2 Marines Face Hearings in Somalia Shootings : Africa: Military says move will help reinforce discipline. U.N. chief proposes May 1 turnover.

MOGADISHU, Somalia —  American commanders here signaled Wednesday that their troops must answer for killing and wounding Somalis, ordering the first public disciplinary hearings since Operation Restore Hope began for two Marines accused of employing excessive force by firing on unarmed Somali youths in separate incidents last month.

In announcing pretrial hearings, the final step in a formal military investigation before possible court-martial, Col. Fred Peck, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition forces in Somalia, said the move would help reinforce discipline among the 16,000 American troops still here. Rules of engagement have been ambiguous, and most of the U.S. troops expected their large-scale operation to end weeks ago.

The U.S.-led military operation is to give way to a U.N.-led force, and Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali proposed Wednesday that May 1 be the date for the formal transfer of command, news agencies reported from U.N. headquarters in New York.

The transfer should take place progressively area by area, Boutros-Ghali said in a report to the Security Council, which must approve the plan. Lt. Gen. Cevik Bir of Turkey has been named as commander of the U.N. force, which is expected to include some American troops. An American will be deputy commander.

U.S. Marines and soldiers said the hearings announced Wednesday will worsen morale among American troops, who suffered two more losses in the last two days:

* An Army special forces soldier killed Wednesday when his vehicle hit a land mine 100 miles northeast of the Somali town of Belet Huen; his identity was withheld until his relatives could be notified.

* Pvt. John D. Robertson, 28, of Tustin, Calif., an Army construction crewman, fatally injured Tuesday when the wrecker truck in which he was riding skidded on a bad road and flipped on its side. Robertson was stationed at Ft. Hood, Tex.

The two casualties brought to six the number of Americans who have died since the beginning of the U.S. mission here.

As for the disciplinary hearings announced Wednesday, they appeared to be a clear shift from initial rules of military engagement, in which American commanders said their troops would be justified in opening fire any time they felt threatened. That policy has drawn criticism from the Somalis and the press at a time when pro-American sentiment appears to be waning in Mogadishu.

But Peck stressed that the disciplinary cases, one of which will open in a U.S. military court at Mogadishu’s port today, resulted from a routine, monthlong internal investigation. He said the incidents “are much different . . . than normal” in a mission that officially is humanitarian but occasionally includes urban guerrilla combat.

“Normally we have an exchange of gunfire, or at least an attack by a Somali on us,” Peck said. “Those are more cut and dried than these two incidents.”

According to task force records and witnesses, one of the accused Marines, Sgt. Walter Andrew Johnson, 25, a machine-gunner, shot and killed a 13-year-old Somali who chased his Humvee as it moved through a congested downtown market on Feb. 4. The bullet that killed the youth went through him, ricocheted off the street and wounded two other youths nearby.

Johnson asserted at the time that he feared the boy had an explosive device and was trying to toss it into the Humvee. But the initial task force report said no such object was found at the scene; eyewitnesses said the teen-ager was merely having fun with the Marines while on his way home from school.

The shooting was widely reported in the international press and in Mogadishu’s widely read mimeographed newspapers. The victim’s relatives were quoted as accusing the Marine of overreacting.

In the other shooting, which took place two days before and a few blocks away, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Harry Conde, 33, a radar technician based at Twentynine Palms, Calif., fired his shotgun at a 17-year-old Somali who tried to steal his sunglasses. The young man was wounded, along with a bystander.

Conde’s hearing under Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice--similar to a civilian grand-jury proceeding but with greater protection for the defendants--begins today. Describing the proceedings as “a very serious thing” that could lead to a court-martial, Peck said there is always a concern among commanders that such hearings could have a chilling effect among troops who remain in a chaotic, heavily armed city rife with dangers. But, he said, “that can’t be an overriding concern.”

“I think the Marines in the field and the soldiers will realize that when deadly force, or potentially deadly force, is used, one expects that your actions are going to be examined,” he said.

Peck acknowledged that the hearings are the first serious disciplinary move by U.S. forces during a three-month intervention in which dozens of Somalis have been gunned down by American and other coalition forces.

Military analysts in Mogadishu said they clearly signal a tightening of the rules of engagement, which is likely to have an equally dramatic effect on Somalis.

Wednesday’s announcement came a week after widespread anti-American protests in Mogadishu; the military hearings address what Somali intellectuals have cited as a key element in the erosion of popular support for the U.S.-led military intervention.