The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday endorsed African peacekeepers to help prop up the interim government in chaotic Somalia but also urged the authorities to pursue peace talks with their Islamist rivals.
A resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council said Somalia’s transitional federal government offered ”the only route to achieving peace and stability” in the north-east African nation that has been without an effective central government since 1991.
But the measure, drafted by the United States, also stressed the need for ”an inclusive political process” and an eventual withdrawal of all foreign forces from Somalia.
John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, called the text a preventive measure to keep the situation in Somalia from deteriorating further.
”It may not be a complete solution to the problem. That is one reason why we have encouraged the mediation of various parties and to have all the Somali factions talk with one another. I think that is basic,” Bolton said.
Idd Beddel Mohamed, Somalia’s deputy UN ambassador representing the interim government, thanked the council for its action and said his government would talk with the Islamists if they stopping seeking military gains and helped ensure Somalia ”shall not become a haven for international terrorism.”
Tensions have risen in Somalia since June when Islamist fighters took over the capital Mogadishu from US-backed warlords and moved on to seize territory from the interim authorities now isolated in the small southern town of Baidoa.
Washington says they are harbouring al-Qaeda operatives who threaten the region and elsewhere.
A UN monitoring group reported last month that Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Uganda and Yemen were all providing military support to the authorities or the Islamists, in violation of a 1992 UN arms embargo.
Peacekeepers banned
Fears that foreign involvement in Somalia could spark a regional war have also grown amid reports that arch foes Eritrea and Ethiopia could use the country as a proxy battleground, with Eritrea backing the Islamists and Ethiopia the government.
Washington agreed to a provision in the resolution barring peacekeepers from bordering states like Ethiopia after Addis Ababa sent troops across the border and Asmara shipped in arms and flew hundreds of Islamist fighters to Eritrea for training, according to UN monitors.
The Horn of Africa neighbours fought a 1998-2000 border war that killed 70 000 people.
Security experts and diplomats estimate 5 000 to 10 000 Ethiopian soldiers are in Somalia to prop up the government. Both Ethiopia and Eritrea deny having troops in the country.
The African Union and regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), which brokered the installation of Somalia’s shaky transitional government in 2004, have long been pushing for regional peacekeepers to support it.
But Security Council approval was required to do so. Now it is up to the AU and Igad to decide on funding, the number of troops and when to deploy them.
The resolution endorses the Igad-AU proposal but goes further by pushing for a resolution of the conflict through negotiations between the government and Islamists.
It also formally eases the already widely ignored arms embargo on Somalia to enable the peacekeepers to legally bring in arms and train and equip local security forces.
It authorises the African force to ensure security in Baidoa and protect interim government officials, but also urges the Islamists to stop trying for military gains and to reject extremists and those linked to ”international terrorism.”
In addition it threatens unspecified measures against anyone trying to block peace or oust the interim authorities. – Reuters