Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 1, 1993 TAG: 9301010076
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: HOLIDAY NOTE: LEDE
SOURCE: From The Washington Post, Knight-Ridder/Tribune and the Los Angeles
DATELINE: MOGADISHU, SOMALIA LENGTH: Medium
SHELLING FOLLOWS BUSH VISIT
President Bush arrived Thursday in one of the world's most dangerous and chaotic capitals, where he spoke briefly with American troops and toured a dusty relief site for orphans and displaced villagers, just hours before a shelling war erupted on the city's outskirts.The clashes broke out about 9 p.m., when Bush was already safely aboard the USS Tripoli offshore, where he slept for about five hours.
The artillery barrage was the most intense battle, and the first shelling heard in the city, since U.S. forces arrived here Dec. 9.
The shelling war appeared to have been started by a small subclan, the Murusade, which was not a party to a U.S.-brokered peace agreement announced this week by the capital's two principal warlords.
Marine Col. Fred Peck, the U.S. military spokesman here, called an unusual evening news conference to tell reporters that no American troops were involved in the ongoing battle.
Peck said two factions might be battling over an arms cache.
The battle, which lasted two hours, was sure to revive the debate over whether the United States and other countries occupying parts of Somalia should aggressively disarm the clan militias who have terrorized the country during two years of civil war.
Nearly all of the weaponry here remains in the hands of the militias, on the U.S.-imposed condition that it not be used and that fighters be kept off the streets.
On the sprawling grounds of the old U.S. embassy compound, now serving as the American military command headquarters, Bush praised a group of assembled soldiers for performing "a humanitarian mission" in "A-1 style."
But the most emotional point of the day for Bush was clearly the visit to the feeding center and hospital outside Mogadishu, a refuge for some 4,000 people displaced by conflict and famine.
Everywhere he went, children chanted "Welcome, Bush," and he enthusiastically shook hands.
"I think we've seen recovery," Bush said. "Most of these children were literally starving a few months ago."
But he also saw evidence that the famine is not over yet, at the camp's hospital where the weakest and feeblest victims are treated when they first arrive. "It's just very, very emotional for me to see it," he said after walking among the hospital beds.
Bush planned to visit an orphanage in Baidoa today.