Paris AFP (in English) 1706 GMT

Nairobi — The Somali National Alliance (SNA) has denied charges that an extremist Islamic group, Hezbollah, had arrived in Somalia and accused the United Nations of waging a campaign of falsehoods, fabrications and disinformation.

In a statement issued here Tuesday [16 November], the SNA said that the latest accusations against its leader General Mohamed Farah Aidid were primarily designed to justify the continued presence in Somalia of “large foreign occupation force”.

The statement was reacting to a warning on Saturday by military officials in the UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM II) that Islamic militants from an unspecified country had arrived in the Somali capital Mogadishu and could launch terrorist attacks on United States or other contingents of the UN peacekeeping force in Somalia.

UNOSOM spokesman Major David Stockwell said analysis of intelligence reports “had revealed the presence in Mogadishu of an unspecified number of individuals, possibly Hezbollah fundamentalists with expertise in car bombing techniques,” and warned Aidid “he will be considered responsible if such attacks occur.”

But in its reaction, SNA said “the world knows only too well that such a group had never existed in the country and the introduction of such a name to the present situation in Somalia is nothing but a childish attempt to hoodwink and terrorise the world community”.

It accused UNOSOM of “organizing, arming and financing acts of banditry so as to prove to the world that there would be no peace in Somalia after the expected withdrawal of U.S. and other forces”.

_{FBIS-AFR-93-220, 17 Nov. 1993, p. 2}