Somalia Urges UN Peacekeeping Force

ABC NEWS
Saturday, February 16, 2008

Somalia's transitional government urged the Security Council on Friday to speed up its planning for the possible deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force to replace African Union troops in the war-wracked nation. Somalia's U.N. Ambassador Elmi Ahmed Duale endorsed a recent appeal by African heads of state to the council "to urgently take steps for the early deployment of United Nations peacekeeping operations to further enhance peace in Somalia."

Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the poverty-stricken nation of 7 million into chaos. Its weak transitional government, backed by Ethiopian troops, is struggling to quash an Islamic insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians this year.

The 1,800 Ugandan peacekeepers who arrived in Somalia in early 2007 are supposed to be the vanguard of an 8,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force, though only Burundi in December sent an advance team of 192 soldiers.

In December, the council called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to begin planning for the possible deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to replace the AU force. The council was repeating a request it initially made in August, which Ban rejected.

Panama's U.N. Ambassador Ricardo Arias, the current council president, told reporters after the meeting Friday that the council is waiting for a report from the secretary-general on Somalia.

The report was expected in early February but has been delayed until early March because of difficulties of getting a U.N. mission into Somalia as a result of the "conflict on the ground."

"We have to attend this matter as soon as we get the secretary-general's report and then to have this full discussion on what is it that we can do," Arias said.

Somalia "is becoming one of the most serious if not the most serious humanitarian crisis that we have around the world," he said.

"In our view, the war is over," said Idd Beddel Mohamed, Somalia's deputy ambassador, in a statement. "Peacebuilding and national reconciliation is (an) ongoing process as well."

The AU's U.N. observer, Lila Ratsifandrihamanana, reiterated the AU Assembly's call for speedy deployment of a U.N. force and said the Assembly had also requested assistance for the AU force in Somalia.

She said she was confident that the council would take the necessary decision, in keeping with the Somali people's wish for peace.

Source: UN, Feb 16, 2008