by Paul Schemm
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
CAIRO (AFP) - Diplomats from the United States, Europe and Africa meeting in Cairo on Tuesday urged an Ethiopian withdrawal from Somalia and called for inclusive dialogue in the war-torn Horn of Africa country.
After a day-long meeting of the so-called International Contact Group on Somalia, he said Ethiopian forces backing the Somali government against Islamist insurgents and clan leaders should only leave once a robust African Union force was in place.
Johansen, who co-chaired the meeting, said the AU force should consist of around 8,000 troops or nine battalions, up from the 1,500 Ugandan soldiers currently deployed in Somalia.
"AMISOM (the AU force) needs to be there, and then they will replace the Ethiopians. We hope it will rather sooner than later," said Johansen. "It's about money and about the troop contributors."
In addition to the Uganda forces, Benin and Burundi have pledged two more battalions each, but say they will need time to deploy.
The other obstacle to deploying AMISOM is the lack of a ceasefire.
"We have agreed in the contact group to exert efforts to have a ceasefire," said Samir Hosni, the Arab League representative on African issues. "Next week we will move towards encouraging the member states of the African Union to provide troops."
The Cairo meeting, which was also attended by Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, took place after four days of fierce fighting in the capital Mogadishu left nearly 400 civilians dead as well as a Ugandan peacekeeper -- a discentive to possible troop donors.
The diplomats also sought to revive reconciliation efforts in the fractious country and called for an "inclusive and genuine" process in their statement.
While warning against "spoilers" trying to keep the situation unstable so that peacekeepers could not be deployed, Frazer said the reconciliation process would not necessarily exclude the defeated Islamist groups.
"It certainly isn't to exclude any individuals associated with the council of Islamic courts," she said.
"There are many ways in which individuals who are Islamists or militias could be part of this process," she said, explaining the conference would include clan representatives, religious leaders and members of civil society.
The latest fighting was sparked by an Ethiopian offensive against Islamist insurgents and clan fighters, but clan elders said on Tuesday a truce had been with Ethiopian commanders.
"This is not the time for the typical international response to crises in Africa, which has mainly featured fact-finding missions," said Kenyan Foreign Minister Raphael Tuju, representing the inter-African IGAD group.
"Many things have to be done at the same time; there has to be multi-tasking," he said.
Tuesday's Cairo meeting was hosted by the Arab League, which likewise called for the withdrawal of Ethiopian soldiers and said it had pledged one million dollars to help merge militias into a new national army.
Tuju cautioned that "we cannot wait for the training of Somalis to take charge of their security ... Somalia is going to need a lot of injections of international funding for it to become viable."
The contact group was formed last June but has struggled to bring Somalia's warring parties back to the negotiating table.
The government is struggling to pacify Mogadishu ahead of a National Reconciliation Conference, planned to start April 16, despite threats of disruption by hardline Islamists.
"Time is running out for the (transitional government) to fulfill their mandate," warned Johansen.
Source: AFP, April 03, 2007