Thursday, December 28, 2006
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States called for a resumption of power-sharing negotiations between Somalia's rival factions after government forces backed by Ethiopian troops moved into the capital Mogadishu following a retreat by Islamist militia.
We remain concerned about the situation there," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said as reports came in that forces backing the Western-supported Somali transitional government had entered Mogadishu.
"We don't believe that the ultimate solution to the situation in Somalia and the ultimate way of achieving everyone's goal in Somalia, which is to have a functioning stable government for the Somali people, can be achieved in the long run through violence," he said.
"You're going to have to have that government established on the basis of discussions and dialogue," he said.
Casey was unable to confirm the retreat of the Islamic Courts movement from the capital, which they had seized in June, saying Washington had no officials in the country.
"The situation on the ground is pretty fluid," he said.
Casey also refrained from backing an African Union demand that Ethiopia pull its troops out of the country, noting only that Addis Ababa had legitimate security concerns about the possibility of Islamists gaining control of Somalia.
A predominntly Christian nation and a close US ally in the region, Ethiopia has a large Muslim and ethnic Somali population and fought Somalia in the 1970s over the Ogaden border region.
Casey said Washington was in contact with Kenya, Uganda, the Arab League and the African Union about efforts to implement a UN Security Council resolution that endorsed the deployment of a Ugandan-led "protection and training force" to Somalia.
He said deployment of the regional force would allow a resumption of negotiations between the transitional government and the Islamists on formation of a national unity government.
The talks collapsed as Islamic Courts fighters gained control in recent months of most of southern Somalia, isolating the transitional government in the town of Baidoa.
"We do think that the installment of that protection and training force is something that is still needed and in fact would be an important factor in being able to create the conditions for a political settlement," Casey said.
"We certainly still want to see both parties engaged in discussions to be able to achieve our long-term goal" of a stable government in Somalia, he said.
Source: AFP, Dec 28, 2006