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

DATE: SUNDAY, October 10, 1993                   TAG: 9310100096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: MOGADISHU, SOMALIA                                LENGTH: Medium

WARLORD CALLS FOR TRUCE

As the United States continued its military buildup in Somalia, factional leader Mohammed Farah Aidid called Saturday night for an "all-embracing cease-fire" in the bloody four-month conflict between his forces and American-led United Nations troops.

The cease-fire call, just days after the fugitive Aidid had exhorted his followers to "double and triple" their attacks against "U.S. colonialism," comes amid increasing signs that a diplomatic effort to resolve the conflict may be gathering momentum. Veteran U.S. diplomat Robert Oakley is in Addis Ababa to meet with Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi and is due to arrive here soon, and there was mounting speculation that the United States was now willing to talk to the leader previously deemed a war criminal and international outlaw.

The diplomatic movement seemed to highlight a schism between the Clinton administration and the United Nations, which Saturday was still insisting Aidid was a fugitive from justice who must be hunted down, arrested and tried for his suspected role in the ambush-slaying of 24 Pakistani U.N. peace keepers last June.

Aidid appears to be trying to exploit that division.

In a message broadcast on his clandestine radio station, Aidid said he "welcomes the call for peace extended by President Clinton," and added that the United States and his Somali National Alliance faction should work to find a "just solution" to their conflict. Aidid also said he welcomed Clinton's statement Thursday that the Somali people should be left to sort out their own problems.

In exchange for stopping his attacks on American and U.N. troops, Aidid said, they must agree to stop what he termed their "terror campaign against the Somali people." He also proposed that the Organization of African Unity help find a settlement, an apparent bow to Clinton's proposal that Ethiopia and Eritrea become more involved in finding a solution here.

As moves toward a negotiated settlement appeared to be under way, there were signs that the United States and the U.N. command were drifting further apart. In a news briefing Saturday, a U.N. civilian spokesman, Eric Wong, insisted to reporters that despite the new diplomatic initiatives, Security Council resolutions calling for Aidid's arrest and the disarming of his faction "are still in force."

A U.S. officer said earlier Saturday that it was unclear whether the new American forces arriving, including 1,700 ground troops equipped with tanks and armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles, were being sent to help with the hunt for Aidid or simply to provide the political and military cover for an eventual U.S. withdrawal once a negotiated settlement was reached.

Keywords:
INFOLINE

by CNB