NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, February 3, 1994
5
Deaths blamed on poor coordination
The Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Evidence is emerging that the deaths of eight Somalis in a shootout involving U.S. Marines might not have happened except for the poor coordination among the 25,000 foreign soldiers in Somalia.
The Marines say their convoy was returning fire from snipers when it drove around a corner and encountered an unexpected crowd of people waiting for a food handout. They say some of those Somalis had rifles and also began firing.
Somali witnesses offered a different version of Monday's shooting. They said there had been no snipers and that the Marines had not fired until they came upon the crowd and panicked after mistaking the people for a
mob trying to waylay the convoy. They said some Somalis then had shot in self-defense.
U. S. officials said the Marines had not known Saudi peacekeepers had been at an aid center handing out food, an event sure to draw a crowd in Somalia's war-wrecked capital. The convoy could have taken a different route through the area, which the Americans consider one of the most dangerous in Mogadishu.
Despite criticism from relief workers and other U.N. troops, Saudi soldiers often distribute free food without notifying the U.N. commander or relief agencies, said Ul Ili Schmid, a supply officer for the World Food Program.
That is what happened Monday, when hundreds of people lined up on the street outside a distribution center waiting to get flour, sugar and dates.
"We've never had any problem doing this before, and I have never heard any complaints," he said in an interview.
The commander of Saudi Arabian troops in Somalia, Col. Al Alghamdi, conceded yesterday that a crowd had jammed the street outside the food center. But he scoffed at the idea that the Saudis should warn other peacekeepers before giving out food.
Alghamdi also disputed reports from some Somali witnesses that armed men guarding the Saudi food trucks had joined in the shooting after the Marines began firing machine guns and grenade launchers. He said none of his soldiers or their Somali guards had fired any shots.
THE NEWS in brief
Leaders of Pakistan Turkey voice support for Bosnia's Muslims
As Serbs fired from surrounding hills, Benazir Bhutto and Tansu Ciller — women who beat the odds to lead Muslim nations — came to Sarajevo yesterday to comfort its besieged residents.
After a brief visit to the capital defended by Muslim-led forces, prime ministers Bhutto of Pakistan and Ciller of Turkey appealed to the world to act decisively in the 21-month-old war.
Turkey and Pakistan have been among the strongest backers of Bosnia's Muslim-led government, whose troops are fighting a desperate battle against better-armed Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats.
"We who live in peace take life and peace for granted," Bhutto said later. "In Sarajevo, we saw shattered people, a shattered city and shattered lives."
"Rarely in the annals of human history has a nation been subjected to such merciless savagery in the full view of the world," Bhutu and Ciller said in a joint statement.
Elsewhere in the city, at least five people were killed yesterday by Serb shelling.
Bhutto later called for air strikes against Bosnian Serbs and exempting the Slavic Muslim-led government from a U.N. arms embargo imposed on former Yugoslavia. She spoke in Zagreb, Croatia.
Bosnia's Muslim president, AliaJ iztebegovic, said the two premiers were ready to give "material and other help to our country. I thank them for that." He was not specific.
The visit was welcomed by most Sarajevans, regardless of religion or nationality. Many Bosnian Croats and Serbs remain loyal to the Muslim-led government.
Sporadic gunfire sounded from the Serb-held hillsides surrounding the city when Bhutto and Ciller arrived at the downtown Bosnian presidency building. A crowd of about 150 braved the dangers of the open street to cheer the two
premiers and shout "Bosnia, Bosnia!"
"Two women burst into tears as they tried to get close to the entrance of the presidency building. "I'm crying because I'm hungry, I'm on the street, I'm cold and all I want is peace," said RABIA Basic.
Bhutto said the four-hour stay had been "cruel" and had left the leaders "emotionally exhausted."
WASHINGTON
PLO seeks confederation with Jordan
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat now is seeking a confederation with Jordan rather than a separate Palestinian state on the West Bank, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said yesterday.
Peres also said that he had proposed early municipal elections among the Palestinians who live on the land Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day war but that Israel also was agreeable to general elections there.
In either case, "elections may take years," Peres said in an account of his negotiations with Arafat last week in Geneva on implementing the agreement to establish Palestinian self-rule on the West Bank and in Gaza.
Jordan controlled the West Bank and East Jerusalem from 1948 until 1967. Though several Israeli governments have considered returning at least part of the territory, but not Jerusalem, King Hussein has said the Palestinians and the PLO should determine the area's future.
However, Peres said, some details still must be resolved, though he said most of them would have no significance within two or three years.
The first stage of the agreement calls for Israel to turn over control of Gaza and Jerocho to the Palestinians. The rest of the West Bank would be put under Palestinian selfrule in a second stage.
Meanwhile, Arafat told ABC-TV "the delay of the implementation of what had been agreed upon will reflect negatively on the credibility of the peace process and not only against the Palestinians, but against the Israelis, against the co-sponsors."
The United States and Russia are co-sponsors of the negotiations, which began 27 months ago.
Compiled from The Associated Press.
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