US wants African peacekeepers in Somalia by end of January

Jan 4, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — A top U.S. diplomat said Thursday she hopes African peacekeepers will be in Somalia by the end of the month.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had promised U.S. President George Bush in a recent phone call that he could supply between 1,000-2,000 troops to protect Somalia’s transitional government and train its troops, Jendayi Frazer, assistant U.S. secretary of state for Africa, added in comments to journalists after meeting Museveni.

“We hope to have the Ugandans deployed before the end of the January,” said Frazer, who also met Patrick Mazimhaka, the deputy chairman of the African Union Commission, at the start of a regional tour aimed at helping Somalia’s struggling government establish itself after 15 years of anarchy and the defeat of a militant Islamic movement.

“The solution here is dialogue and reconciliation … the peacekeeping force would just be there to stabilize the situation,” Frazer said.

Ugandan officials have said they need help paying for the peacekeeping operation and a clear exit strategy. A U.N. peacekeeping force including American troops met disaster in Somalia in 1992, when fighters loyal to a clan leader shot down a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and battled U.S. troops, killing 18. The U.S. left soon afterward and the U.N. scaled down.

In Washington Thursday, Frazer’s boss, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said the U.S. will provide US$16 million (A12 million) in aid to Somalia — US$11.5 million (almost A9 million) in food, US$1.5 million (about A1 million) in nonfood assistance and US$3.5 million (A2.6 million) to help refugees.

Frazer said there had been no request for U.S. troops or military assistance such as an airlift so far, but that she did rule out that it could be requested and supplied later if necessary.

The government has asked U.S. warships to seal off Somalia’s sea lanes to make sure suspected international terrorists and foreign militants cannot leave or enter the country, Frazer said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday that U.S. Navy vessels were deployed off the Somali coast of Somalia looking for al-Qaida and allied militants trying to escape.

In the past, Frazer accused the Islamic movement of harboring three suspects in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. She said Thursday that while U.S. intelligence believed they were hiding in Mogadishu, they may have since fled and their whereabouts are unknown.

Frazer also met Thursday with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, whose forces intervened in Somalia to protect the internationally recognized government and rout the Islamic movement.

Now Meles wants to withdraw his troops within a few weeks and says if the international community doesn’t intervene quickly, clan warlords could reassert themselves and the country could collapse again into chaos.

Somalia’s transitional government is the latest chance to bring an end to the anarchy that has destroyed the nation of 8 million. The last effective government collapsed in 1991, when clan militias overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other.

(AP)