Amid the ongoing rumblings of its own domestic conflict Uganda now seems poised to participate in a mission in Somalia that, depending on whom you ask, could spell either disaster or peace.
Uganda was the first African country to express its readiness to send peacekeepers to Somalia to help Somalia’s interim government pacify the country after it defeated Islamist fighters with the help of Ethiopian forces last month. Other countries, such as Kenya and South Africa, are also considering whether to participate (see box).
The mission was endorsed by the African Union (AU), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the East African regional body and the United Nations Security Council in December 2006.
”Our peacekeeping is different from these Western countries,” Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told diplomats and journalists two weeks ago, adding that an AU peacekeeping force for Somalia would not meet the same ill fate as the 1992 American intervention, because Africans understand the conflict better than American forces did. Last week Museveni met Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and pledged to send troops to Somalia as soon as the plans are approved by Uganda’s Parliament.
IGAD’s insistence that Somalia’s immediate neighbours should not be part of a peacekeeping force has put additional pressure on Uganda to take on the role. Although the army says a battalion of 700 to 800 Ugandan troops has already been trained and equipped for the job, Ugandan officials in Museveni’s government have repeatedly expressed concerns about sending soldiers to Somalia, saying the force needs a clear mission and exit strategy. They also fear getting sucked into a wider regional conflict in the volatile area.
”We want to know: what is our objective? How long are we going to stay? And how will we be able to pull out? All these have to be answered before we consider going in,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs Oryem Okello told the media. Despite the retreat of the Islamist Courts, international aid workers say that security threats could still be posed by resurging guerrilla warfare.
Meanwhile, international observers say that Museveni’s motivation to send troops must be at least, in part, political as it allows him to direct the spotlight away from his less-than-stellar record on democracy and curry favour with the US. Ugandan Presidential Press Secretary Tamale Mirundi told the Mail & Guardian that Museveni had a telephone conversation with US President George W Bush in December in which Bush asked Uganda to participate in a peacekeeping force in Somalia.
Fears of an Islamist insurgency in the region could also be a motivating factor.
Ugandan army spokesperson Felix Kulayigye told the media that one of Uganda’s strategic objectives in helping stabilise Somalia is to halt the flood of weapons from there which help fuel conflict and banditry in other East African nations. Uganda’s own northeastern Karamoja region and Kenya’s neighbouring Turkana region have for years suffered banditry and violence between cattle raiders armed with smuggled automatic weapons, many of which come fromSomalia.
Many Ugandans, wary of the potential intervention, say that Kampala should not participate in the mission until it resolves its own domestic problems. ”Is 20 years and more of war in Uganda not enough to let us build and consolidate peace first in Uganda?” asks Vincent Abura, a Ugandan resident.
The government’s faltering talks with the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), responsible for the deaths of thousands and the displacement of 1,5-million people, are stalled by continued violence and questions of shared governance and a reformed military. Recently, the LRA’s commanders ordered their delegates not to return to the southern Sudanese capital, Juba, where the talks are being held.
The LRA has threatened to pull out of the negotiations on three previous occasions, claiming that the Ugandan army has repeatedly violated the ceasefire. This time, the rebels said they would not resume talks because of worries over their security after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vowed to ”get rid of the LRA from Sudan”. This week LRA leader Vincent Otti also rejected Riek Machar, the Sudanese vice-president and main mediator in the talks.
The landmark August truce between the two parties was renewed in November to give the LRA until the end of January to convene at two assembly points in southern Sudan, however, this has not happened.
Who’s going to Igasom?
The African Union (AU) and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) have approved the deployment of a peacekeeping force for Somalia — dubbed Igasom.
This week it agreed to increase the size of the force from 8 000, but it is unclear what the force strength will be and who will contribute troops.
- So far Uganda is the only country to have made a concrete pledge to send troops, promising to deploy between 700 to 800 soldiers.
- The deployment is awaiting approval from Parliament, but is already facing some domestic opposition.
- Kenya, which is currently chairing Igad, has dispatched Cabinet ministers to canvass seven African countries to send troops.
- South African President Thabo Mbeki has said that he is considering the Kenyan government’s request to contribute troops.
- South Africa currently has troops in the DRC, Burundi and Sudan, and this may curtail its ability to participate in the Igasom.
- Mozambique has been training a military contingent for the past month for possible deployment to Sudan and/or Somalia.
- The Somali interim government said that it expects Igasom troops to be deployed this week, however this seems overly optimistic.
- The United States, which last week bombed several locations along the Kenya-Somali border in pursuit of suspected al-Qaeda operatives, has pledged $40-million to help the Somali government, $16-million of which will to go towards peacekeeping.