SOURCE: Excerpts from Mogadishu radio report

Mogadishu in Somali 1700 gmt January 5, 1979
 

Prof Christian Vanier [phonetic], who is professor of international law at Orleans University in France, has just returned from
a tour of Western Somalia. He says that most of the area is in the hands of the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF),
except for the major towns, which are. . . however surrounded by freedom fighters. The professor, who was accompanied by
WSLF leaders, toured the area between the towns of Ferfer and Jijiga.  In an interview with SONNA, the professor said that
the liberation front had full control over the liberated land, while the Abyssinian troops were confined to the major towns.  He
said that there were no links whatever between the Abyssinians and the local Somalis, who are mainly stock breeders and
nomads. Prof Christian said that it was impossible for the Abyssinians to move freely from town to town without suffering heavy losses. . . [He] also said that during his tour of the area he saw the wrecks of cars and tanks, corpses and [words indistinct] wearing uniforms proving they were foreign troops.  He said he had had talks with WSLF leaders, who told him that the people who had fled the major towns were being taken care of. Health and trading centres had been set up for them. He was also told that the struggle had been a protracted one, but that most of the land had earlier been freed from the black Abyssinian colonialists.  However, at the beginning of 1978 the Abyssinian army, backed by foreign troops, recaptured the major towns. . . Prof Vanier also said that he had visited some liberation bases at which military training was being conducted. These people are determined to fight until final victory, he said. . . [adding] that he had been urged to tell the world the truth about the tortures inflicted on the colonized people by the Abyssinians and their allies.
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