UN: AU must keep Somali peace
03/02/2007 11:47  - (SA)  

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United Nations - The United Nations security council urged the African Union on Friday to quickly send peacekeepers to Somalia so that Ethiopia could withdraw its forces and the government could lift its emergency security measures.

The 15-nation UN council also backed the rapid deployment of a UN technical assistance mission to Somalia to make recommendations on future security needs.

Somali government forces backed by Ethiopia's military routed Islamic Court troops in a two-week war over Christmas and New Year.

But the capital Mogadishu and other parts of the country have since been rocked by sporadic violence, prompting the AU to offer to assemble a peacekeeping force and send it into the fragile northeast African nation before the Ethiopian troops leave.

However, the Council of Islamic Court soldiers who had held Mogadishu for six months after seizing it last June say they opposed African peacekeepers.

Since their defeat, the Islamic Courts have scattered to southern Somalia and across to Kenya, some vowing a long guerrilla war against the government.

The security council statement, read by Slovak ambassador Peter Burian, the council president for February, welcomed the AU offer of peacekeepers.

'Window of opportunity'

It "underlined the urgency of its deployment in order to help create the conditions for the withdrawal of all other foreign forces from Somalia and the lifting of emergency security measures currently in place".

The council issued the statement after a closed-door briefing by Ibrahim Gambari, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs.

Gambari stressed that there was a window of opportunity for world governments to restore stability and establish central rule in Somalia, said diplomats.

The country has been in chaos since 1991 when the then president was ousted and Somalia became a patchwork of feuding warlords.

Gambari told the council that a team of UN officials would meet the AU next week to discuss how it could help get the AU force up and running, said UN spokesperson Farhan Haq.

Gambari also emphasised the importance of political dialogue and inclusiveness among all Somalia's political factions, Haq told reporters.

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