U.S. Black Leaders Favor Longer Mission : Goals: They urge that American presence continue until Somalis have an effective government.

American black leaders, concerned that President Bush’s objectives in Somalia are too limited, called Tuesday for U.S. military forces to maintain order in the famine-stricken African country until an effective government can be established.

Randall Robinson, executive director of the lobbying organization TransAfrica, said at a news conference that, if American troops only open a food distribution network, then get out quickly, the operation will “do nothing more than (postpone) the disaster.”

“I would hope that the American leadership has not drawn our objectives so narrowly,” Robinson said.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said he urged President-elect Bill Clinton to broaden Bush’s Somalia policy to help rebuild the nation once the immediate danger of starvation has been alleviated.

Talking to reporters after Clinton met with congressional leaders, Lewis said that an American presence “must be there much longer, that we must not only put out the fire but we must rebuild the building. We must not only bring food and medical assistance to the people of Somalia but we must rebuild the infrastructure, help rebuild the country and assist in organizing a stable government.”

Robinson, joined by Somalian-born fashion model Iman, urged the Administration to use its diplomatic leverage to convene a Somali peace conference to begin re-establishing effective leadership for the country, which has been without governmental authority since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown early last year.

They said the conference should be attended by leaders of the country’s often warring clans, militia leaders, intellectuals and representatives of the member nations of the U.N. Security Council.

The U.S.-led international force should remain in Somalia until the conference produces results, said Robinson, whose 15-year-old organization lobbied successfully for legislation imposing American economic sanctions against the white minority government of South Africa over the objections of then-President Ronald Reagan.

Although Robinson said the international phase should be completed as soon as possible, he said it would be a mistake to impose a deadline on the process of restoring order to the shattered country.

Robinson and Lewis avoided direct criticism of Bush, but they left no doubt that they believe the United States must be involved in Somalia far longer than Bush envisions.

In announcing the American military intervention Friday, Bush said that the mission “has a limited objective, to open the supply routes, to get the food moving and to prepare the way for a U.N. peacekeeping force to keep it moving.”

Administration officials have said they hope to complete the mission before Clinton takes office Jan. 20. But the black leaders said the American obligation goes far beyond that, even if some of the responsibility eventually can be shifted to the United Nations.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said last week, after a meeting with Acting Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, that U.N. peacekeeping forces in Somalia “can be the force around which a new government can be formed.”

Jackson brushed aside suggestions that it would amount to neocolonialism for the United States or the United Nations to oversee Somalia until a new government can be formed.

“If this were a unilateral U.S. presence, searching for some material, some oil or some minerals or for some geopolitical positioning, one could justify those fears,” Jackson said. “This simply is not the case.”