Somali leaders want to go home
2005-02-06 10:11
Nairobi - Somalia's exiled cabinet approved a request by their president for African Union peacekeepers to secure their return home, a decision that could cause anger in lawless Mogadishu, where heavily armed militias have control.
The cabinet was to decide details on Monday, including how many troops it would want to help restore order ahead of the transitional government's return to the Horn of Africa nation, a diplomat closely involved in Somalia's peace process said Saturday on condition of anonymity. The request still must be approved by the 275-member parliament, which includes the country's main warlords.
Somalia has had no central government since 1991, when warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. They then turned on each other, dividing the nation of seven million into a patchwork of clan-based fiefdoms.
A new government, formed after more than two years of intricate negotiations between warlords, clan elders and civil society leaders, is based in neighbouring Kenya because it considers Somalia too dangerous. But it has no civil service, treasury or even buildings to meet in.
President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who is from northern Somalia and viewed with suspicion in Mogadishu, appealed in December for 20 000 African peacekeepers to help disarm rival militias, rebuild national security forces and protect his government.
The requested was met with demonstrations in the former capital, Mogadishu, where the deployment of large numbers of US and United Nations troops during the 1990s sparked some of the worst fighting of the civil war. Some Islamic militants, who have sought to establish influence in the absence of a functioning central government, have threatened to attack any foreign troops that go there.
The African Union agreed to send a force, but officials privately say it will be limited in size and scope.
Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan have pledged to support the peace mission, with Uganda promising 2 000 troops. But AU officials argue the force should not include troops from frontline states because of their governments' previous involvement in the Somali conflict.
The new Somali government sent a delegation of lawmakers to bullet-scarred Mogadishu this week to assess conditions for its relocation. As members visited an old prison, courts and the presidency, they were met with crowds in the hundreds chanting: "No foreign troops."
The government has no civil service, treasury or even buildings to meet in. Warlords controlling key facilities in Mogadishu told the lawmakers they were willing to hand them over to the government.
But leaders of the city's religious courts, the only functioning justice system, with their own private militias, said they would only recognize a government based on the Qur'an. While almost all Somalis are Muslim, most are more moderate and prefer to keep religion and government separate.
An African diplomat who has followed the peace process said that Yusuf's request for AU troops damaged his image as a strongman in Somalia, possibly weakening his control of the Cabinet and influence in Parliament.
The speaker of Parliament plans to fly to Mogadishu on Sunday and the prime minister is expected in the coming days. But Yusuf has yet to say when he will return to the country.
- SAPA