The Sorrows of Somalia : With wars on two continents, must U.N. relief officials decide between Africa and Europe?

Starvation is stealing the young of Somalia. Drought and famine are sending thousands of youngsters to common graves before they reach the age of 6. And civil war is blocking the tons of food, medicine and other relief supplies that could save many of these tiny victims.

Tens of thousands of Somalis have died since January of 1991, when their corrupt and ruthless leader, Gen. Mohammed Siad Barre, fled the fighting. That death toll includes a fourth of all the preschool-age children. How many more must die?

As many as 1.5 million Somalis are in imminent, mortal danger, according to the United Nations. Such a toll would parallel the death count of civilians and soldiers claimed by the Vietnam War. The scale of the disaster in Somalia demands massive international attention.

At the prodding of U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, himself an African, the Security Council late last month approved an airlift to deliver relief supplies to Somalia.

The planes cannot get through, however, because the airport is closed. Armed thugs stole nearly 1 ton of medicine and five tons of food in June. To reopen the airport in Mogadishu, the United Nations must send guards, just as it did in reopening the airport in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, for humanitarian reasons.

Security is the primary roadblock to relief efforts in Somalia; tons of food are in the port but people are starving a few blocks away.

The weapons of destruction so prevalent in Somalia are not homemade. The former Soviet Union and the Western superpowers feverishly armed Somalia and Ethiopia during a fierce competition to control the strategic Horn of Africa. The legacy of that Cold War rivalry is guns everywhere and butter nowhere.

The fighting is neither ideological nor tribal. The battles are for power in Somalia, just as they are in the former Yugoslavia. These war-torn regions need help. The United Nations must not make either-or choices between areas so desperate for relief from relentless death.