Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Jama, who was at the UN Headquarters for a Security Council meeting on Wednesday, told reporters that he would press the council to authorize the multinational peacekeeping force to take over from the African Union force, or AMISOM, currently deployed there.
A United Nations-mandated presence would not only provide security, but also ensure the stability that would help the nascent national reconciliation and development process take hold in Mogadishu, the war-ravaged capital, and spread throughout the country, he said.
"I think there is now a window of opportunity and there is more interest by many countries in the world and members of the Security Council who are coming around to our view that the time is right for a UN engagement," he said.
"We will continue, we will be persistent in asking the United Nations to shoulder its responsibility under the (United Nations) Charter in the maintenance of peace and security," he stressed.
The UN Security Council is considering whether to send a peacekeeping force to Somalia, which has been without a central government since 1991.
In a recent report to the Security Council, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the necessary conditions are still not there for the deployment of such a UN force.
Source: Xinhua, April 15, 2008