US’s Frazer meets with Yemen, Djiboutian presidents on Somalia
Jan 6, 2007 (DJIBOUTI) — The top U.S. diplomat to Africa met on Saturday with the presidents of Yemen and Djibouti to boost efforts to stabilize Somalia, which has known only anarchy and violence for 15 years.
Jendayi Frazer, assistant U.S. secretary of state for Africa, flew on Saturday to Yemen and Djibouti, countries that are influential with all Somali leaders. A day earlier, U.S., E.U., African and Arab diplomats met to explore ways of helping Somalia’s two-year-old transitional government becoming effective in the conflict-ridden Horn of Africa nation.
Ethiopian troops intervened in Somalia on Dec. 24 to defeat an Islamic movement that threatened to overthrow the country’s internationally recognized government, which at the time only controlled one town.
Now Ethiopia says it wants to withdraw its troops within weeks. Many fear the government will be unable to operate without some outside military muscle.
The international community is scrambling to find a way to help Somalia, which has a chance at unity after 15 years of clan rule and chaos.
At the Friday meeting, known as the International Contact Group on Somalia, the U.S. pledged $40 million in political, humanitarian and peacekeeping assistance to Somalia.
The group said that Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju will travel around Africa seeking troops for a peacekeeping operation in Somalia. Uganda has already pledged at least 1,000 peacekeepers.
Frazer had said Thursday the U.S. hoped the Ugandans could be deployed before the end of the January.
The E.U. said on Friday it would also help pay for a peacekeeping force envisioned at 8,000 troops, but only if Somalia’s government held talks with all segments of Somali society to stop 15 years of chaos in the Horn of Africa country.
Somalia’s foreign minister, Ismael Mohamoud Hurreh, said his government already was based on reconciliation and planned no special effort to talk to political opponents and critics.
Somalia’s president told members of the contact group that his country has a rare opportunity for peace, but needs international help to do it.
Tuju said it would not be easy to raise 8,000 troops, not because heads of state were unwilling, but because it is logistically and politically difficult to deliver African peacekeepers.
He declined to say what countries he would be visiting.
A U.N. peacekeeping force including American troops met disaster in Somalia in 1992, when fighters loyal to a clan leader shot down two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters and battled U.S. troops, killing 18. The U.S. left soon afterward and the U.N. scaled down.
(AP)