Somalia asks UN for help

2005-07-14 09:02

Washington - Officials from Somalia's transitional government are seeking an exemption from a 13-year-old United Nations (UN) arms embargo so they can get peacekeeping and security forces in place.

"This UN security council action is necessary immediately to prevent the spread of terrorism in the Horn of Africa and to create peace and security," Dahir Mirreh Jibreel, chief of staff to Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, said on Wednesday.

The Somali transitional government was formed in neighbouring Kenya last year and moved into Somalia last month. The administration has failed to relocate to the capital, Mogadishu, because the city is considered unsafe.

Making his point clear

Jibreel met with senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota on Wednesday to press his case. Another participant was Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali justice advocacy centre in St Paul, Minnesota. Minnesota is believed to have the largest Somali population of any United States (US).

"The government is struggling to relocate and develop an infrastructure and deny a haven to terrorists," Jamal said. Analysts say terrorists have taken advantage of the collapsed state in Somalia for bases, recruitment and training.

Yusuf issued a statement from his home city Galkayo, Somalia, urging the security council to act quickly to modify the sanctions regime.

"It is imperative that the UN facilitate our goal of making Somalia a stable nation," the statement said. "We are not looking for a permanent removal of the arms embargo, rather seeking support and the resources necessary to deploy our national security force and international peacekeeping mission."

Somalia, in East Africa on the Indian Ocean, has been without a central government since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other and plunged the Horn of Africa nation of seven million into anarchy, and the clans still have weapons from the virtually perpetual wars of the last two decades.

Somalia asks for support from US

Coleman said he is asking other members of Congress "to help bring greater US support for a stable and democratic government in Somalia". He comment on whether an exemption from the embargo should be granted, and his office would not elaborate on the statement.

Marie Okabe, deputy spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the security council's Somalia sanctions committee has forwarded the government's request to the full security council, which is scheduled to discuss the country at a meeting on Thursday.

Jibreel said it was regrettable that the arms embargo makes no distinction between illegal weapons and legitimate security forces.

In addition to the embargo issue, Jibreel said, his government wants the US to help rebuild the country.

- AP