Grace Matsiko & Agencies
6 January 2007
Kampala — President Yoweri Museveni has promised additional 1,000 troops to protect Somalia's transitional government and train its soldiers.
The Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Africa, Ms Jendayi Frazer, told journalists after a meeting with Mr Museveni in Addis Ababa on Thursday that Mr Museveni made the promise to increase the UPDF soldiers from 1,000 to 2,000 in a telephone conversation with US President George Bush a few days ago.
"Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni promised U.S. President George Bush in a recent phone call that he could supply between 1,000-2,000 troops to protect Somalia's transitional government and train its troops," news agencies quoted Frazer as saying.
"We hope to have the Ugandans deployed before the end of January," she added. Frazer also met Mr Patrick Mazimhaka, the deputy chairman of the African Union Commission at the start of a regional tour aimed at helping Somalia's struggling government establish itself after 15 years of anarchy and the defeat of a militant Islamic movement.
"The solution here is dialogue and reconciliation ... the peacekeeping force would just be there to stabilise the situation," Ms Frazer said. Speaking at a joint Press conference he addressed with Ethiopian Prime minister Meles Zenawi - his host, Mr Museveni said the UPDF would be deployed in Somalia once Parliament has cleared the mission.
"President Museveni stressed that the role of the peace keeping mission should be to empower Somalia to enhance its capacity to manage its national affairs and determine its destiny," State House said in a statement yesterday.
Mr Museveni said the African union peace keeping contingent would not be an occupying force in Somalia. He appealed to Somali warlords and the Islamists to enter dialogue with the Transitional government and forge away forward for their country.
"He (Museveni) strongly appealed to Somalis to manage the affairs of their dialogue and not to leave it to the international community that may not clearly understand the dynamics of the Somali crisis," the statement said.
Museveni proposed that a win-win situation of an all incsluive government, through the dialogue of all Somalis, would be a possible solution to the country's problem.
Mr Zenawi called on the Ugandan legislature to clear a peace-keeping contingent from Uganda. He called upon Parliament to back Mr Museveni and stressed that the Somali conflict is an uphill African issue that requires concerted efforts of the continent.
In Washington on Thursday, Ms Frazer's boss, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said the U.S. would provide $16 million (A12 million) in aid to Somalia - $11.5 million (almost A9 million) in food, $1.5 million (about A1 million) in nonfood assistance and $3.5 million (A2.6 million) to help refugees.
Ms Frazer said there had been no request for U.S. troops or military assistance such as an airlift so far, but she did not rule out that it could be requested and supplied later if necessary. Ms Frazer said the government has asked U.S. warships to seal off Somalia's sea lanes to make sure suspected international terrorists and foreign militants cannot leave or enter the country.
Somalia's transitional government is the latest chance to bring an end to the anarchy that has destroyed the nation of 8 million people. The last effective government collapsed in 1991, when clan militias overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
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