EU-Somali training takes shape

2009-11-17 21:16

Brussels - EU nations endorsed on Tuesday a plan to train up to 2 000 security personnel from Somalia, but some demanded to know who will control, pay and equip them in the strife-torn state after.

"Today we have approved the concept," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after defence ministers had backed the idea to plan for launching a modest mission. "It will not require trainers in the thousands."

The plan could see up to 200 EU soldiers train between 1 000 and 2 000 Somali military and police in Uganda, probably for a year, following a request from the interim government in Mogadishu.

Somalia has been gripped by civil wars and insurgencies and bereft of stable government since the overthrow of President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Uganda was chosen because its troops constitute the lion's share of the AU mission in Somalia, Amisom.

"Spain has proposed to be lead nation for the new mission," said Spanish Defence Minister Carme Chacon. Madrid would run a headquarters in Brussels and take care of logistics, finance and infrastructure.

Partnership with Amisom

Finland, France - which is already training some 500 Somali troops in Djibouti - Germany, Hungary and Poland are also interested in taking part, according to EU diplomats.

Swedish Defence Minister Sten Tolgfors, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of the year, said that "relevant bodies" had been charged to plan a possible mission and answer outstanding questions.

"There are actually several (questions) being put by member states, so we are still talking about a possible decision a bit later on," he cautioned, after chairing talks among the 27-nation bloc's defence ministers in Brussels.

Some EU countries have warned of the need to carefully think the training mission through, given the crisis in Somalia, to ensure that the Somali security forces do not become a danger to their people in the future.

"We need to consider a partnership with Amisom to supervise the soldiers when they return, to ensure they remain loyal," one EU diplomat said on Friday.

A diplomat from a second nation said: "If you train people, is there somebody who is going to pay for them afterwards, who's going to equip them? Whose political direction will they be working under?"

Off the coast of Somalia, the EU is running an anti-piracy mission in the waters of the Gulf of Aden, but senior officials say the real way to combat the problem is on Somali territory.

The EU has given substantial political support to the interim government, as well as funding the Amisom mission.

- AFP