UN Security Council urged to deploy stabilization force in Somalia

07/24/08
    

UNITED NATIONS, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council was urged on Wednesday to consider establishing a UN stabilization or peacekeeping force in Somalia.

At Wednesday's council meeting, UN chief Ban Ki-moon's special representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, said a peace accord signed last month between Somali parties provided the first opportunity in more than a decade to end the pervasive violence.

On June 9, Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia signed the Djibouti Agreement aimed at ending the 17-year-old conflict.

Violence was forcing more than 800,000 people to scatter within the country, having already sent more than 3 million Somalis into exile.

But the agreement would not bring peace overnight, especially with meddling by "spoilers" and "freelance mediators," Ould-Abdallah pointed out.

"The Somalis have started working together and today the ball is in the court of the international community. We must act quickly," he added, urging the council to deliver a strong message of support.

One possibility the Security Council might consider was "re-hatting" the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

Other options would be deploying an international stabilization force, as suggested in the secretary-general's latest report on developments in the country, or establishing a separate UN peacekeeping force, he said.

Somali Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Jama Jengeli also appealed for the council's urgent assistance in consolidating national reconciliation efforts.

He suggested that the African Union force already deployed in the country should be the nucleus of any future UN stabilization or peacekeeping force.

A 26,000-strong force was not necessary as had been envisioned in past discussions, but a much smaller force, under UN mandate and funding, was sufficient, he said.

"We hope that we are all in agreement that if the Security Council authorizes the deployment of a United Nations international stabilization force without delay, we will have ample reason to believe that the agony of the Somali people will draw to an end," Jengeli said.

Ramtane Lamamra, the African Union's commissioner for peace and security, affirmed that the regional body stood ready for ultimate inclusion in an international stabilization force provided for in the Djibouti Agreement.

At the moment, AMISOM faced a severe lack of funding and logistical support, Lamamra said.

It was currently embarking on a new troop-generation exercise to beef up its strength to the authorized 8,000 troops from the current level of 2,600, he said.

He repeated a suggestion made to council members in Djibouti that a strong naval component would allow the proposed UN force to extend its focus beyond Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

First seized of the situation in Somalia in early 1992, the council subsequently held numerous meetings, received many reports and dispatched several fact-finding missions to the country.

In his latest report, Ban said 3.5 million people could be in need of humanitarian assistance by the end of 2008, and the delivery of basic social services has virtually collapsed in most parts of the country.

According to the report, a spate of 14 piracy incidents off the Somali coast in the first half of 2008 alone have made those territorial waters among the most dangerous in the world for shipping.