Return to
NomadNetBY JONATHAN FERZIGER
UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2
The United Nations offered Friday to help Somalia ''further national reconciliation'' following the death of its controversial leader, Mohamed Farah Aideed. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali sent no formal condolences, as he customarily does following the death of foreign leaders.
Indeed, officials suggested Aideed's absence may improve prospects for resolving the bitter conflicts that have ravaged the east African nation. ''Any death diminishes everyone as all of us are diminished by death, but some deaths can remove obstacles to peace,'' said Boutros-Ghali's spokeswoman, Sylvana Foa. ''Right now we're going to watch and see what's happening and offer our assistance if they need it and if they want it.'' Aideed, whose death was attributed to heart failure, was the former warlord whose gangs scuttled the international peacekeeping operation in 1994-95. Foa recalled that 136 U.N. peacekeepers were killed during that period in Somalia, 99 in direct hostile action, and 423 were wounded.
''The United Nations will continue to monitor the situation closely and we're keeping our fingers crossed,'' she said. ''The United Nations remains ready to assist the Somali people to further national reconciliation if they so request,'' Foa said. ''We hope the Somali people who have really suffered so much over the past five years will now give peace a real chance and work together to end this horrifying conflict.'' Aideed's clan-based guerrilla forces ousted former President Siad Barre from power in 1991, then battled rival clansmen led by Ali Mahdi Mohamed. Thousands of Somalis were killed or died of starvation in the ensuing civil war. A U.N. intervention led by about 30,000 American troops was met by Aideed's gangs who went on a rampage against the peacekeepers. The United States pulled out its forces in 1994 and a U.N. force composed largely of troops from developing countries withdrew in 1995. The failed peacekeeping operation cost more than $2 billion, according to official estimates, but did not ease Somalia's chronic problems of poverty and hunger.