Clinton Goes on Offensive Over Somalia Policy : Africa: President lobbies lawmakers on withdrawal date. Uphill fight predicted.

The White House mounted an intensive effort Wednesday to head off a congressional challenge to President Clinton’s decision to keep American peacekeeping forces in Somalia until March 31.

Aided by personal lobbying from Clinton, who spoke by telephone with wavering and undecided senators throughout the day, Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) predicted that calls for a speedier withdrawal would be deflected by the eventual passage of a resolution “generally supportive of the President’s position.”

But as the negotiations moved behind closed doors, it was also clear that lawmakers remained deeply divided over when to leave Somalia, and other supporters of the Administration conceded that they face an uphill fight.

Clinton appealed to lawmakers for patience, asserting optimistically Wednesday that “our policy in Somalia, I believe, is beginning to work.” He cited positive signs from diplomatic efforts in Mogadishu and new commitments of troops from other nations to join the U.N. peacekeeping operation.

The President pleaded with Congress not to tie his hands with an early deadline for the removal of U.S. troops.

In Somalia, U.S. forces were ordered to cease all military operations aimed at capturing or harassing clan leader Mohammed Farah Aidid while a new political initiative to resolve the standoff between Aidid and the United Nations is under way, officials in Washington said Wednesday night.

They said the informal cease-fire is an outgrowth of Clinton’s stated intention to “depersonalize” the conflict in Somalia and to support multinational diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting there.

Veteran diplomat Robert B. Oakley, Clinton’s special envoy to Somalia, suggested that discussions with associates of Aidid could soon win the release of captured Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. Durant. He denied, however, that the United States would bargain with Aidid for Durant’s freedom.

Durant was captured Oct. 3 in the fiercest battle of the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Somalia that left 18 U.S. servicemen dead and more than 70 wounded.

About 300 Somalis were killed in the battle, an American military official reported Wednesday. Hundreds of the 700 treated in hospitals were women and children, he added.

Aidid’s supporters had earlier claimed that hundreds had died, and the Pentagon and international relief agencies are not disputing that claim, the official said.

In a letter to Congress accompanying a report on the Administration’s Somalia policy, Clinton warned again of the dangers of an early U.S. departure from the ravaged country in the Horn of Africa.

“We cannot leave immediately because the United Nations has not had an adequate chance to replace us, nor have the Somalis had a reasonable opportunity to end their strife,” Clinton wrote. “Moreover, having been brutally attacked, were American forces to leave now we would send a message to terrorists and other potential adversaries around the world that they can change our policies by killing our people.”

In the report--rushed to Capitol Hill two days ahead of schedule in hopes of influencing the debate--he assured lawmakers that the United States has no intention of spending lives and money trying to build a viable nation out of the chaos in Somalia and repeated his pledge that American involvement there would not be “open-ended.”

The Clinton policy came under attack from an unexpected quarter Wednesday, when former President George Bush, in a rare criticism of his successor, said he fears that the humanitarian mission he launched 10 months ago is in danger of getting “messed up.”

In an appearance at a San Antonio grade school, Bush said the original plan was for the United States to assist in securing supply lines for the movement of food and medical supplies and then to leave peacekeeping and nation-building duties to a U.N. coalition.

“I think I might have tried to do some of the things differently than we’re seeing now,” Bush said. “I just hope we don’t get (the) mission messed up now.”

The main congressional challenge to Clinton’s plan is being mounted by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. With sentiment still running strong in favor of withdrawing from Somalia as soon as possible, Byrd said he plans legislation to cut off funds for the peacekeeping mission after Feb. 1, unless Clinton requests and Congress approves an extension.

Byrd’s new withdrawal date would fund the mission for another month beyond the Dec. 31 deadline he had originally proposed. Senate leaders, echoing conciliatory comments by Clinton, expressed hope that the two sides were narrowing their positions in a way that would avoid a divisive debate challenging the President’s authority on Somalia.

But as the day wore on it also became apparent from the comments of senators emerging from closed-door meetings that they had split into at least three distinct groups: those who support the Administration, those who favor the Byrd alternative and those who favor getting out of Somalia even sooner but who oppose setting a deadline for fear that it could complicate efforts to free Durant.

The latter group appeared to include a majority of Senate Republicans, who, in the words of Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), “feel that we ought to get out of there as soon as we get our hostage back” but who also think “it is a terrible mistake to put a date” into law.

After negotiations ended for the night late Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) observed, “There are strong views on this particular subject and most of them revolve around the date.”

But Mitchell said “good progress” had been made and that he hoped to have “a consensus resolution by tomorrow that will be largely supportive” of the President’s policy.

Among the outstanding differences was disagreement over Byrd’s insistence that regardless of the deadline, the resolution must include a provision cutting off funds. The Administration’s latest plan would not automatically end funding on a specific date.