Inside Mogadishu: One Journalist's Dangerous Journey

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 12, 2008 — -- British author and journalist Aidan Hartley has been covering Somalia for nearly 20 years. He recently released a TV documentary called "Warlords Next Door?" which spawned controversy when it aired last month on the Britain's Channel 4.

"Warlords" focuses on the relationship between the British government and four prominent politicians in the current Somali government, including the provisional president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

Among other things, Hartley reports that these leaders have been granted British or EU passports that allow their families to live comfortable lives in the U.K., while the horrors faced by Somali civilians continue, under their watch.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991.

The country's transitional government, along with troops from Ethiopia and backing from Western governments like the United States and Britain, is mired in a guerilla war with Islamic insurgents who supported the previous Islamic leadership.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, and the security situation is so bad that the United Nations calls the country "the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa."

Few Western journalists even venture to Mogadishu, Somalia's capital.

Hartley went to the city to interview Somalis who have been victims of the war, and to question Somali politicians about their alleged ties with Britain. He talked to ABC News about his experience.

What drew you to make "Warlords Next Door?"

HARTLEY: I've been reporting on Somalia since the beginning of the civil war in 1991. I always felt it wasn't receiving enough international coverage. I've been pushing to get this film made more than a year ago, after the Ethiopian invasion that seized the city and installed the new government. It is very difficult to get Somalia on the international news agenda.

Why do you think Somalia is not covered as much as other conflicts?

HARTLEY: One is a logistical and security reason. It's incredibly dangerous for journalists to be in Mogadishu — several have been killed in recent years. There's no international presence or diplomats or aid workers to speak of in the city, so there's no green zone, there's no refuge to go to for journalists when they are in the city.

Another reason is that it's like other African countries. Somehow far away and forgotten, and so it's difficult to get the international focus it deserves.

How much time did you spend inside Mogadishu?

HARTLEY: Well a relatively short time, only two weeks. But in Mogadishu you count your time very, very carefully."

"I'd say the average period for a Western correspondent in the city would be one, two, three days at the most, to be safe."

The problem is when you're making a TV program, obviously you have to get the pictures … I was a little worried that we weren't going to be able to get all the material that we needed …

But the fact is some terrible and dramatic things happened while we were there so we were able to get the material.

One of your guards was killed while you were there?

HARTLEY: Yes. Towards the end of January we were exiting villa Somalia, which is the presidential palace complex where we had been interviewing members of the government and we were passing down a road into the old city towards the port.

We were traveling in the lead car and our security escorts were about 100 feet behind us. We passed through an area where there was a lot of build up of rubbish in the street and I heard the loudest bang that I ever in my life…"

"We turned around and although we hadn't taken any shrapnel, the escort car behind us had taken the full force of the blast, which killed one of our guards, a 21-year-old man named Abdi who'd recently become a father."

"It also killed two civilian bystanders in the street and wounded three of them horribly."

"And this is a very common occurrence in Mogadishu. On the same day, there were two other bombs that went off in nearby streets. It is a terrifying aspect of the city at the moment."

Why would you risk your life to go to Somalia to tell this story?

HARTLEY: "It's because it's what I do. I've covered the conflict in Somalia since its beginnings."

"I love Somalia, I love Mogadishu, I greatly admire Somali people and I hope that their nightmare ends at some point."

And I think that the conflict is based on so many misconceptions that I think it's the obligation of correspondents, aid workers, diplomats who have had contact with Somalia over the years to try and do everything they can to enlighten the outside world.

It would be very, very dangerous to ignore it because I don't think Somali people will tolerate for long the behavior that some neighboring countries and perhaps Western countries have inflicted on the country. And I think Somalia is a problem that could bite back.

In what way?

HARTLEY: Well look at Afghanistan, which for many years was like Somalia: a forgotten conflict, people just didn't care … there didn't seem to be anything the West could do to help. They provided humanitarian relief, as they are doing in Somalia today, but they didn't come up with solutions or anything with the urgency that was required.

Look what happened to Afghanistan … Al Qaeda took hold, the country had to be invaded by Western troops. Now you have a protracted and very difficult conflict to resolve.

The West and the international community would be well warned to look at the Somali situation and try to urgently come up with solutions, which many believe should be Somali, but with international neutral support for diplomacy and humanitarian relief rather than military intervention.

Somalia's been considered a failed state for years with no end in sight. Why should the world care what's happening?

HARTLEY: It is very true to say in a globalized world that there are no far-away local stories that can be ignored.

First of all you have hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees who've had to flee for their lives, many of them live in the United States and other Western countries, many of them have become citizens. And for them it is an important reason why they vote for the government that they do. They are demanding international action to assist with the situation there.

Another reason is because of the terrible events that have happened in the world since 9/11 and the fact that the West has concerns about the growth of militant Islamist forces in Somalia. The United States is deeply involved in this conflict; it's backing the government there.

We were very aware of the U.S. presence while we were there because at all times of day and night you look up and you can see a spy plane circling in the sky. And there's been … U.S. air-strike … so it is one of the theaters in the so-called "War on Terror."

And third it is unacceptable in 2008 to see the kinds of humanitarian disasters that you see in places like Darfur, and now Somalia. And Somalia is a worse situation than Darfur.

You've got several hundred thousand people who are in a desperate condition. They're civilians, they're victims of war, they're beyond medical care, and now they're going hungry, and the world has an obligation to stop it.