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MOGADISHU, June 3 (IslamOnline.net) – The African Union's Peace and Security Council (PSC) is expected to engage in consultations with a cohort of Somali generals and senior police officers on how best to disarm Somali militias in case the pan-continental body decides to interfere militarily in the troubled country.
A Somalia military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IslamOnline.net Thursday, June 3, that the PSC contacted several top Somali brass, who were never involved in the civil war, to outline a plan to disarm the warring militias once Kenya-hosted peace talks are crowned with the formation of a Somali government.
He said a preliminary meeting will be held next week in the Ugandan capital Kampala to name the generals and policemen who will assist in this program.
He asserted that a plenary official meeting will be held later this month in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
According to the source, an African military delegation is due to visit a number of Somali regions for consultations with the local governors.
Former senior military commanders have been living in different parts of Somalia country since ousting the central government in January 1991.
Most of them have engaged in public life except for low and medium-ranking officers who joined tribal militias and have been involved in the civil war.
However, the Somali police have remained independent, with a large number of senior officers living in police barracks.
The U.N. had resorted to former senior military and police leaders in a similar program in the early 1990s, before the U.S.-led military intervention.
The program never saw the light due to the bloody confrontations between the U.S. troops and the Somali militias in October 1993, which prompted the withdrawal of the American forces followed by other international troops.
The idea of African military intervention currently appeals to most of the Somali people to put an end to the chaos and armed conflicts overshadowing Somalia for about 13 years.
The African Union launched the PSC on Tuesday, May 25, in the hope it will become a robust guarantor of stability in Africa.
The 15-member body is empowered to mandate peacekeeping missions in conflict areas where ceasefire accords have been signed and to recommend to the assembly of AU heads of state that troops be deployed uninvited in cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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