Gedi Cites Delays in Peacekeeping Efforts
By John Burgess
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, June 27, 2007; Page A16
Ali Mohamed Gedi said that while Uganda has sent about 1,500 soldiers, other African Union countries have stalled on promises to send troops, citing financial and logistical problems. As a result, Ethiopian army forces backing up his government have been unable to leave, he said.
Gedi is visiting Washington to press for added support for his government, which he described as being targeted by al-Qaeda. He had appointments at the National Security Council, White House and State Department and on Capitol Hill, he and his aides said.
Speaking with Washington Post reporters and editors, he gave an account of a U.S. naval strike in northern Somalia on June 1.
His government was unable to suppress fighters from Afghanistan who were attempting to take control of the Puntland region, he said, so U.S. forces based in neighboring Djibouti were asked to conduct an attack.
A U.S. Navy destroyer fired missiles at targets in and around the town of Bargaal. A U.S. official told The Post later that the strike probably was aimed at an al-Qaeda operative who was described as the chief organizer of the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Somalia's central government collapsed in 1991 amid fighting among militias of the clans that dominate Somali society. After a decade and a half of chaos and warlord rule, an Islamic militia bolstered by foreign fighters took control of much of the country in June 2006. It was driven from power at the turn of the year by Ethiopian troops, who installed Gedi's internationally recognized government in the capital, Mogadishu.
The United States, in support of the invasion, sent Navy vessels to the Somali coast to block the escape of foreign fighters and dispatched FBI agents to question those who crossed into Kenya. U.S. aircraft have struck in Somalia at least twice in recent months, with officials saying the 1998 embassy bombers were the targets.
Insurgents, meanwhile, have kept up constant pressure. Gedi was targeted June 3, when a suicide attacker detonated explosives outside the prime minister's residence in Mogadishu. Gedi was unhurt, but the bomber and at least four other people died. He said this was the fourth attempt on his life.
Yesterday, a bomb exploded near a Mogadishu market, killing five women who were cleaning the street, the Reuters news agency reported. Overnight, police and Ethiopian troops clashed with suspected Islamic fighters in the north and south of the city.
"With support from the international community, we can tackle" the security challenge, Gedi said. In the meantime, the Ethiopian troops cannot go home. "Leaving a vacuum could encourage the terrorists to resume" their operations, he said. Ethiopia is Somalia's historic enemy and many Somalis deeply resent the Ethiopian soldiers' presence.
Gedi asserted that the insurgents are weak. By his account, 80 percent of the fighters bear arms only to earn a wage.
Foreign diplomats have accused Gedi's government of failing to bring in moderate elements of the Islamic movement. He dismissed that criticism, saying the door was open to everyone except known terrorists.
Though Gedi called the June 1 strike a "one-time operation," he did not rule out future requests for U.S. attacks. He said his government preferred to rely on its own security forces, who could be trained by African Union or U.N. peacekeepers.
Source: Washington Post, June 27, 2007