US Defends Somalia Peacekeeping Plan>> vote on resolution soon

[General Duke]

US Defends Somalia Peacekeeping Plan

 

By David Gollust

 

Washington

30 November 2006

 

The United States said Wednesday it is backing an East African peacekeeping force for Somalia to help stabilize the country, rather than fuel ongoing warfare. A U.S.-backed draft resolution in the U.N. Security Council that would clear the way for the force is expected to come up for action within the next few days. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

 

The Bush administration is defending its support for the East African force, amid charges its arrival would only worsen on-going Somali violence and perhaps lead to regional warfare.

 

A U.S.-sponsored draft Security Council resolution, backed by the other permanent council member countries including Russia and China, would ease the international arms embargo against Somalia in place since 1992 to allow deployment of a regional force that would shore up the country's beleaguered transitional government.

 

Based in the western Somali town of Baidoa, the Transitional Federal Institutions or TFI has international support.

 

But it is under military siege by the country's powerful Islamic movement, the Council of Islamic Courts, which controls the capital Mogadishu and says it aims to seize the entire country and perhaps even ethnic-Somali areas of neighboring states.

 

The proposed African force, to be set up by the East African regional intergovernmental grouping IGAD, would seek to stabilize the situation by providing force training and protection for the interim government, though not undertaking offensive action against the Islamic Courts.

 

At a briefing for reporters, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said the United States is supporting only a narrow change in the arms embargo to allow deployment of the IGAD troops, but not fuel a wider conflict.

 

She said flatly that the forces of the transitional government need to be trained and reinforced so that it can be what she termed a credible negotiating partner with the Islamic Courts, which she said currently sees no reason to sit down and negotiate a settlement.

 

"We feel that this force is also important to achieve our broader Somalia objective, which includes most importantly creating a space for the dialogue to occur between the Transitional Federal government and the Union of Islamic courts. And in particular it's our view that as long as the Union of Islamic Courts continues to believe that it can have a military victory, there will not be an engagement and serious dialogue. So you have to have some parity between two sides of the dialogue," she said.

 

Frazer said the envisaged 8,000-member force would be made up of troops from the seven-country IGAD grouping and not Somalia's neighbors, including Ethiopia which is reported to have sent in troops to support the transitional government, and rival Eritrea which is helping the Islamists.

 

She said that contrary to claims that the IGAD force would broaden the conflict into a regional war, its deployment would actually create conditions for Ethiopia and Eritrea to disengage, while deterring further aggression against the TFI.

 

At this point, only Uganda among IGAD members has said it is ready to commit troops to the force, whose deployment is vehemently opposed by the by the Islamic Courts.

 

The Islamic Courts movement routed a group of U.S.-backed Somali warlords early this year and seized Mogadishu in June, later capturing most of southern and central Somalia and imposing strict religious law.

 

In her talk with reporters, Assistant Secretary Frazer said al-Qaida terrorists were operating with what she termed great comfort in areas controlled by the Islamic Courts and providing training and assistance to a group of radicals loyal to the Somali movement.

 

She said the United States has been in contact with all elements in Somalia including the Islamic Courts, which has publicly disavowed terrorism, to try to prevent the country from becoming an al-Qaida safe-haven.

 

Frazer said of particular concern to U.S. officials are three al-Qaida militants wanted in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and a coastal hotel in Kenya in 2002.

[General Duke]

UN council weighs tightening Somalia arms embargo

30 Nov 2006 00:19:52 GMT

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council pledged on Wednesday to consider steps to tighten a widely ignored 1992 U.N. arms embargo on chaotic Somalia but offered no specifics.

 

A unanimous resolution expressed the 15-nation council's intention to "consider specific action" to improve the embargo after U.N. monitors reported that Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Uganda and Yemen were providing illicit military support either to Somalia's interim government or its Islamist rivals.

 

Several of the countries named by the U.N. monitoring group this month have denied any impropriety, and a council committee has said it plans to give all of them a chance to confront the monitors at a meeting this week.

