African leaders try to raise Somalia peace force
Source: Reuters
(Adds U.S. comments) By Barry Moody ADDIS ABABA, Jan 30 (Reuters) - African leaders scrambled on Tuesday to find thousands more troops for a peacekeeping force in Somalia, fearing failure to deploy in time could plunge the Horn of Africa country back into anarchy. As the presidents met on the second day of an African Union summit, after defusing a damaging row over Sudan that could have derailed their agenda, the European Union released 15 million euros ($19 million) to finance the peacekeeping operation. About half the required 8,000 peacekeepers have been pledged for the force, essential to avoid a dangerous vacuum when Ethiopian troops leave Somalia within weeks after crushing Islamists who ruled much of the country for six months. But more pledges were being received at the summit in response to urgent appeals and warnings that failure to act would return Somalia to chaos. So far, Uganda, Nigeria and Malawi have promised soldiers and Kenyan Foreign Minister Raphael Tuju told reporters Ghana would now join. Benin was also expected to provide a substantial number of troops, he said. A senior Algerian official said his country would provide about 12 transport planes. Delegates say Tanzania and Zambia are also considering contributions. Some countries are reluctant to send forces to Somalia, one of the most dangerous places in the world, where warlords and their gunmen ruled unchecked during 15 years of anarchy. A Somali Islamist Web site posted a message on Tuesday purporting to be from a new insurgent movement vowing to kill African Union peacekeepers. The authenticity of the posting was not immediately clear but it was dismissed by a Somali government security source. Addis Ababa says its mission is complete after Ethiopian tanks, warplanes and regular troops swept aside the Islamist militia in a two-week Christmas war. It wants the first African Union units to deploy by mid-February. RECONCILIATION Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf told the summit his government would shortly call a broad reconciliation conference of clan, religious and political leaders as well as other prominent figures to discuss the country's future. He said his government was "committed to doing whatever is necessary to ensure that a credible and all-inclusive government is set up". Europe, the United States, the United Nations and Ethiopia all called on Yusuf to open up to as many factions as possible, particularly moderate Islamists and powerful clan leaders, in order to stabilise the country. European aid chief Louis Michel said after meeting Yusuf he was impressed by the Somali leader's commitment to reconciliation and the EU would release funding for the peacekeeping force. This was conditional on the government reaching out to defeated Islamists and other parties, Michel told reporters. "I felt a sincere will ... to bring together all the parties in Somalia, of course the moderates, those who want a good and right future for the country," he said. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer told a news conference Washington was encouraging dialogue that would include moderate Islamists. "There are individuals who were members of the Council of Islamic Courts who should be part of an inclusive dialogue as individuals," Frazer said. She said the dialogue should broad enough that "no one feels left out and therefore feels that they need to take up arms to become part of the future of the Somalia". U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an inclusive political process, "including moderate Islamic Courts members, clan elders, religious leaders and civic community leaders". The first day of the two-day meeting was dominated by a dispute over whether Sudan should take the rotating chairmanship of the African Union, promised a year ago, despite a flood of international condemnation of violence in its Darfur region. A group of senior leaders, working on the sidelines of the summit, managed to defuse the issue more swiftly than expected by handing the chairmanship to Ghana. (Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Opheera McDoom)
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