Marine Contingent to Leave Somalia This Week

A contingent of 850 U.S. Marines is set to head for home beginning Tuesday morning, officials said Sunday, marking the end of the 40-day military buildup that has brought more than 25,000 uniformed Americans to fight famine in Somalia.

The pullout of the 3rd Battalion, 9th Regiment of Marines from Camp Pendleton, to begin on President Bush’s last full day as commander in chief, will be the first significant cut in American force levels in Somalia. And it reflects the feeling among American commanders that the time is rapidly approaching when the mission can be handed over to U.N. control.

“We are rapidly approaching the point where we’ll be able to make a smooth handoff to the U.N. command,” said Col. Fred Peck, a Marine spokesman. He added that the U.S. command is “perhaps only a couple weeks away” from that hand-over.

Lt. Gen. Robert B. Johnston, commander of Operation Restore Hope, told The Times on Friday that the huge influx of troops from other nations--numbering 11,000 from 20 countries--and the stable situation now prevailing in seven of the eight famine regions under military control make a significant reduction in American force levels now possible.

“I could hand off most of (the country) to the United Nations today,” he said. The U.S. forces’ mission remains incomplete only in Mogadishu, he added, but he said he expects to bring stability to the capital by the end of January.

The beginning of the reduction in American forces is likely to put increased pressure on the United Nations to appoint a new commander for the mission.

U.S. officials have said they hope to relinquish control to the United Nations by early March, although a force of perhaps 1,500 Army soldiers will remain in Somalia for logistics support while a strike force of about 3,000 Marines will be stationed on ships offshore.

The handoff to the United Nations is considered an important, and risky, step in the mission. Relief officials have expressed concern that the good work done so far by the U.S.-led mission could be undone by a shaky transition. While the American troops have been generally welcomed by Somalis as a neutral force with a noble humanitarian mission, the United Nations is widely distrusted.

But troops from other nations already have taken over much of the work originally done by the 9,814 Marines in the country. French troops escorted a 25-vehicle convoy of food to Hoddur, 400 miles west of Mogadishu, on Sunday. And about 900 Australian troops have moved into the famine center of Baidoa, replacing Marines who had been escorting relief food in the region.

The Marines heading home this week had arrived in Somalia on Christmas Eve. Most had been stationed in Baidoa; the remainder had been conducting patrols in Mogadishu, where the international forces have yet to bring looting and sniper fire under control. The unit will leave over three days, Tuesday through Thursday, in chartered planes bound for the United States.

Peck said that the headquarters staff has been trimmed by about 300 since U.S. troops arrived on Dec. 9. But the return of the Marine unit would be the first major cut in American troop strength here. During a visit to Somalia earlier this month, President Bush had promised that at least some troops would be leaving by Tuesday.

Johnston, the commanding general for the Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton, has said he thinks it would be reasonable for the United States to begin handing over parts of the country to U.N. control, thus hastening the departure of American troops.

He said he expects the United Nations to move aggressively to begin the transition after President-elect Bill Clinton is inaugurated on Wednesday.

“What needs to be done very quickly is to get the U.N. command structure in place so it can begin working with me and my staff to orchestrate the handoff,” Johnston said.

The announcement of the Marine unit’s pullout came on one of the quietest days in Somalia since U.S. Marines first landed Dec. 9. Mohammed Farah Aidid, one of the clan leaders who signed a cease-fire agreement Friday with 13 other Somali leaders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, returned to the capital, expressing confidence that the cease-fire would hold.

Since shortly after the arrival of U.S. forces last month, Aidid and his chief rival in Mogadishu, Ali Mahdi Mohamed, have ended their fighting. Both say they have confined their weapons to camps, but, under the cease-fire agreement, they must eventually turn them over to the United Nations.

Yet even though the two chief warlords in Mogadishu have ended their fighting, many armed gangs not strictly controlled by either Aidid or Mahdi have continued to operate in the streets of the capital.