Paris AFP (in English) — 1157 GMT

[Report by Serge Arnold]
Somali warlord Mohamed Aidid’s faction called for a cease fire with UN forces Saturday [11 September], as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter disclosed that he was acting as a go-between in contacts with the fugitive general and the United Nations.

In the United States, Carter revealed that he has had “fairly regular” conversations over the past month with the warlord, who is wanted by the United Nations following, attacks by his forces on peace- keeping troops in Mogadishu, the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION reported Saturday.

The news came as two leaders of Aidid’s Somali National Alliance (SNA) told reporters here that “all problems could be settled peacefully.” “We want peace and we call on the international community to stop the massacre of Somali people and to promote dialogue,’ Mohamed Hassan Awale and Mohamed Siad Issa said.

The two, speaking in the Aidid stronghold of southern Mogadishu, also accused UN forces here of “not being ready to negotiate at a time when an already very tense situation can only get worse”. Issa warned clashes would become “10 times more violent” if the UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) continued to resort to force.

Carter, who has undertaken a number of missions to Africa in recent years, told the Atlanta, Georgia, newspaper he was “responding to a request from him (Aidid) and just relaying what he says” to authorities in Washington and to the United Nations. He said he was not involved in any negotiations on obtaining the warlord’s surrender.
In Mogadishu, Awale said some 203 people had died and 349 had been injured in clashes Thursday when UN helicopter gunships opened fire on a crowd of Somalis, which hospital sources said included women and children, following an ambush by Aidid supporters in which a UN soldier was killed. The hospital sources Friday said 117 wounded Somalis were brought in after the attack and a further 29 had died.

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