US eyes regional peacekeepers for chaotic Somalia

Nov 27, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) – The United States expects to unveil this week a draft Security Council resolution authorizing African peacekeepers to help prop up Somalia’s shaky interim government, U.N. diplomats said on Monday.

The resolution would approve deployment in the shaky northeast African nation of a joint peacekeeping force put together by the African Union and the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), as the two groups have requested.

The text, being prepared in consultation with Britain, would also ease a U.N. arms embargo to enable both the peacekeepers and interim government security forces to legally obtain weapons, said the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the resolution was not yet in final form.

But even before its debut in the 15-nation council, the measure has kicked off a lively debate over whether it would help stabilize Somalia, as Washington and London hope, or trigger wider fighting, as European Union experts and a major international think-tank have suggested.

“We are still in consultation on the situation and at this point I’d rather not comment publicly. But we are very actively making progress, and I would hope within a couple of days we might have something that we are prepared to say publicly,” U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said when asked about the draft.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, in a report released on Monday, warned the text could backfire on its supporters by undermining the transitional government, strengthening rival Islamists and leading to wider war.

A regional intervention force should be deployed only if it is supported by all warring factions, the group cautioned, encouraging the Security Council to instead press both the interim government and Islamists to agree to a cease-fire and the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Somalia.

ARMS EMBARGO: TIGHTEN OR EASE?

The United States has accused the Islamists, which have been expanding their reach after seizing the Somali capital of Mogadishu in June, of harboring al Qaeda operatives.

Washington has also warned that neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia could be targets of extremist elements from Somalia.

Ethiopia says it has sent a few hundred military trainers into Somalia to guard against a possible Islamist attack.

But a recent U.N.-commissioned report says it has deployed thousands of troops in Somalia.

The report by the U.N. Monitoring Group for Somalia said the move could fuel rather than dampen instability in the region and called instead for bolstering the U.N. arms embargo through increased border surveillance.

An early version of the U.S. draft resolution appeared aimed at legitimizing the Ethiopians’ presence, diplomats said, spurring protests from European Union experts as well as the International Crisis Group, which warned that neighboring states should never be a part of regional peacekeeping forces.

A more recent draft has taken a step back from embracing the Ethiopian troops already in Somalia, the diplomats said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States was working with a number of different countries “on a number of different strategies” to try to increase stability in the Horn of Africa.

With due deference to outside critics, “we believe we’re pursuing the right strategy,” he told reporters.

(Reuters)