Friday, February 20, 2009

U.N. envoy urges world backing for Somali leader

The world should back Somalia's new president by reinforcing an African Union peacekeeping mission and rebuilding a long-abandoned diplomatic presence, the U.N. envoy to the Horn of Africa country said on Thursday.

To do anything less would deepen Somalia's suffering and display double standards among foreign nations willing to provide such support to countries like Iraq and Sudan, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah told Reuters in an interview.

"We must be in Somalia for the credibility of the international community, especially in Africa," he said, calling on foreign governments, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations to re-establish permanent missions in the country.

Moderate Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was sworn in as president last month under a U.N.-brokered plan to forge a national unity government in Somalia, which has suffered constant violence since the 1991 fall of a military dictator.

"The president was elected in a transparent manner and has legitimacy. I call on the international community to give him the strongest support to help him stabilize the country," said Ould-Abdallah, a Mauritanian.

Ould-Abdallah, speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Belgium hosted by the EastWest Institute global security think-tank, said if such help did not materialize Somalia's suffering "will be catastrophic."

"I hope Arab countries, African countries and permanent members of the U.N. Security Council will help him," said Ould-Abdallah.

STABILISING SOMALIA

"To avoid double standards, we cannot have this presence in Afghanistan and Iraq and neglect Somalia.

"Somalia is the only country on earth with no effective international presence -- no diplomats, no large NGOs, no large U.N. presence. People are crying out for it."

The main threat to stability in the nation of nine million now comes from al Shabaab, which is on Washington's list of terrorist groups. The hardline Islamists and allied groups control much of southern and central Somalia and want to impose their strict version of Islamic law.

Diplomats in the region hope Ahmed, Somalia's first Islamist president, will be able to bring moderate Islamists on board and marginalize al Shabaab.

Ould-Abdallah said he suspected there were foreign armed Islamists in Somalia but it was impossible to confirm it without having a permanent U.N. presence on the ground.

He would like the Kenyan-based U.N. offices dealing with Somalia to be moved into the country, with proper security.

Ould-Abdallah said an important priority was strengthening a small African Union peacekeeping mission in Mogadishu.

Many countries have been reluctant to send troops to a nation where two years of fighting has killed more than 16,000 civilians and driven another 1 million from their homes.

The force's strength is due to rise to about 5,000 by the end of the month but that is still short of an originally planned total of 8,000.

Ould-Abdallah said a major hurdle now was obtaining financing for the reinforcement from the main U.N. Security Council member states.

He said provision of the finance "will allow the international community to speak of crises in Darfur and Zimbabwe without risk of double standards, which are destroying the credibility of the major states of the Security Council."

Source: Reuters

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