European Suggests Easing Somalia Embargo‎‎

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 13, 2006 – Diplomats stepped up efforts Tuesday to support Somalia's transitional government after the capital of Mogadishu was taken over by an Islamic militia, with a top European official suggesting easing an arms embargo and regional governments considering sanctions against warlords.

Somalia's weak, U.N.-backed transitional government could only watch from the sidelines last week as a militia of the Islamic Courts Union, which the U.S. accuses of harboring al-Qaida terrorists, battled the warlords and seized Mogadishu.

The militia now controls most of southern Somalia, while northeastern Somalia is run by an autonomous government allied to President Abdillahi Yusuf's administration and central Somalia is controlled by several groups.

Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Affairs, speaking Tuesday on the sidelines of a regional meeting on Somalia, said easing the embargo to allow Somalia to develop a police force and army would be one way for the international community to respond if the government presented a plan for stabilization after more than a decade of lawlessness.

"We have to back ... and to empower the federal transitional government" of Somalia, Michel told The Associated Press.

Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju told the AP the seven-nation Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, was considering imposing a region-wide travel and banking ban and asset freeze on several Somali warlords. Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's called for the sanctions, apparently fearing more bloodshed should the warlords revive the battle for Mogadishu.

IGAD mediated talks two years ago that led to the formation of Somalia's transitional government.

"I think the time is up," for the warlords and all the chaos in Somalia, said Tuju, whose country already has imposed a unilateral travel ban on four Somali warlords.

Kenya's ambassador to Somalia, Mohamed Affey, said that eastern Africa countries supported the sanctions because they wanted Somali leaders to focus on rebuilding their country.

Somalia, "belongs to them, they must find the moral courage to make it right. If they mess it up, they are unwelcome in the region," Affey said.

Earlier, Michel said that he told Yusuf and Gedi that the international community could help if the government presented a plan to stabilize the Horn of Africa country.

"I told them it was very important to have a stabilization plan," Michel said, adding that could lead to "some exemptions, targeted exemptions on the arms embargo in order to make it possible for the national army to develop itself and also to develop the police force."

Earlier, Tuju told the IGAD meeting that the takeover of Mogadishu was a "popular uprising" and the warlords are people who had "terrorized" the Somali capital for 15 years.

He said that IGAD will continue to support the Somali transitional government.

"We should not allow a power vacuum to develop in Mogadishu," said Tuju, who chaired Tuesday's meeting.

Without naming the United States, Tuju said that the country that had backed the warlords fueled the conflict in Mogadishu and was sabotaging, "the international community in its efforts to assist the people of Somalia to rebuild their country."

Tuju said that IGAD supported the U.S.-led war on terror, but, "the war against terror will only succeed if we work with the governments of the various states and not through individuals or groups who are pursuing narrow self interests."

Gedi told the IGAD meeting that his government was willing to negotiate with the Islamic Courts Union that now controls Mogadishu.

Referring to the United States' backing of the warlords without naming the U.S., Gedi said, "The transitional federal government will not accept and will not support those who may seek to bypass the administration."

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991, when largely clan-based warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre, then turned on one another.

Two years after the transitional government was formed in Kenya, it has been unable to establish its authority in Somalia. It is weakened by internal rivalries and includes many of the warlords blamed for tipping the country into chaos. The Islamic leaders portray themselves as a new force capable of restoring order.

In another diplomatic effort, the State Department said it was forming a Somali Contact Group on Thursday in New York to address the Somalia situation.

Yusuf's government has been unable to enter the capital because of security concerns. He has asked for regional troops to help his government take control of the country, but leaders of the Islamic Courts Union have rejected the idea of foreign troops in Somalia.

Source: The Associated Press

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