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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Jul 27 2010 - 12:09:08 EDT
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iAXNgMkCTo2D_rWXtTKdjTWsxChQ
Africa to send thousands more troops to Somalia to counter al-Shabab power;
US provides funds
By Malkhadir M. Muhumed (CP) – 9 minutes ago
KAMPALA, Uganda — African leaders are pledging thousands of new troops for
Somalia to fight al-Qaida-linked militants responsible for the twin World
Cup bombings that killed 76 people, and the U.S. says it will help bankroll
the military campaign.
But internal documents obtained by The Associated Press show that that
African Union forces and Somali troops don't trust one another, and that
Somalia's government "lacks consistency, coherence and co-ordination,"
raising questions about whether more AU troops can solve the Somali impasse.
African leaders and U.S. officials called for stepped-up efforts in Somalia
as an African Union summit here concluded Tuesday. The summit opened only
days after the July 11 bombings in Kampala, an attack that prompted Uganda's
president to call for Africa to band together against Somalia's militants.
Al-Shabab, Somalia's most-feared militant group, claimed responsibility for
bombing two sites where people were watching the World Cup final game on
television, and said the blasts were in retaliation for civilian deaths
caused by African Union troops in Mogadishu. They also have vowed to attack
Burundi, the other African country that has been providing troops to the AU.
At the summit, Africa's leaders voted to immediately dispatch 2,000 more
Ugandan and Burundian troops to the African Union mission in Somalia, known
as AMISOM, boosting levels from 6,000 to the maximum mandate of 8,000.
Guinea and Djibouti each pledged a battalion of additional forces as well.
East African countries want the AU to authorize an increase to 20,000.
America's top official for Africa, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa
Johnnie Carson, said that with a stronger AU force the African Union force
could defeat al-Shabab, which intelligence officials say has been bolstered
by foreign fighters from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"We believe that it is necessary to have more troops on the ground and we in
Washington have committed ourselves to support additional troops on the
ground in the same fashion that we have supported the existing Burundi and
Ugandan troops," Carson said Monday.
Since 2007, the U.S. has given training, logistical support and equipment
worth more than $176 million to AMISOM, and Carson has promised additional
resources to Burundian and Ugandan troops without giving a precise figure.
But an internal report written last month by military experts from IGAD — a
bloc of East African nations — cast doubt on the efforts being made by
AMISOM troops. The report said there is a lack of trust between AU and
Somali forces, and that the effectiveness of AMISOM troops is hindered by
the Somali government's many weaknesses.
"The team found out that there is a misunderstanding and lack of trust
between AMISOM and (Somali) security forces and this has caused poor
co-ordination of tasks amongst them," said the report, which was obtained by
the AP. The report also said the Somali government's approach to its duties
"portrays a government with no clear vision."
Despite that, African Union leaders are pushing for stronger AU rules of
engagement for the AMISOM force that would allow the AU troops to take
offensive action against the al-Qaida-aligned insurgents. Currently the
peacekeeping forces can only respond to attacks or when they see militants.
That, though, could sour relations with Somalis even more. Internal
documents obtained by the AP earlier this month showed that the AU knows the
civilian casualties its troops cause in battle are turning Somalis against
it.
The U.S. call for more troops comes as members of Congress are taking an
increasing interest in the violent Horn of Africa nation, the site of a
failed early 1990s U.S. deployment that ended shortly after the military
battle chronicled in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down."
In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week, 13 House
Democrats compared the situation with al-Shabab in Somalia to the Taliban's
in Afghanistan when it allowed sanctuary for al-Qaida to plan the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks.
"Al-Shabab-controlled territory in Somalia is becoming a safe haven for
terrorists from around the world," the 13 members said. "The United States
must not sit back. ... Extremists in Somalia have already made clear their
intentions to harm us, and if they have not done so already, they will soon
seek capabilities to carry out attacks in the United States."
The letter said the U.S. should offer regional states "extensive financial,
material and logistical support" to improve security.
Some analysts, though, said that simply sending in more troops was unlikely
to solve the problem.
"The current situation in Somalia just does not call for a large
peacekeeping operation," said David Shinn, former U.S. ambassador to
Ethiopia. "AU troops cannot police all of Somalia."
Shinn, a professor at George Washington University and one of the
co-ordinators of U.S. policy in Somalia in the early 1990s, said that the
failure of U.S. and U.N. involvement in the country showed large-scale
foreign intervention would not work. "That was not the solution then and it
will not be now," Shinn said.
Somalia's weak transitional government welcomed the commitment of more
troops but said that long-term peace in Somalia depends on building up the
government's security forces.
"We really believe strongly that if the Somali government army were given
the support they need then AMISOM would only be a kind of supporting force,"
Somali Foreign Minister Yusuf Hassan Ibrahim said.
The internal IGAD report, though, showed how far Somalia's forces have to
go. The Somali troops do not have a physical headquarters. Equipment and
weapons held by Somali forces, including ammunition, are not accounted for.
Somali "forces are not assigned barracks or camps and are staying wherever
they can get accommodation," said the report, adding that there is "no
formal and effective system of receiving and accounting for returning
trainees from neighbouring countries."
In an ominous sign of what international forces in Somalia might face, the
opposition group Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia warned against
new troop deployment.
"The Somali people will be united to defend their country forcefully and
fiercely from any foreign aggression or military occupation," the statement
said.
___
Associated Press Writer Malkhadir M. Muhumed reported from Nairobi, Kenya.
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