Uganda has asked the UN to move quickly to support
its peacekeeping forces in Somalia
The UN special envoy on Somalia has told the Security Council
that the international community must send an interim multinational
force to protect Somalis from human rights abuses.
The council was considering on Thursday whether to increase its
involvement in the country that has been wracked by civil war for
17 years.
"While more people are talking about Somalia, there is still
little action to stop the violence," Ahmedou Ould Abdallah said.
But the UN secretary-general advised the Security Council not to
send peacekeepers to Somalia until there is political progress
between warring groups there.
Ban Ki-moon said troops should stay out for now for their own
safety and to improve the chances of success of such a mission at a
later time.
Jean-Maurice Ripert, the French ambassador to the UN, added that
peacekeepers should not be deployed until it is clear that Somalis
will support the operation.
'Prisoner of the past'
Talk of outside intervention is still coloured by memories of a
battle in 1993 in which 18 US soldiers and hundreds of Somali
militiamen died.
The incident inspired the Hollywood movie Black Hawk Down and
marked the beginning of the end for a US-UN peacekeeping force.
Ould-Abdallah said that "Somalia remains a prisoner of the past,
never forgiven for the violent actions carried out against the
international community in the 1990s".
"There is, it seems, either a reluctance to go back there or a
deliberate decision to punish all Somalis, many of whom were not
even born during the last international intervention.
"I am not asking outside countries to become active for moral or
altruistic reasons. They have a clearly mandated responsibility to
become involved in a country where there are widespread violations
of human rights and humanitarian law."
Among the options being considered is the possible deployment of
a 28,500-strong multi-national peacekeeping force to replace the
small African Union force currently in the country.
Persistent violence
"I believe Somalia remains a prisoner of the past, never
forgiven for the violent actions carried out against the
international community in the 1990s"
Ahmedou Ould Abdallah,
UN special envoy
As the council deliberated on increasing UN involvement,
violence continued on the ground, with seven people, including a
seven-year-old boy, killed on Thursday when fighters briefly
overran two government bases.
Witnesses said fighters drove government soldiers from two bases
before retreating following hours of clashes.
On Wednesday, eight people were killed in clashes between
fighters and government troops over accusations of looting.
Ethiopian troops helped the transitional
government defeat the Islamic Courts Union, which controlled
Mogadishu and much of the south of the country, in 2006.
Since then remnants of the movement have launched almost daily
attacks against the government and military targets.
About 7,000 have died since late 2006 and hundreds of thousands
have been displaced.
Deployment 'not close'
Ould Abdallah told the Security Council that recent encouraging
political developments by the government - including a
reconciliation effort involving local peacemaking and talks with
the opposition - must be matched by security improvements.
Zalmay Khalilzad, US ambassador to the UN, told reporters that
it was important for the Security Council to consider "an enhanced
UN presence" that might do more "in terms of peacekeeping and to
support the African forces that are there".
But, he said, "we are not close to deploying a peacekeeping
force".
Last month the Security Council extended for six months UN
endorsement of an African Union (AU) mission to the country,
consisting of about 2,000 mostly Ugandan and some Burundian troops.
Francis Butagira, Uganda's ambassador to the UN, urged the
Security Council to move quickly to support the AU force, which has
asked for $817m to fund the operation.
