Larry Holmes, co-director of the New York-based International Action Center, said the film �glorifies the Oct. 3, 1993 massacre of thousands of African people in Mogadishu, Somalia by the U.S. Army.�

His organization was planning to protest the film outside Loew�s Cineplex at Union Square in Manhattan Jan. 23, and complained that the film is linked to a potential attack on Somalia as part of the Bush administration�s war on terrorism. �Black Hawk Down� is based on a battle between U.S. servicemen and Somalis following a botched attempt to capture men loyal to Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The late Somali leader headed one of several factions in a still unresolved civil war.

�Just like the four white cops who fired 41 shots at African immigrant Amadou Diallo in the Bronx on Feb. 4, 1999, these elite Army Rangers went berserk,� charged Mr. Holmes. �Their helicopters, equipped with 20-mm automatic cannon guns, fired at women, men and children standing in the streets of an African city.�

�This film�s racism is revolting,� said Monica Moorehead, another IAC leader. �The starving people of Somalia are called �the skinnies.� The only African American soldier with any lines in the film�Specialist Kurth played by Gabriel Casseus�is being used as a token.�

The movie�s release is being linked by activists to new war moves of the Bush administration against Somalia, a poor country believed to have unexploited oil reserves, said the IAC activists. In November, the Bush administration shut down al Barakaat, a remittance company. Somali immigrants in the United States now have no way to send money to their families back home. Many are threatened with starvation as a result, the activists said.

The U.S. government even shut down the only Internet provider in Somalia. International telephone lines linking this African country have also been severely restricted, according to the British Broadcasting Company. These actions create more suffering for Somalia�s seven million people and the Somali community abroad.

Activists are particularly angry at the decision to hold the Washington D.C. premiere of �Black Hawk Down� on Jan. 15�the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Among those invited to the film showing were Vice President Dick Cheney and former Marine Lt. Col. Ollie North, a key player in the Contragate scandal.