Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 9, 1993 TAG: 9310090147
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The invitation is part of a new diplomatic push for a peaceful political settlement that technically will be coordinated with the United Nations' own diplomatic efforts, but - like the extra troops and armaments being sent to Somalia now - will be directed entirely by Washington.
Clinton's decision to pursue an independent strategy reflects growing dissatisfaction with the approach taken by the United Nations, which had branded Aidid a renegade and sought to arrest him - a move that in turn brought retaliatory attacks from Aidid.
Now, State Department officials say, the door will be open for Aidid to join in negotiations on a long-term political settlement.
U.S. Ambassador Robert Oakley, a veteran diplomat who was dispatched to Somalia at the outset of the humanitarian mission there last December, is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to recruit leaders of neighboring African countries to help bring the Somali factions to peace talks. Negotiations among 15 Somali factions in Addis Ababa last March produced a peace accord, but it fell apart shortly after.
Separately, the Pentagon confirmed that, to compliment the diplomatic initiative, the expanded U.S. military force assembling in Somalia will cut back on its efforts to capture Aidid and his lieutenants and concentrate instead on restoring security throughout Mogadishu.
The disclosures came as the first echelons of U.S. troops and warships in the reinforcement force began moving to Somalia. An initial airlift is to leave this morning, followed by a detachment of cargo vessels. The trip by sea is expected to take 21 days.
Meanwhile, in Somalia, a U.N. spokesman said Friday the bodies of two of the five U.S. soldiers listed as missing following last Sunday's firefight have been recovered from Mogadishu's streets. There were reports that the body of a third American also had been found.
Tim McDavitt, a New Zealand Army captain serving as U.N. military spokesman in Mogadishu, said U.N. forces have begun using loudspeakers to deliver messages of hope to other missing U.S. servicemen who may be in the area.
"We hope they were able to hear the message," he said. "It will be a comfort to them."
At the same time, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said a delegate from that agency was permitted to visit the captured helicopter pilot, Army Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. Durant, Friday, and took a letter to be delivered to his family in Berlin, N.H.
The spokeswoman said the Red Cross representative found Durant in good condition and in good spirits. "He is very strong mentally," she said. The session was conducted under longstanding international procedures, without any witnesses.
Friday's briefing at the Pentagon marked the first clear explanation the administration has given for how the new troops and weapons will be used. The administration has been criticized widely for failing to outline its strategy.
In a briefing for the news media, a senior Pentagon official said the U.S. "quick-reaction" troops still will respond in force whenever they are attacked and will continue cordon-and-seizure operations designed to establish U.S. and U.N. authority in the city.
But they said the Ranger units that had focused on capturing Aidid would be kept on alert, primarily to rescue Durant, if his location is discovered. They would be aided, if necessary, by four AC-130H gunships being sent along.
They also warned that the Navy planes on the carrier Abraham Lincoln now on its way to Mogadishu would be used primarily to blow up Aidid's arms caches throughout rural Somalia if the clan leader seeks to rearm his troops.
The caches have been kept intact under an early agreement between clan leaders and the United States, under which the warlords agreed to deposit most of their weapons in rural-based storage-houses if U.N. military authorities promised not to destroy them.
Officials said the Lincoln also has approximately 250 precision-guided munitions, which can be dropped from strike planes to hit urban targets with pinpoint accuracy if they are needed to destroy buildings or arsenals.
Officials stressed again that the additional military deployment essentially constitutes a holding action, and the United States is relying mainly on its diplomatic initiative to end the fighting. They conceded the new force is not large enough to quiet the country on its own.
Officials are concerned that any peace agreement that excluded Aidid and his clan would not succeed in bringing an end to the fighting.
by CNB