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Somalia: ICG calls for immediate AU peacekeepers
Fri. January 05, 2007 11:23 am. -
Mohamed Abdi Farah
(SomaliNet) Western and African diplomats meeting in Nairobi, Kenya have issued on Friday joint communiqué calling for immediate dispatch of peacekeepers to Somalia to stabilise the country after a two weeks of clashes in which Ethiopian backed interim government forces routed Islamist fighters.
The International Contact Group on Somalia, which includes the United States, European and African nations, held closed-door talks in Nairobi with Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf amid fresh concerns over Islamist threats to carry on fighting and the return of warlord militias to Mogadishu.
Earlier Yusuf had told the Group there was a rare opportunity for a real political breakthrough in Somalia, which has been mired in chaos and poverty since the overthrow of a dictator in 1991. He called for the speedy deployment of the peacekeeping force, which was approved by the U.N. Security Council before the war, and for funds for aid work and his government.
"The Group felt clearly it was important there not be a security vacuum," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told reporters after the meeting, which she chaired.
"We felt therefore that it was urgent to get a stabilisation force into Somalia."
Frazer said Washington was donating $40 million, $16 million of which would help fund the proposed African peacekeeping force. It is a major reversal for the United States, which in 2005 threatened to veto any foreign peacekeeping deployment proposed to the U.N. Security Council.
In a communique the Group welcomed an offer of forces from Uganda, which has said it could send a battalion if the move is approved by its parliament.
Friday's meeting came hours after a purported audio tape by al Qaeda's deputy leader urged Somali Islamists to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla campaign of suicide and other attacks against Ethiopian forces in the country.
"As far as chasing down the terrorists goes, I think they are cornered and we will see what happens," Frazer said.
"I think a lot of bold statements were made by extremists in the Courts, that they were going to kill Somalis, that they were going to stand and fight... and they just ran."
She said she emphasised to Yusuf the critical importance of not letting warlords rise to power again in Mogadishu, where their militias were manning checkpoints just hours after the Islamists fled the city last week.
Frazer also held a private meeting with Somali parliamentary Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, whose support for the Islamic Courts has put him at odds with Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi.
Washington says the top leaders of Somalia Islamic Courts Council -- who are being pursued by Ethiopian and Somali government troops -- are controlled by al Qaeda, a charge the Islamists have denied.
News Category: Somalia
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