DEHAI NEWS MAILING LIST ARCHIVE: [dehai-news] Monitor.co.ug: Why US funds the war in Somalia

[dehai-news] Monitor.co.ug: Why US funds the war in Somalia

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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Jul 30 2010 - 17:20:34 EDT

Why US funds the war in Somalia

Posted Friday, July 30 2010 at 00:00

Top US diplomat for Africa, Ambassador Johnnie Carson, at a press conference
in Kampala on Tuesday, outlined Washington's key involvement and strategies
in Africa. Daily Monitor's Senior Reporter Tabu Butagira attended the
briefing, and below, brings an abridged version starting with what
Ambassador Cason said African Heads of State agreed on Somalia during a
closed-door session on Monday.

We did hold a very lengthy meeting to talk about Somalia; to express our
growing concern about the situation in that country. Somalia is a problem on
three dimensions and levels: A domestic problem of an imploded state with a
very weak central government with lack of capacity to deliver services and a
large number of internally displaced persons.

It's also an enormous regional challenge because of the large number of its
refugees in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Tanzania, causing enormous
social burdens and the collapse of the Somali state has resulted in high
levels of smuggling of major contrabands and movement of weapons across
borders.

Somalia is also a problem due to the emergence of piracy that affects
commerce over the Red Sea. We note with great concern that Somalia has
become host to a number of violent extremists and we have seen that
extremism play itself out in the July 11 bomb attacks in Kampala.

Our successful discussion gave an opportunity to define a strategy of how we
could increase the number of troop contributions to Africa Union
Peace-keeping Mission in Somalia or Amisom and supportive resources and
materials. I think we now have way forward.

My colleague Scott Gration (US Special envoy to Sudan) was here and spoke
with President Museveni and met southern Sudan leadership as well. We are
committed to the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
and the January 9, 2011 secession referendum in south Sudan and are working
to ensure those elections will be held; that they will be held fairly,
transparently and in peaceful circumstances. The US is a strong supporter of
the AU, an increasingly more important, sophisticated and mature
organisation.

Q: The international community has got to Somalia to resolve its crises a
number of times without success. Mogadishu was most pacified under the Union
of Islamic Courts. So why do you think it will be different this time?

A: The one thing that has characterised international policy towards Somalia
more than anything else is lack of consistency, lack of resolve, lack of
commitment and unwillingness to recognise that the restoration of political
stability requires a long-term effort - one in which there cannot be
constant shifts in commitment and policy.
The period under Islamic Union Courts (2006-2008) saw great draconian
punishment in which you had Islamic extremists doing things which we would
all regard as ruthless: restricting the rights and liberties of women, the
media, access to music and instituting policies and procedures which not
only produced calm but also clear violation of human rights.

Q: IGAD wants to move aggressively on Al Shabaab with 20,000 troops. Only
Uganda and Burundi and maybe now Guinea are sending troops. Can
participation of other Africa countries be secured?

A: The July 11 Kampala bombings were a wake-up call and I think there is
more determination than ever before, not only in East Africa, but around the
continent to respond to the Somalia crisis. I heard during Monday's
closed-door meeting mention of at least four states - three in West Africa
and one in southern Africa - prepared or seriously thinking of committing
troops to Somali peace keeping exercise. These are beginnings of very
serious offers. In addition, Ugandans have indicated the willingness to
muster another 2, 000 troops and Burundi is interested in putting in an
additional 1,300 troops.

Q. South African Foreign Minister [Ms Maite Nkoana-Mashabane] was in your
meeting and AU chairman Jean Ping sent a personal letter to President Jacob
Zuma requesting him to send troops to Amisom. Can you talk about that?

A. Chairman Ping has indicated that he has requested that South Africans to
be of assistance, and as I understand it, they are still considering this
but that was not the country I was speaking of when I referred to a southern
Africa country.

Q: The conflict in Somalia seems to have been perceived as a war being
fought on behalf of America and against Islam. How are you engaging
influential Muslim countries to resolve the conflict?

A: Somalia is a country that requires enormous development assistance and
political aid to restore it to a place that is both manageable, peaceful and
working normally. We would like to see a more stable, prosperous and
peaceful Somalia. The US [and other international actors] walked away from
Somalia in 1993 after the famous Black Hawk downing incident.
All of us probably thought the situation there would stabilise and
normalise, and we have [instead] seen Somalia's problems bleed over into the
region. This has had dramatically negative impact on the states of East
Africa.
We don't see this as a US conflict, whatsoever. This is a problem for the
international community...This is not, and should not, be where the US is
regarded as the villain.

Q: Does the new Somalia strategy include the US providing a bigger budget
and military hardware to bolster fighting capability of Amisom troops?

A: The US will continue to be a primary supporter of Amisom as it has been
in the past and we have indicated that we will support the augmentation of
Amisom troops into Somalia and we hope that others will do the same.
At this juncture, we do have American naval vessels on the Indian Ocean as
part of anti-piracy operation. But what is most important now is the
augmentation in the number of Amisom troops on the ground and augmentation
in the resources - both financial and material.

