Plea for more Somalia peacekeepers

Monday, December 17, 2007

 

By William Wallis in Johannesburg

 

A more robust and better-funded peacekeeping operation is necessary if there is to be any hope of a political settlement in Somalia, the United Nations envoy to the country has warned.

 

On the eve of today's Security Council meeting on Somalia, Ahmadou Ould Abdullah told the Financial Times that international efforts to restore a semblance of order to the country were half-hearted and running out of steam.

 

This was happening, he added, just as fighting between Islamist insurgents and the transition government, installed when Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia a year ago, escalated, setting the scene for a proxy war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Horn of Africa's bitter rivals.

 

Western countries were still haunted by their participation in a disastrous UN intervention in the early 1990s, when the overthrow of the dictator Siad Barre led to fighting from which the Somali state has never recovered. But this should not be an excuse for inaction, said the former Mauritanian foreign minister.

 

The situation in Somalia, Mr Ould Abdullah added, was as dramatic as that in Darfur, Sudan, but received far less international attention.

 

Thousands of residents of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, have fled in recent weeks as Islamist insurgents stepped up attacks on Ethiopian and government forces. Human rights activists accuse Ethiopia of retaliating by bombarding civilians.

 

A recent reconciliation congress backed by Britain and the US as a forum for resolving Somalia's differences, failed when Islamists and Somali nationalists opposing the transition government were excluded.

 

Potentially complicating fresh peace efforts, Abdullahi Yusuf, the transition president, is in hospital in London.

 

In his absence a new prime minister is struggling to form a cabinet. Mr Ould Abdullah has nevertheless succeeded in initiating contacts between the Islamist opposition, based in Asmara, the Eritrean capital, and government representatives.

 

The first meetings between the two sides took place in South Africa a month ago.

 

Until now the government has resisted dialogue, and the Islamists have made the withdrawal of Ethiopia troops, on which the government's survival depends, a precondition for negotiations.

 

Mr Ould Abdullah said a more robust peacekeeping presence was a prerequisite for progress on the political front. A small number of Ugandan troops are holed up at the port and airport, the only contingent to have been deployed for an African Union force planned at the start of the year.

 

The UN envoy is appealing for support for a broader-based peacekeeping operation drawn from Muslim countries that could make way for a UN operation down the line. This could include troops from Saudi Arabia or Qatar in the Gulf, or Indonesia or Malaysia in Asia.

 

Source: FT.com, December 17, 2007