NAIROBI, Kenya -- Guerrillas battling to end the 21-year rule of President Siad Barre in Somalia rejected all calls for a cease-fire Thursday and vowed to continue the struggle until Barre quits or is captured.
The 71-year-old dictator, supreme ruler in the East African republic since a bloodless military coup in 1969, called Wednesday for a cease- fire, but the fighting continued. A similar call by the European Community for a 10-hour cease-fire to start at 8 a.m. Wednesday also had no effect.
'We say absolutely 'no' to Siad Barre's truce proposal because it is not to be believed,' Abdul Kadir, spokesman for the rebel United Somali Congress told a news conference in Rome. 'Every time he has been in danger Barre has made promises which he has not respected.'
The guerrilla organization said in a later statement a cease-fire is 'inconceivable' even if it is motivated by the need to evacuate foreign nationals from Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
'We want to put an end to the Barre dictatorship in the next few days,' a USC spokesman said in Nairobi. 'Barre must abandon power. If he does not go he must assume responsibility for all the consequences.'
Diplomats in the Somali capital reported fighting between government troops and the guerrillas continued through Thursday, the fifth day of the guerrilla offensive in the capital.
Some sources estimated the death toll since Sunday at more than 2, 000.
Hundreds of corpses were lying in the streets and there was a serious threat of cholera and other epidemics, the diplomats said.
Mogadishu was without water and electricity and there was practically no food left. Communications with the outside world were cut except for a few radio-satellite links with which some embassies kept in touch with their ministries.
USC spokesman Kadir said the rebels received strong reinforcments from guerrilla-occupied regions of the country late Wednesday and the capture of Siad Barre, reported to be holed up in an elaborate command bunker near the airport 'is just a question of time.'
'The new reinforcements amount to 10,000 soldiers under the guidance of a group of officers trained and equipped with heavy weapons,' Kadir said. 'They have been deployed around the military airport and in other stretegic points of the capital.'
But in Cairo, where Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak appealed for a cease-fire, Somali Ambassador Abdullah Hassan told reporters Siad Barre's government 'is in full control of the situation and the opposition does not control even a single inch of the territory.'
Similar claims were made earlier in the week by other Somali ambassadsors who said reports of bloodshed and chaos in Mogadishu were the result of a massive guerrilla 'public relations operation.'
The failure to achieve a cease-fire was blocking a mounting effort by Italy and other nations to evacuate their citizens from the beleaguered Somali capital.
Two Italian Air Force C-130s and two smaller transport planes arrived in Nairobi Wednesday in the hope of getting permission to fly into Mogadishu to evacuate 350 Italians from the former Italian colony.
The German government said it was sending a military airplane to Nairobi in hope of picking up some 40 German citizens and the Soviet Foreign Ministry said it was in touch with the Italian Foreign Ministry on evacuating 39 Soviet citizens.
In Washington Wednesday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States wanted to evacuate 37 American diplomats and their families and 50 private American citizens, mostly involved in relief operations in Somalia.
But Boucher said with fighting going on around the U.S. Embassy there was no assurance air evacuation could be arranged safely.
In Rome, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Siad Barre had agreed to let military planes and ships come to Mogadishu to conduct the evacuation. But he said the operation could not be carried out unless a durable cease-fire was arranged.
The rebels were insisting they would permit the evacuation only under International Red Cross auspices. In Geneva the Red Cross confirmed it was ready to cover the operation.
An Italian frigate was on its way from the Persian Gulf to the Bay of Mogadishu, to assist and protect a possible operation to evacuate foreign nationals aboard merchant ships. A French destroyer was also reported standing by off the Somali coast.