Q. President Museveni has said for Amisom to be effective in deterring the
Al Shabaab, its mandate should change from peace-keeping to peace
enforcement. What is the outcome of your discussions on this?

A: There was a healthy discussion of the mandate and the new [UN]
secretary-general's Special Representative for Somalia, Ambassador
[Augustine] Mahiga's view was that the mandate that currently exists is
sufficiently broad to provide the Amisom forces with the capacity to do the
job that is required. That the mandate is broad enough so that the Amisom
troops can in fact act robustly in the defence of their troops; protection
of the Transitional Federal Government or TFG; its leadership; its
buildings; its key installations and the protection of humanitarian
operations.

Q: As we speak, more than 30 people, one of them Arua Woman MP Christine
Bako, who were staging peaceful demonstrations to demand for credible
elections next year have been arrested by police who say they did not
authorise the demonstrations. Is there a worry that terrorism could be used
by government as a pretext to suffocate civil liberties?

Secondly, on May 1, 2005, you wrote in the Boston Globe that President
Museveni has "thirst for power" for removing presidential term limits. Five
years on, do you still consider him a dictator as then?

A. I do not believe that President Museveni is a dictator (laughter). I
think that President Museveni is the duly elected leader of the country;
that he's been elected openly and transparently in free and fair elections
and he's the senior representative of the country.

We hope that the elections next year will go extremely well and that
political space will be accorded to all including those within the ruling
party running for elections as well as all those who are in the opposition
who are seeking office as well.
With respect to the article, it was written five years ago. I believe that
as I said then that the elimination of (presidential) term limits was not a
good idea; I think that in general where they are in place, they provide a
useful part of the democratic structure and I think are a healthy thing to
have.

For the first question, we want here, as we want around Africa and in
general, a continued strengthening of democratic institutions. That
strengthening of democratic institutions is essential here as well as in
places like the United States in order to ensure that everyone has an
opportunity to be able to fulfill both their economic and political
ambitions.

Q: The option being pursued in Somalia now is a military one. Why don't you
encourage Muslim religious leaders in the region to pursue another course of
action?

Secondly, why don't you just install a dictator to run Somalia and give him
money he can use to buy off the Al Shabaab...?
Third is about Sudan. How prepared are you regarding the almost expected
breakup of the country into two autonomous entities and won't the expected
secession repeat itself on the continent?

A. I think that we want to encourage the people of Sudan to fulfil the
obligations that they have agreed to under the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement. That agreement ended two and half decades of conflict between the
North and South.
The south felt enormously aggrieved, neglected and disadvantaged by its
relationship with the northern part of Sudan. But as a way of ending the
conflict, those who were in combat and those who represented the political
forces there agreed among themselves that one solution might in fact be the
separation of North and South...the people there will have an opportunity to
decide in the referendum whether they want to remain as a unitary state or
become an independent state.
This is not a precedent for other places; it is unique to Sudan as a result
of this long conflict. So it is the best way to possibly find a more
enduring solution to what has been a very difficult political history for
the country.
With respect to Somalia, I would characterise the efforts there in very
different ways; it is not a military solution under way but Amisom's efforts
to stabilise the situation in favour of a political process that was agreed
to in Djibouti, an agreement which is under assault by the al-Shabaab, the
Hizbul Islam and other violent extremist groups.

Q. Has the urgency of the situation in Somalia overtaken your government's
earlier interest in ending the Lord's Resistance Army rebellion and
secondly, do you foresee US re-entering Somalia?

A: First, we are committed to working with Ugandan government to do
everything possible to eliminate the threat posed in the region by LRA and
track down and capture its leaders Joseph Kony.

Q. Amisom has been plagued by a shortage of resources. To what extend is US
willing to support an expanded mission in Somalia?

A. We support the views of the Inter-governmental Authority on Development
that Amisom should be expanded from its current mandated level of 8, 000 to
a much higher level of 20, 000 troops.

Q: (Fairly inaudible) but on where mission resource will come from?

A. This is an issue of international importance and the global community
should work with IGAD States to find the resources both material and
financial to assist Amisom on the ground. This is not an American project;
this is a project for the international community.

Q: AU Peace Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said at your meeting yesterday that
the US government has committed, along with Norway, a direct budget support
to TFG. Could you comment on the figure? Secondly, there was report that an
AU delegation was calling for dialogue with the Al Shabaab. How realistic is
this an avenue for future peace in Somalia?

A: United States has provided assistance to the TFG but it has not been what
I would call a budgetary support. It has been project-related assistance
given for very specific purposes at very specific times.
The United States government has and will continue in the future to fund a
number of programmes that help the TFG to deliver services to the people of
southern Somalia. Most of these will go through intermediate organisations
that can provide both technical oversight and financial support for whatever
is done. I heard absolutely no call, no calls, for any kind of reaching out
to al-Shabaab. To the contrary, there was very clear warning about its
dangers.