WE SUCCEEDED, U.S. ENVOY TELLS SOMALIAN FORCE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 3, 1993                   TAG: 9303030009
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: MOGADISHU, SOMALIA                                LENGTH: Medium
WE SUCCEEDED, U.S. ENVOY TELLS SOMALIAN FORCE
U.S. special envoy Robert Oakley bade farewell Tuesday to Somalia and the 17,000 American troops he will leave behind today with the first official declaration of victory and a personal confession of just one regret.
U.S. military commanders decorated Oakley for his three months as point man in the military intervention in Somalia. He then told the troops that he and they already have succeeded in their primary mission - "to put an end to the mass killing of Somalis from famine and disease."
"My only regret is that I'm leaving before you all have an opportunity to leave, because your mission is accomplished," said Oakley, whose negotiations with warlords in Mogadishu in advance of the troops was widely credited with the force's bloodless arrival.
"Hope has been restored," he said. "Now, I hope [the Somalis] can, with your help, take it forward."
Amid tension following last week's anti-American rioting in the capital and ongoing clashes between clans in the key port of Kismayu, Oakley conceded that Somalia remains dangerous, particularly for foreigners.
Several international relief workers had said this week that Oakley is leaving a job only half-done.
"Foreigners are at a somewhat bigger risk," he said, conceding that the three Western aid workers killed since U.S. troops arrived far exceeded the expatriate death toll during the previous year of civil war. "But at least people can walk around with food now."
"We have a long way to go, but even in the difficult areas, deaths from starvation are almost gone now."
Indeed, Oakley's message was clear: The massive American presence is about to end and it is up to the United Nations and the Somalis themselves to find solutions to the nation's fundamental problem - replacing the very foundations of its nationhood.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB