Somalia Seeks UN Force to Restore Order

United Nations: April 16th. (Financial Times) - Somalia’s western-backed transitional government on Tuesday appealed for the United Nations to dispatch a multinational force to establish peace and security in the lawless east African state while its factions pursued reconciliation after more than a decade of war. Ali Ahmed Jama, foreign minister, made the call in New York on the eve of a summit called by South Africa, current UN Security Council president, to discuss greater co-operation between the world body and the African Union. “We call on the Security Council to assume its rightful role and replace Amisom [the existing small AU force] with a multinational force,” he said. “We have asked the Security Council to take that decision as soon as possible.” UN troop contributors have been reluctant to become involved in Somalia since US peacekeepers withdrew in 1993 after militias shot down two Black Hawk helicopters and killed 18 US personnel.

However, factors increasing the concerns for stability in the Horn of Africa, including the recent seizure of a French vessel by pirates, have focused attention on how the UN might work to prevent the situation in Somalia worsening. “We live in a globalised world and the linkage is clear,” said Mr Jama. “Many of the tactics we see in Somalia have been imported from Iraq.” Last month Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, UN special envoy for Somalia, appealed to the Security Council to increase its commitment. “I am not asking outside countries to become active for moral or altruistic reasons. They have a clearly mandated responsibility to become involved in a country where there are widespread violations of human rights and humanitarian law.” Although approval for the early dispatch of a UN force looked unlikely, Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, said in a recent report that troop contributors should be ready to send an 8,000-strong force if a broad-based political settlement were reached, rising to 27,000 if security were assured. The larger deployment would allow the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces that entered Somalia more than a year ago to support the transitional government in its war against Islamists.

Mr Jama called reconciliation with opposition groups an ongoing process, although UN officials note progress has been limited. He said that while the transitional government was pledged to negotiate with opposition factions, “the people you see that are killing innocent people are the spoilers who don’t want to see peace and security in Somalia”. The state department last month placed the allegedly al-Qaeda-linked military wing of Somalia’s Council of Islamic Courts on the US list of foreign terrorist organisations. A spokesman for the faction told Associated Press the group welcomed the designation and accused the US of targeting it because it was “fighting against Ethiopia, a Christian nation that had invaded our country”.
By Harvey Morris
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Mozlink