Assoicated Press of Pakistan
Friday, June 29, 2007
UNITED NATIONS, June 29 (APP): The head of Somalia’s fragile interim Government said Thursday his war-torn country was at a “critical crossroads” and urged the U.N. Security Council to provide peace-keepers and resources to help support democracy and security programmes aimed at ending years of tribal conflicts.“We are fed up with promises, what we need now is action,” Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi said at a press conference in New York. It followed his briefing to the Security Council in which he urged the powerful 15-nation body to help speed up the transformation of the tiny, ill-equipped African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) into a larger United Nations-led force. “We have heard it said: “Make peace and we will come and keep it’ […] but it is not right to neglect the interests of the Somali people”, he said
Recalling that Ethiopia’s intervention on behalf of the U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government had helped remove the Union of Islamic Courts movement months ago, Ghedi said the turmoil in Somalia had been sparked by terrorist actors from other countries.
The increased suicide bombings and other terrorist tactics, he said, had never been seen before in Somalia or the wider subregion. Islamists, jihadists and other external fighters had been “imported” to destabilise the country and the Horn of Africa, and the Transitional Federal Government would do what it could to deal with that threat. But the international community must help before it was too late.
The Government could not provide adequate security inside a near-lawless Mogadishu or the rest of the country, the prime minister said. What its struggling security forces needed was capacity-building, facilities and other financial and material resources to carry out their mission.
Early deployment of AMISOM, with the support of the international community, would lead to the early withdrawal of Ethiopian forces, paving the way for United Nations peacekeepers, Ghedi said. That was crucial for the people’s sake, particularly since intensive consultations with all Somali groups in January had led to the launch of a National Reconciliation Congress.
The Transitional Federal Government and its institutions were committed to making national reconciliation real attempts, he stressed.
A National Governance and Reconciliation Committee organized to establish and manage the Congress, towards final peace, but a formal launch had been postponed twice due to lack of resources. International donors had responded positively after the most recent postponement and the Congress would now open on July 15.
Source: APP, June 29, 2007