Aidid’s Earlier Peace Bid Reportedly Was Rebuffed

A month before his militia killed 18 U.S. soldiers on Oct. 4, Somali faction leader Mohammed Farah Aidid offered to cease hostilities and begin a “mutual dialogue” with the United Nations, according to a confidential U.N. document.

But the peace overture was rejected by the senior U.N. representative in Somalia, retired U.S. Adm. Jonathan T. Howe, and senior U.N. and American military commanders in Somalia, according to John Drysdale, who resigned last month as Howe’s political adviser.

A senior U.N. official said the U.N. command in Somalia opted out of the nascent peace negotiations--outlined in a Sept. 3 memo from Drysdale to Howe’s deputy, Lansana Kouyate of Guinea--after Aidid’s forces killed seven Nigerian peacekeepers Sept. 5. The official also expressed doubt about whether Aidid’s offer was sincere, noting that it was accompanied by a demand that the United Nations cease offensive actions, a step it was not then willing to take.

The largely untold story surrounding Aidid’s offer and a series of secret negotiations stemming from it show how mutual suspicion and continuing military operations on both sides scuttled attempts by mediators to end the bloodletting.

In the back-channel discussions with Aidid, U.N. officials worked feverishly--and at times without their superiors’ knowledge--to hammer out a peace agreement, even as helicopter-borne U.S. Army Rangers crisscrossed the skies in a fruitless search for the fugitive warlord.

Although the process made considerable headway, according to Drysdale and documents provided by him, the United Nations, Howe and his military commanders passed up what Drysdale described as several chances to make peace with Aidid and instead chose a more aggressive course.

Drysdale has called the United Nations’ failure to take up Aidid on his peace offer “absolutely scandalous.”