 

At the same time, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Washington was not yet ready to unveil a separate resolution authorizing African peacekeepers to help prop up the shaky Somali transitional government.

 

"We're still in consultation on that," Bolton told reporters. "We're moving as rapidly as we can."

 

The U.S. draft resolution would approve deployment of a joint peacekeeping force put together by the African Union and the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), as the two groups have requested.

 

The measure would also ease the arms embargo to enable the peacekeepers to legally bring in weapons.

 

SET OFF ALARMS

 

But it set off alarms earlier this week when the Brussels-based International Crisis Group warned the text could backfire by undermining the transitional government, strengthening rival Islamists and leading to wider war.

 

The group, relying on an early draft, said it feared the measure would legitimize the presence in Somalia of Ethiopian troops sent in by Addis Ababa to back the interim government.

 

Because the Islamists are backed by Eritrean troops, the group said it feared the intervention in Somalia could deteriorate into a proxy war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, whose relations remain extremely tense years after a bloody border war between them.

 

But Jendayi Frazier, the U.S. assistant Secretary of State for African affairs, said in Washington on Wednesday that IGAD had itself ruled out putting troops from neighboring countries in the intervention force.

 

"The country that has said that it would deploy forces at this time is Uganda, and we would look for other countries that would be willing to do so from throughout Africa, but we are not expecting that any of the immediate neighbors would be deploying," Frazier told reporters.

 

The Islamists have been steadily expanding their reach and influence in Somalia after seizing the capital of Mogadishu in June. The United States says they are harboring al Qaeda operatives who pose a threat in the region and elsewhere.

 

After initially backing a coalition of warlords against the Islamist forces, the draft resolution signaled that Washington was now throwing its support behind the interim government.

[General Duke]

Golaha Amaanka ee Q.M. Oo Ka Fakaraya Xayiraadda Hubka Ee Soomaaliya (Maraykanka Oo Qaraarkiisii Qabyada Wali Ku Dhegan).

Posted to the Web Nov 30, 04:20

 

 

NEW YORK - Golaha Amaanka ee Jamciyadda Qurumaha ka dhaxeysa, ayaa sheegay inuu ka fakari doono tallaabooyin lagu sii adkeynayo cunaqabateynta hubka ee saaran dalka Soomaaliya mudada 14-ka sano ah.

 

 

Inkastoo aysan hadal qayaxan ka bixin, ayaa Q.M. waxa ay si kulul u cabaareysay Ganacsiga hubka ee dalka Soomaaliya, iyadoona waqtiga loosii dheereeyay Khuburada la socota cunaqabateynta hubka ee saaran Soomaaliya ilaa 6-bilood oo kale oo dheeraad ah.

 

 

Iyadoo la eegayo qodobka 7aad ee charter-ka QM, oo ogolaanaya in la adeegsado awood, Goluhu waxa uu soo saaray qaraar ku cadaadinaya dalalka ku xad-gudbay cunaqabateynta hubka ee saaran Soomaaliya ee lagu sheegay warbixin ay Khuburada QM diyaariyeen, oo kale ah:- wadamada Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Uganda & Yemen inay u hogaansamaan Xayiraadda hubka oo ay QM saartay Soomaaliya sanadku markuu ahaa 1992-kii.

 

 

Golaha Ammaanka, oo ka hadalka arimaha Soomaaliya kusoo koobay muddo gaaban oo aan laga fileyn, ayaa waxa uu sheegay inuu qaadayo tallaabooyin dheeraad ah oo lagu xoojinayo xannibaadaha dhinaca hubka ee saaran Soomaaliya.

 

 

John Bolton, oo ah Ergeyga Mareykanka u fadhiya UN-ka, ayaa sheegay in Dowladda Mareykanka aysan weli diyaar u ahayn inay soo saarto Qaraar ka duwan midkan, oo ku baaqaya in Ciidamo nabad ilaalin ah loo diro dalka Soomaaliya, si ay u caawiyaan Dowladda KMG ah ee Soomaaliya ee sharciga ah balse aanan awooda badan laheyn.

