Daily Press Briefing
Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
February 1, 2007
Somalis Must Bring as Many Factions as Possible into Political Process / International System to Deploy IGASOM Force to Help Somali Institutions
U.S. Representation in Somalia
QUESTION: As you know, Tuesday, just to wrap up for African Union meeting at the headquarters in Addis Ababa -- as you know, the chairman was elected from Ghana and I know -- do you have any reaction on that?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, we congratulate President Kufuor on his selection as chairman of the African Union. It's a wise choice. I understand that it is also a compromise because Sudan was up to chair the African Union. We made our views known on that and the African Union among their membership came to the conclusion that it was a wise choice to seek somebody else to take the position of chair. They chose President Kufuor. We have worked very closely with him in the past and we understand that he has wide support within the AU. They have an important -- they have important missions and important issues that they are dealing with. We think that they're an important organization. An indication of that view is the fact that we have just recently accredited for the first time ever an ambassador to the AU, Cindy Courville. She is actually resident in Addis Ababa. So it's an important organization dealing with important issues in Africa and we look forward to working with President Kufuor.
QUESTION: As you speaking, the U.S. Ambassador Dr. Cindy gave a state -- press -- day before yesterday. She spoke about Somalia and there needs to be (inaudible) of a group of parties in Somalia to take over (inaudible) one political organization. She gave a statement on that. What she meant on that? I'm sorry.
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, there's the Transitional Federal Government. It's the internationally recognized Government of Somalia. Now, that said, they need to work to bring into the political process as many Somali parties, political factions, as they possibly can -- those parties who are interested in playing a constructive role in Somalia's future. That doesn't include working with people who seek to destabilize Somalia, take them back and return the rule of those who have connections to terrorist organizations.
Now, in the case of the Islamic Courts, there are individuals who sought to moderate the views of the Islamic Courts and we believe it is appropriate to reach out to those individuals. There are some individuals who will be irreconciled to a peaceful political process who will seek to use violence and extremism to try to undermine the Transitional Federal Government and those people need to be dealt with. Part of the way the international system plans to deal with it is to deploy an IGASOM force made up of Uganda as well as potentially other states to help out these fledgling institutions in Somalia.
QUESTION: Assistant Secretary for Africa Dr. Frazer just met with Foreign Minister of Ethiopia yesterday. Do you have any --
MR. MCCORMACK: I haven't talked to her. She's on her way back now.
QUESTION: All right, thank you.
QUESTION: Still Somalia again. Sean, you don't have an embassy in Somalia, obviously, but is there any consideration being given to having a Foreign Service officer or some sort of a post or presence in Somalia, semi-permanent or an American presence?
MR. MCCORMACK: We're going to take a look, obviously, at what is appropriate in terms of security, in terms of political presence, in terms of diplomatic presence in Somalia. There aren't any final decisions in that regard. It's something that's being actively examined right now.
For the time being, Ambassador Ranneberger, who is in Kenya, for our intents and purposes, as a State Department, as a bureaucratic entity, serves as our -- I guess you could say virtual chief of mission for Somalia. So he is watching the events in Somalia. He has a lot of experience in the area. Over time, if events continue in the same direction in which they're headed right now, I would expect that that would probably change, but there's no change in status right now.
QUESTION: And when you say actively considering, are you -- does that mean that you have someone in the country talking to the government there?
MR. MCCORMACK: No, no, no. We're considering what it is our posture should be in terms of physical presence in Somalia.
QUESTION: And then you will approach the local authorities to work out the logistics and the security and --
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I think that those -- all of those things need to happen at the same time in order to make an informed assessment of whether or not it's feasible to do that, whether or not it's desirable to do that, whether or not that would be welcomed.
QUESTION: But do you think it would be helpful to have someone in the country?
MR. MCCORMACK: We haven't made that assessment yet.
QUESTION: No, I understand, but I mean, by default, I would think that having someone in any country is better than having no one in that country for the State Department; is that right?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, you also want to make sure that A) those people are safe and B) they're able to conduct the business that they want to conduct. And part of that is also, are they welcome there as a presence. So I guess I would quibble with the assessment that -- you know, it is, as a good, better to have somebody in country than not. There are a lot of reasons why we don't have diplomats in North Korea or we don't have them in Iran right now. So we're making an assessment whether or not that is the right move for us.
Yeah.
Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
February 1, 2007
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SOMALIASomalis Must Bring as Many Factions as Possible into Political Process / International System to Deploy IGASOM Force to Help Somali Institutions
U.S. Representation in Somalia
QUESTION: As you know, Tuesday, just to wrap up for African Union meeting at the headquarters in Addis Ababa -- as you know, the chairman was elected from Ghana and I know -- do you have any reaction on that?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, we congratulate President Kufuor on his selection as chairman of the African Union. It's a wise choice. I understand that it is also a compromise because Sudan was up to chair the African Union. We made our views known on that and the African Union among their membership came to the conclusion that it was a wise choice to seek somebody else to take the position of chair. They chose President Kufuor. We have worked very closely with him in the past and we understand that he has wide support within the AU. They have an important -- they have important missions and important issues that they are dealing with. We think that they're an important organization. An indication of that view is the fact that we have just recently accredited for the first time ever an ambassador to the AU, Cindy Courville. She is actually resident in Addis Ababa. So it's an important organization dealing with important issues in Africa and we look forward to working with President Kufuor.
QUESTION: As you speaking, the U.S. Ambassador Dr. Cindy gave a state -- press -- day before yesterday. She spoke about Somalia and there needs to be (inaudible) of a group of parties in Somalia to take over (inaudible) one political organization. She gave a statement on that. What she meant on that? I'm sorry.
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, there's the Transitional Federal Government. It's the internationally recognized Government of Somalia. Now, that said, they need to work to bring into the political process as many Somali parties, political factions, as they possibly can -- those parties who are interested in playing a constructive role in Somalia's future. That doesn't include working with people who seek to destabilize Somalia, take them back and return the rule of those who have connections to terrorist organizations.
Now, in the case of the Islamic Courts, there are individuals who sought to moderate the views of the Islamic Courts and we believe it is appropriate to reach out to those individuals. There are some individuals who will be irreconciled to a peaceful political process who will seek to use violence and extremism to try to undermine the Transitional Federal Government and those people need to be dealt with. Part of the way the international system plans to deal with it is to deploy an IGASOM force made up of Uganda as well as potentially other states to help out these fledgling institutions in Somalia.
QUESTION: Assistant Secretary for Africa Dr. Frazer just met with Foreign Minister of Ethiopia yesterday. Do you have any --
MR. MCCORMACK: I haven't talked to her. She's on her way back now.
QUESTION: All right, thank you.
QUESTION: Still Somalia again. Sean, you don't have an embassy in Somalia, obviously, but is there any consideration being given to having a Foreign Service officer or some sort of a post or presence in Somalia, semi-permanent or an American presence?
MR. MCCORMACK: We're going to take a look, obviously, at what is appropriate in terms of security, in terms of political presence, in terms of diplomatic presence in Somalia. There aren't any final decisions in that regard. It's something that's being actively examined right now.
For the time being, Ambassador Ranneberger, who is in Kenya, for our intents and purposes, as a State Department, as a bureaucratic entity, serves as our -- I guess you could say virtual chief of mission for Somalia. So he is watching the events in Somalia. He has a lot of experience in the area. Over time, if events continue in the same direction in which they're headed right now, I would expect that that would probably change, but there's no change in status right now.
QUESTION: And when you say actively considering, are you -- does that mean that you have someone in the country talking to the government there?
MR. MCCORMACK: No, no, no. We're considering what it is our posture should be in terms of physical presence in Somalia.
QUESTION: And then you will approach the local authorities to work out the logistics and the security and --
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I think that those -- all of those things need to happen at the same time in order to make an informed assessment of whether or not it's feasible to do that, whether or not it's desirable to do that, whether or not that would be welcomed.
QUESTION: But do you think it would be helpful to have someone in the country?
MR. MCCORMACK: We haven't made that assessment yet.
QUESTION: No, I understand, but I mean, by default, I would think that having someone in any country is better than having no one in that country for the State Department; is that right?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, you also want to make sure that A) those people are safe and B) they're able to conduct the business that they want to conduct. And part of that is also, are they welcome there as a presence. So I guess I would quibble with the assessment that -- you know, it is, as a good, better to have somebody in country than not. There are a lot of reasons why we don't have diplomats in North Korea or we don't have them in Iran right now. So we're making an assessment whether or not that is the right move for us.
Yeah.
Source: State Department