'UN troops were a little more trigger-happy than they should have been during Operation Restore Hope.' Michael Harper, UN envoy to Somalia.
In Somalia, the figures given for people killed by the UN and US 'peacekeeping' forces are invariably underestimates. For example, Somalis said that 73 people had died and 200 had been wounded on 12 July in a UN rocket and cannon assault on a compound reportedly housing a command centre used by General Aideed's supporters. According to the International Red Cross, the number killed was 57. This is quite a discrepancy, but the UN claimed that there were, at most, only 15 deaths caused by the raid, and 15 wounded.
Aside from putting forward very low casualty figures of their own, UN and US government officials have tried other tricks. They have used vague terms like 'dozens' when discussing Somali lives lost in confrontations with the UN; emphasised instead the number of UN deaths (83 by the end of 1993); asserted that General Aideed was responsible for 350 000 deaths due to famine, civil war and disease. But on 8 December 1993, US envoy to Somalia Robert Oakley acknowledged that Somali casualties - deaths and woundings combined - were between 6000 and 10 000.
3 October 1992, when America suffred its biggest 'defeat' at the hands of Somali militiamen (who succeeded in downing two Helicopters) 18 American troops were dead. At least 500 Somalis died. (Black Hawk Down, Mark Bowden, Atlantic Monthly Press)
-- James Heartfield