VARIOUS: Diplomats back urgent Somalia peacekeeping mission to stabilise the country while Kenyan and Ethiopian security are on high alert as tensions remain high in Somalia

Western and African diplomats called on Friday (January 5) for the urgent dispatch of peacekeepers to Somalia to stabilise the country after a two-week war in which Ethiopian-backed government forces routed Islamist fighters. The International Contact Group on Somalia, which includes the United States, European and African nations, held closed-door talks in Nairobi with Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf amid fresh concerns over Islamist threats to carry on fighting and the return of warlord militias to Mogadishu. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer chaired the meeting. "The contact group clearly felt that it was important that there not be a security vacuum in Somalia but we also felt that it was therefore urgent to get a stabilization force into Somalia with a process also of political dialogue and reconciliation so that the role of that stabilization force will be sustainable in terms of bringing about real peace in Somalia. Peace in Somalia is based on inclusive, broad based, legitimate government dialogue and reconciliation," she told reporters. Frazer said Washington was donating 40 million U.S. dollars, 16 million of which would help fund the proposed African peacekeeping force. It is a major reversal for the United States, which in 2005 threatened to veto any foreign peacekeeping deployment proposed to the UN Security Council. In a communique the Group welcomed an offer of forces from Uganda, which has said it could send a battalion if the move is approved by its parliament. In Kampala, Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni said an African Union peacekeeping force for Somalia would succeed because Africans understand the conflict better than American forces did in a disastrous 1993 mission. "When we go to Somalia, we don't go to act on behalf of the Somalis. No, we empower them according to what they ask us to do because those people are not fools, they know what they want, so we ask them what exactly do you want us to do for you. That is what we do, so that they create their own capacity and deal with their problems," Museveni told journalists. Friday's meeting in Nairobi came hours after a purported audio tape by al Qaeda's deputy leader urged Somali Islamists to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla campaign of suicide and other attacks against Ethiopian forces in the country. Washington says the top leaders of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council -- who are being pursued by Ethiopian and Somali government troops -- are controlled by al Qaeda, a charge the Islamists have denied. Militiamen could be seen trickling back to hospital on Friday (January 5), when the committee of doctors toured two of Mogadishu's biggest hospitals to check on conditions and reassure Islamic fighters. Scores of Islamic Courts militia casualties left hospital when Mogadishu fell to Somali interim government and Ethiopian troops. Speaking at Madina hospital south of the capital, Dr Osman Dufle explained that fighters had left hospital out of fear of reprisal once government forces took the city. "The people heard the news that the government had said they should return people injured during the fighting and the government would treat them," said Dufle. While visiting another hospital in the city, committee member Dr Sheikhdon Sakad Almi said the Madina Hospital had had more than a hundred wounded militiamen until the city fell to government forces, but that many had fled out of fear. "Madina Hospital was treating around 140 (mostly Islamic Courts militia) casualties. When the Mogadishu situation changed, some people were afraid and withdrew the injured," he said. At a hospital north of the city, wounded militiamen could still be seen in wards. One fighter urged his companions to return to hospital. "I want to tell those injured during the fighting that they should return. There is no problem here," said Caddaan Ali Ahmed. The United States has deployed warships off the Somali coast to hunt fleeing Islamists. Somalia has been in turmoil since 1991 when warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. At the Kenyan border, Kenyan security personnel on Friday were on high alert and under strict orders not to allow anyone to pass through the border point. Kenya sealed the border after Somalia's interim government urged it to stop leaders of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) or foreign jihadist supporters escaping. The Islamists, who deserted their last stronghold on Monday (January 1) after two weeks of war against government troops backed by Ethiopian armour, have pledged to fight on after melting into the hills between the Indian Ocean port of Kismayu and Kenya. The Somali interim government is seeking to install itself in the capital Mogadishu, after breaking out from the provincial outpost of Baidoa, which had been threatened when the Islamists took over much of southern Somalia in June.

ITN Source | January 6, 2007

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