From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sun Jul 05 2009 - 14:26:45 EDT
PRESS CONFERENCE: Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and
former US Ambassador to Kenya Johnnie Carson
Posted Saturday, July 4 2009 at 17:13, Sunday Nation
Q: Let's talk about Somalia. Why has the administration decided to
engage in a new way with the Transitional Federal Government, including
the supply of arms and ammunition?
A: The instability that has prevailed in Somalia for the last 20 years
has become a cancer. We now have a war-torn society where probably 60 to
70 per cent of the people are dependent upon food aid from the outside.
We see the population of Mogadishu having declined by some two-thirds as
a result of the fighting in and around the city, and we see unemployment
among youth at astronomical levels. Southern Somalia is a humanitarian
problem of enormous proportions.
But it's not just Somalia itself. The cancer has started to metastasise,
spreading across the border into Kenya. Today the Dadaab refugee camp in
northern Kenya has some 270,000 refugees. That camp, which was
established about a decade and a half ago, was built to handle 90,000.
It is estimated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
that some six to seven thousand Somalis are crossing the border into
northeast Kenya every day. Eastleigh, a suburb in the northern part of
Nairobi, [has become] the largest Somali city. There is enormous
pressure on the Kenyan government to handle the refugees and provide the
infrastructure needed to cater to them.
Moreover, the problem of Somalia has contributed to the tensions between
Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is clear that the Eritrean government is
supporting the al-Shabaab militia. It is not because they are in support
of Islamist or extremist [elements]. They are doing this largely as a
way to undermine and to pressure the Ethiopian government.
Q: How effective are arms going to be in addressing that issue? Why
military as opposed to development aid?
A: We have tried to make it very, very clear that diplomacy is primary
and that support for stability inside of Somalia is what we are doing.
We support the 'Djibouti process', which helped to create the
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and we support the TFG, the
government of Sheikh Sharif. The Djibouti process has been endorsed by
Kenya, and by the AU.
We have actively sought to engage the Eritreans to encourage them not to
support al-Shabaab, not to send money or ammunition to al-Shabaab, not
to allow their country to be a conduit for resources to al-Shabaab. We
have encouraged them not to allow foreign fighters to pass through their
country. All of these things are on the diplomatic side.
We have provided arms and munitions to allow the TFG to push back
al-Shabaab in order to gain the stability which is absolutely essential
for that country to be able to begin to deliver services to people. I
would love nothing better than to be able to say to you that the
situation on the ground in southern Somalia is such that we have been
able to put money into schools, into educational material, into the
re-establishment of clinics and hospitals and to the training of nurses
and to the re-establishment of electricity and water services. This is
what the goal is. Our goal is to find a way to stabilise the situation
and then encourage the TFG to begin that process of state building and
delivery of services to its population.
Q: You have said that you are willing to engage Eritrea in a dialogue.
Is that happening?
A: Absolutely. After I took over as the assistant secretary, the
Eritrean ambassador came to my office and indicated to me that it was
the first time he had been into the office of the Assistant Secretary of
State for African Affairs since he had come to Washington.
I told him that the United States clearly wanted to see if we could
return to a more normal relationship and that I was prepared to go out
to speak with [Eritrean] President Isaias to begin such a dialogue. But
I also made it very clear that, in order to move forward, there would
have to be some understanding and some cooperation on key issues that
affect the Horn of Africa today.
To read the full article click on the following link
<http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/619076/-/item/1/-/xp74lfz/-/
index.html>
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/619076/-/item/1/-/xp74lfz/-/i
ndex.html
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/619076/-/item/1/-/xp74lfz/-/i
ndex.html
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and former US
Ambassador to Kenya Johnie Carson (left) with US Ambassador to Kenya
Michael Ranneberger during a press conference at the US Ambassador's
residence in Muthaiga, Nairobi, May 12, 2009. Photo/STEPHEN MUDIARI.
<http://www.nation.co.ke/image/view/-/619098/medRes/85866/-/maxw/600/-/p
9ov59z/-/MUDCARSON1205D.jpg>
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