Baidoa, Somalia, May 23, 2006 – Somalia's transitional government has renewed a call for foreign peacekeepers in the lawless nation, setting the stage for a new fight in parliament where members physically attacked each other during debate on the matter last year.

The step taken at the weekend by prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's fledging and largely powerless administration endorses the deployment of troops from Sudan and Uganda as part of a new National Security Plan, officials said.

Government spokesperson Abdirahman Dinari said the plan to deploy an East African peacekeeping force, adopted twice before by the cabinet but rejected by parliament, was approved by 34 of the 42 cabinet members who met on Sunday.

"The troops are not going to interfere with Somali internal affairs, but rather secure government facilities and help run the country," he told reporters at the government's temporary home of Baidoa on Monday.

The decision came as the capital of Mogadishu remains tense after a third explosion of deadly violence in the city this year between Islamic militia and a US-backed warlord coalition and is likely to draw fierce opposition.

Four of the eight ministers missing from Sunday's meeting are Mogadishu warlords and alliance members who have thus far defied Gedi's orders to rejoin the cabinet in Baidoa, about 250km north-west.

They immediately rejected the cabinet move, saying it would complicate the already volatile situation in Somalia and scuttle the efforts of their Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT).

"The call for foreign troops is lacking wisdom and a misreading the political realities at home," said Mohamed Afrah Qanyare, a powerful warlord, founding member of the ARPCT and national security minister.

"We are calling on the governments of Uganda and Sudan not to send their troops to Somalia to interfere in our internal affairs," he told reporters from Mogadishu. "They will have no support and they will be seen as aggressors.

"In addition, they will under undermine and complicate the fight against terrorism," said Qanyare, whose alliance has fought three pitched battles with Islamists since February in which more than 225 people have been killed.

Mogadishu's 11 Islamic courts, accused by the ARPCT and the United States of harboring extremists, also oppose the deployment of foreign troops and have vowed to mobilize their militia against any such force in Somalia.

While agreeing in principle to provide troops for the mission in the past, both Kampala and Khartoum have also said they will not participate if they are not welcome and reacted nervously to clear divisions in the Somali parliament.

The 275-member assembly last considered the proposal in March 2005 when it was still based in Nairobi and the debate disintegrated into fist-fights on the floor, with Kenyan police making several arrests.

Somalia has been without a functioning central authority for the past 15 years since the ouster of strongman Mohamed Siyad Barre plunged the Horn of Africa nation of 10-million into anarchy.

Gedi's government is the latest in more than a dozen attempts to restore stability but has been wracked by infighting and unable to control vast swathes of the country.

Source: AFP, May 23, 2006

Home | Contact us | Links | Archives