Leaders push Somali peacekeeping plan

By Wangui Kanina | September 5, 2006

Somalia government delegates attend the second around of the Somali talks in the Sudanese capital Khartoum September 2, 2006. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin

The regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which led talks that produced Somalia’s interim government in 2004, urged the African Union to speed approval of the proposed peacekeeping mission, release funds and help raise more money to support the deployment of troops.

IGAD also called on the U.N. Security Council to meet "urgently" to consider lifting its arms embargo on Somalia, torn apart by factions fighting for control of the Horn of Africa nation since warlords ousted Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Late on Monday, Islamist and government delegates meeting in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, agreed in principle to join their military forces if they could agree on sharing political power.

The pact stressed that neither side would accept military interference inside Somalia by neighbouring countries.

Somalia’s foreign affairs minister said, however, the Khartoum deal was contingent upon a future political agreement and did not preclude peacekeepers.

"There is nothing now. We cannot say that what happened yesterday can be considered an obstacle for the deployment of troops into Somalia," Ismail Hurre Buba said in Nairobi, setting up yet another possible conflict between the two sides.

The Islamists, whose power now eclipses that of the government, vehemently oppose peacekeepers and say Somalia can handle its own security.

IGAD’s plan drew hundreds of Somalis to the streets of Mogadishu on Tuesday in a protest orchestrated by the Islamists, who fought their way to power in June by defeating U.S.-backed warlords in Mogadishu.

"If Ethiopia and these other foreign troops are deployed in our country, I will definitely join the student warriors," said student 20-year-old student Hassan Adan. "I will fight to defend my country."

BREWING CRISIS

With limited authority and military strength, the fragile but internationally recognised interim government has been unable to prevent the Islamists from capturing a key swathe of southern Somalia including lucrative air and sea ports.

Experts fear the crisis could spill across Somalia’s borders and destabilise east Africa. Washington fears an Islamist-controlled Somalia could provide a base for militants to attack in eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

The Khartoum deal, diplomats said, and the lack of a waiver of a U.N. arms embargo appeared to have frustrated a push by Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to get the troops deployed quickly and help contain the crisis.

Yusuf’s Ethiopian-backed government, without money to field its own real army, supports the IGAD plan to help it get out of its sole outpost in Baidoa -- and from under the protection of Ethiopia.

Addis Ababa, which has denied witness reports it has troops in Somalia, has promised to crush any attack on the government by the militarily superior Islamists.

That presence is blocking any progress on the political front, the head of the Islamist delegation in Khartoum, Ibrahim Hassan Addow said.

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(Additional reporting by Katie Nguyen in Nairobi, Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu and Opheera McDoom in Khartoum)