security , i, 28 (2003), 79–109.
93
Made with FlippingBook HTML5