 

 

"Weli waxa aynu wadnaa la tashi ku saabsan qaraarkaasi” sidaana waxaa yiri John Bolton u la hadlayey weriyayaal ku sugan Magaalada New York, isaga oo intaasi ku daray in sida ugu dhaqsiyaha badan ay taasi ugu dhaqaaqi doonaan.

 

 

Xukuumadda Washington, ayaa u ololeeneysa Qaraarka qabyada ah ee ay Golaha Amaanka hordhigtay kaasi oo ku baqaaya in dalka Soomaaliya loo diro ciidamo nabadda ilaaliya, si ay u xoojiyaan Dowladda KMG ah ee Soomaaliya, islamarkaana ay uga hortagaan waxa ay ugu yeertay isballaarinta Maxkamadaha Islaamiga ah ee inta badan la wareegay gobalada koonfureed ee wadanka Soomaaliya.

 

 

C/risaaq C/laahi Maxamed

Puntlandonline.com

 

 

Muqdisho

 

 

Indhojaceel2003@hotmail.com

[General Duke]

US seeks UN backing for Somalia peacekeeping force

Posted to the Web Dec 01, 21:20

 

 

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The United States will endorse African peacekeepers to help prop up Somalia's shaky interim government in a draft resolution to be unveiled on Friday, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.

 

 

Washington's draft would also ease a widely ignored 14-year-old U.N. arms embargo on Somalia to enable the peacekeepers to legally bring in arms and train and equip local security forces, he said.

 

 

With widespread instability and the interim government under pressure from Islamists, "what we want to do is endorse the insertion of this regional peacekeeping force which many of the African states have called for, in order to provide some measure of stability there, to permit a political solution," Bolton told reporters.

 

 

The Islamists have been steadily expanding their reach and influence in Somalia after seizing the capital of Mogadishu in June. The United States says they are harboring al Qaeda operatives who pose a threat in the region and elsewhere.

 

 

Washington earlier backed a coalition of warlords in its effort to counter the Islamists' growing influence in the Horn of Africa nation, which has been in chaos, without a central government, since 1991.

 

 

But the Islamists defeated the coalition in June as they seized control of the capital, Mogadishu.

 

 

More recently, Ethiopian troops have poured over the border into Somalia to support the interim government holed up in the small provincial town of Baidoa.

 

 

The African Union and regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which brokered the transitional government's installation in 2004, have long been pushing for regional peacekeepers to support it.

 

 

'WHAT IS THE ANSWER?'

 

 

But word of the U.S. initiative set off alarms this week when the Brussels-based International Crisis Group and European experts warned the draft could backfire by undermining the interim government, strengthening the Islamists and leading to wider war.

 

 

Because the Islamists are backed by Eritrean troops, the group said it feared the intervention in Somalia could deteriorate into a proxy war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, whose relations remain extremely tense years after a bloody border war between them.

 

 

The group said the Security Council should not take sides in Somalia or let neighboring countries like Ethiopia and Eritrea participate in the force.

 

 

It urged the council to instead tighten the U.N. arms embargo and encourage government and Islamist leaders to hold talks aimed at a political settlement of their rivalry.

 

 

But Bolton said the resolution left the composition of the force to IGAD and the AU.

 

 

"People criticize us when we take action on the ground that our taking action makes the situation worse. So what is the answer -- not to take action?" Bolton asked.

 

 

Jendayi Frazier, the U.S. assistant Secretary of State for African affairs, said in Washington this week that IGAD had itself ruled out putting troops from neighboring countries in the intervention force.

 

 

"The country that has said that it would deploy forces at this time is Uganda, and we would look for other countries that would be willing to do so from throughout Africa, but we are not expecting that any of the immediate neighbors would be deploying," Frazier told reporters on Wednesday.

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Reuters

[RedSea]

Get more help soon for the endengered species,since all the tough talk of Ethiopia has turned out to be nothing but hot air.

[General Duke]

^^^lol. Ethiopia is not invading, thus goes another Clan Court argument. This request was before the clan courts, two years old in fact. Its great we are moving in the right direction..