NASSIR Posted January 27, 2006 US URGES SOMALI UNITY IN RARE PERSONAL APPEALS TO WARLORDS Friday, 27 January 2006, By andnetwork .com The United States this week urged lawless Somalia's fractious leaders to unite in rare personal appeals to members of the country's deeply divided transitional government, including Mogadishu warlords, according to documents obtained by AFP on Friday. In what may signal the start of a tentative resumption in Washington's engagement with the war-shattered Horn of Africa nation since it was forced to withdraw nearly 13 years ago, a senior US envoy has told individual government members to end their squabbles. "The future of Somalia depends on leaders such as yourselves putting aside partisan differences and coming together to provide collective patriotic leadership to the Somali nation," US ambassador to Kenya William Bellamy said. "No one man, no one clan or faction or party can provide that leadership," he said in letters sent Monday to Somalia's transitional President Abudullahi Yusuf Ahmed, three top aides and seven warlords, at least four of whom are opposed to Yusuf. Yusuf's government has been mired in internal disputes and remains largely powerless with the parliament unable to meet since the administration moved from exile in Kenya -- where it was created in 2004 -- to Somalia. The rifts have raised fears of the country's complete collapse and a rise in Islamic extremism there that could threaten the region and become a base for terrorists. After months of saber-rattling rhetoric and troops build-ups, the main antagonists, Yusuf and parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, met in Yemen and agreed in principle to resolve their disputes. Bellamy urged the recipients to meet what he termed the "modest" goals of the deal, which many believe may collapse without sustained international intervention. The identical letters mirror US statements issued collectively to Somali leaders but are the first personal entreaties by a US official to individual members of the government. The letters, obtained by AFP from a diplomatic source, were written on US government stationery with the letterhead "Embassy of the United States of America" and signed by Bellamy in his capacity as a US ambassador. The United States has been loathe to involve itself in Somalia since its disastrous experience there in 1993 when 18 US Marines were killed in a bloody day-long battle with heavily armed militiamen, resulting in Washington's withdrawal from the country. Source : Sapa-AFP /yr Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
