General Aidid Interviewed on Mogadishu Plight

[Meseret]

London BBC World Service in English

1705 GMT, January 07, 1992

[From the "Focus on Africa" program]



[Text] This weekend, James Jonah, the UN special envoy, ventured into the war-torn Somali capital, Mog­adishu in attempt to mediate between the rival factions of the United Somali Congress [USC] who have been at each other's throats for the past weeks. James Jonah managed in the end to meet both Ali Mahdi, the presi­dent of Somalia and his rival, General Farah Aidid, chairman of the USC. From Ali Mahdi's faction of the USC, he received a petition calling for direct UN inter­vention in the civil war that threat thousands of lives in Mogadishu. Our correspondent, Peter Biles, spoke to Ali Mahdi's opponent, General Aidid, after he had met James Jonah, and he asked him whether peace was any closer following Jonah's visit.



[Begin recording] [Aidid] I think a peaceful solution is near. Already, a plan of meeting has been fixed in the next edition.



[Biles] But the reality on the ground seems somewhat different because the fighting is going on, there is shelling and gunfire in the background even as we speak. You refused to have anything to do with your opponent, Mr. Ali Mahdi. Why do you rule out the idea of outside intervention, perhaps, the UN peacekeeping force coming in?



[Aidid] We do not see any solution to bring in these forces or foreign intervention forces in Somalia, in USC areas because we believe we are able to settle our problem by our own. We are working hard, and the results will be seen by everybody.



[Biles] How much longer do you think it is going to go on then?



[Aidid] Inside USC problems, I think it would be a few weeks.



[Biles] Have you been into any of the hospitals yourself? Have you seen the result of this conflict, this carnage?



[Aidid] Yes, I have seen and I hope these killings will be stopped by those who are committing this crime.



[Biles] If you do not accept the presence of the UN peacekeeping force, would you accept some kind of outside intervention to allow humanitarian aid to be distributed?



[Aidid] We are asking the humanitarian aid to be distrib­uted to the needy people. We have made a lot of appeals and we hope the international community will answer.



[Biles] Mogadishu is short of food, it is short of medical supplies, it is short of fuel, almost everything is in short supply. But one thing, Somalia is never seen to run out of is ammunition.



[Aidid] We are not receiving any ammunition or any arms from outside. We are using only the ammunition and the armament we have taken previously from Siad Barre regime. [end recording]