US to Convene Contact Group on Somalia

[QabiilDiid]

US to Convene Contact Group on Somalia

By David Gollust

State Department

09 June 2006

 

 

 

 

Click for Interactive Map of Somalia

The United States said Friday it will convene an international meeting next week in New York on the situation in Somalia. The State Department says the new Somalia "contact group" will be aimed at assisting the country's struggling transitional administration.

 

The move to create the Somalia contact group comes amid worsening factional violence in the country in recent days and the capture of the capital Mogadishu by a hard-line Islamic militia group.

 

State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer will chair the meeting of countries and organizations with interests and programs in Somalia. The east African country has been plagued by civil warfare and been without a functioning central government for more than a decade.

 

McCormack said the aim will be to assist the transitional Somali government based in the southwestern town of Baidoa, which has been struggling for two years to consolidate its authority:

 

"The goal of this group is to promote concerted action and coordination to support the Somalia transitional federal institutions," he said. "So we're going to be working with other interested states, international organizations on this matter, and talking about how we might coordinate our efforts in a concerted way to support the transitional federal institutions."

 

McCormack said plans for the meeting were still being made but that it would involve the United Nations and a number of European and African governments as well as the United States.

 

He would not link the convening of the meeting to the capture of Mogadishu and surrounding areas by the militia known as the Islamic Courts Union, saying only that U.S. officials "think it is the right time" for such a gathering.

 

The Islamic Courts Union has accused the United States of materially supporting opposing armed factions, and U.S. officials expressed concern after its capture of the capital that Somalia might become a safe-haven for terrorists.

 

However, the group sent the United States and other concerned governments an open letter a few days ago denying any intention to help terrorists and saying it did not want to be considered an enemy.

 

Spokesman McCormack said Wednesday that as a matter of principle the United States would work with groups or individuals having an interest in a stable, secure Somalia and in fighting terrorism.

 

However, he said Friday the United States has not yet replied to the letter and is reserving judgment on the group's overture.

 

The United States has had no official presence in Mogadishu since 1994, when it ended a famine relief mission after a street battle between U.S. forces and a warlord faction in which 18 U.S. servicemen were killed.

 

U.S. dealings with Somali factions have been handled through the American embassy in Nairobi. McCormack said he did not think Somali groups would be represented at the New York meeting, though preparations were still at an early stage.

 

 

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[General Duke]

U.S. to Hold International Meeting on Somalia

 

By Karen DeYoung

 

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, June 10, 2006; Page A12

 

The Bush administration will convene an international meeting next week on political developments in Somalia, following an abrupt shift in policy this week after Islamists seized control of the Somali capital from U.S.-backed, warlord-led militias.

The formation of a "Somalia Contact Group" was announced yesterday by the State Department, which had long expressed concern inside the administration that a policy largely restricted to counter-terrorism priorities might prove counterproductive. On Wednesday, the administration indicated that it was open to discussions with the Islamists as long as they were prepared to seek a peaceful resolution and pledged not to allow Somalia to become an al-Qaeda haven.

 

The goal of the group's meeting, to be held in New York, is "to promote concerted action and coordination to support the Somalia transitional federal institutions, and so we are going to be working with other interested states and international organizations on this matter," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We think it's the right time."

The decision to launch a multinational diplomatic initiative reflects a lack of immediately viable options in Somalia short of overt military engagement, and it appears to indicate a further resurgence of the State Department's voice in foreign policymaking under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

 

McCormack said the contact group will be open to "interested parties" from governments and international organizations, and suggested that "the U.N. would want to participate in this."

 

A United Nations spokesman said yesterday that Washington had provided few details on the initiative but that the proposed timing coincides with the return from Somalia of Francois Lonseny Fall, the U.N. representative who met with different factions this week. Representatives from the European Union -- which also expressed interest this week in talks with the Islamists -- are expected to attend. The U.S. delegation is to be headed by the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Jendayi E. Frazer.

 

A rethinking of U.S. policy was provoked by fast-moving events over the last several weeks in the chaotic country on the Horn of Africa.

 

Without a coherent government since 1991, and left largely to its own devices since the 1994 withdrawal of a U.S.-dominated U.N. military force, Somalia has been riven by turf wars among clan warlords and their well-armed militias. A transitional government established under U.N. auspices two years ago has proved incapable of control and was forced to retreat several months ago from Mogadishu, the capital, to Baidoa, 150 miles away.

 

U.S. interest in Somalia has long focused on the presumed presence there of a group of al-Qaeda operatives, believed to be led by Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan citizen also known as Harun Fazul. Indicted in absentia in the United States in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Fazul was on the U.S. "Most Wanted Terrorists" list issued immediately after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

 

Washington's concern grew over the past year with the expanding power of the Islamic Courts Union, a coalition of 11 autonomous, clan-based courts that have sought to bring order to southern Somalia through the imposition of Islamic law. As court-backed militias gradually became the country's most powerful fighting force, secular warlords who fashioned their own "anti-terror" coalition in opposition found that the Bush administration -- while officially backing the transition government in Baidoa -- was willing to provide clandestine financial support.

 

Although those in the Defense Department and the CIA favoring aid to the warlords prevailed, other administration officials argued that putting all U.S. support behind the warlords was unwise. The relationship between the al-Qaeda cell led by Fazul and the Islamic courts has always been unclear, said one senior official who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "We think that there are elements within this Islamist group that are providing refuge and support to this al-Qaeda leadership, but not the Islamic courts as a whole. We don't know that, and we don't believe that," the official said.

 

The takeover of Mogadishu by Islamic forces Monday brought the internal debate to a head. On Tuesday, after the Islamic Courts Union leadership issued an open letter to the international community to "categorically deny and reject any accusation that we are harboring any terrorists," and declared its desire to establish peace and "a friendly relationship" with the outside world, the administration decided to extend a tentative olive branch.

Washington now hopes that a new multinational contact group can shepherd an accommodation between the Islamists and the transition government. Awad Ashara, a member of the Somali parliament, told the Reuters news agency yesterday that a meeting between the two is in the works.

 

"The government will in the coming days be sending cabinet members, lawmakers as well as influential traditional elders to Mogadishu," Ashara said. "They will try to achieve reconciliation between the Islamic courts and the other groups."

 

Although Ashara said the government hopes to "work out voluntary disarmament" between the Islamists and the warlord-led militias, reports from outside the capital indicated that the warlords are gearing up to try to retake the city.