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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Oct 21 2010 - 18:22:22 EDT
UN council asks details for AU Somalia force boost
Thu Oct 21, 2010 9:08pm GMT
* AU wants to boost force from 7,200 to 20,000
* U.N. no-fly-zone, naval blockade seen unlikely soon
By Patrick Worsnip
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 21 (Reuters) - U.N. Security Council countries voiced
support on Thursday for boosting the African Union peacekeeping force in
conflict-torn Somalia, but told the AU to provide more details of its plans
first, diplomats said.
The AU wants to step up its AMISOM force to 20,000 from the current level of
7,200 but needs funding from the United Nations and Security Council
authorization. It also wants the council to impose a no-fly-zone and naval
blockade on Somalia.
Two Islamist militant groups have waged a three-year insurgency to topple
Somalia's Western-backed government. An AU envoy said earlier this month
that AMISOM, composed of troops from Uganda and Burundi, was making progress
against the rebels in the capital, Mogadishu.
Following a closed-door council meeting, diplomats said the 15-nation body
was not opposed to expanding the force in the Horn of Africa nation. But one
Western envoy said the AU had not so far substantiated the need for its
requests.
"We need to have more concrete information. They have been told to go back
and justify what they are saying," the diplomat said.
AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra, who attended the
meeting, later told reporters the council "wanted to know how, and which
troops to achieve which political objectives, so they cannot just give us
blanket (approval)."
Uganda has said it is willing to supply all the troops to build AMISOM up to
20,000. But the Western diplomat described that figure as "quite excessive"
and predicted a bargaining process with the AU to agree on the exact figure
and costs.
AMISOM is already funded for $130 million a year through a U.N. support
office, diplomats said.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson said on Wednesday that
Washington supported an increase in the number of peacekeepers in Somalia
but took no position on what that number should be.
WEEKS RATHER THAN MONTHS
Lamamra conceded the request for a no-fly-zone and naval blockade -- aimed
at shutting off the flow of arms and recruits to the rebels -- was unlikely
to be agreed on soon. "There is support, but not to get it this time," he
said.
But he said he hoped the Security Council would pass a resolution next month
to authorize an increase in AMISOM and that the extra troops could start
arriving in February.
A Security Council diplomat said the body wanted "to move quite quickly" and
could take action in "weeks rather than months."
The AU has long been pushing the United Nations to send its own peacekeepers
or to "rehat" AMISOM as a U.N. force. The Security Council, already
deploying large forces in Congo and Sudan, has been leery of getting
involved in Somalia, where an earlier peacekeeping effort came to grief in
the 1990s.
Addressing the council in a public section of Thursday's meeting, Lamamra
criticized the international community's policy of "limited engagement and
half-hearted measures, in the false hope that the situation can be
contained."
His appeal for support for building up AMISOM was backed by U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said advances against the rebels showed
there were "glimmers of hope" in Somalia and called on the council to take
"bold and courageous decisions."
A statement issued by the council after its meeting did not directly address
the AU requests but called on the international community to provide more
resources for AMISOM. (Editing by Peter Cooney)
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