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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Oct 05 2010 - 12:05:59 EDT
Uganda says it can raise whole force for Somalia
Tue Oct 5, 2010 7:35am GMT
* Uganda can raise entire troop contingent to defeat rebels
* Somalia's al Shabaab rebels behind Kampala bombing
By Elias Biryabarema
KAMPALA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Uganda can raise the entire 20,000-troop force
that the African Union says is needed to defeat Somalia's Islamist rebels
and pacify the country, President Yoweri Museveni said.
Uganda already has the largest contingent in the nearly 7,200-strong
AU-mandated AMISOM peacekeeping force propping up the besieged Somali
administration, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Mogadishu.
Museveni has been urging greater urgency in regional and international
efforts to stabilise Somalia since the country's al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab
militia claimed responsibility for twin bomb blasts on July 11 that killed
79 people watching the World Cup final in Uganda's capital Kampala.
The AU and the seven-nation East African Intergovernmental Authority on
Development (IGAD) have said it could take about 20,000 troops to help quell
the insurgents in Somalia, a country without a stable central government for
nearly 20 years.
"Uganda is helping Somalia because of its African tradition and culture.
Uganda can raise the required 20,000 alone, given logistics and equipment,"
Museveni was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office late on
Monday.
He made the remarks earlier in the day to members of the European Security
Committee, a group of generals from European Union states.
Museveni said a few committed nations should be able to take on the task of
pacifying Somalia. "This idea of collecting companies from African armies
cannot work. We should look for armies with battalions whose armies are
capable," he said.
The EU generals are due to visit a training camp for Somali soldiers in
southwest Uganda and hold discussions with Ugandan military officials.
Museveni also asked the EU to deploy air power to control Somali airspace
and curtail the flow of arms from al Qaeda and other foreign sponsors of
rebels in Somalia.
EU navies have been patrolling the seas off Somalia for nearly two years to
combat rampant piracy, but Museveni said the roots of the problem needed to
be tackled on land.
"I am seeing a lot of time wastage in controlling the ocean when the problem
originates from the hinterland," he said. "Unless these pirates live in
water, which I doubt, the solution to ocean piracy is to ensure a stable
government in Somalia." (Editing by James Macharia and Mark Trevelyan)
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