allAfrica.com: Somalia: New PM Gets Reassurance (Page 1 of 2)

As press reports continue to depict Ethiopian troops in Somalia as stuck in a quagmire, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin urges the newly appointed Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassen Hussein to find a political solution to the country's internal rifts. In a high-level meetings of ministers and heads of state held last week in Addis Abeba to discuss the conflict in Somalia, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed her government's commitment to back the peace keeping mission in Somalia.

For Nur Hassan Hussein, the newly appointed Prime Minister of Somalia, last Wednesday was a moment of relief. The 69-year-old was given a promise of unwavering support by the United States (US) Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice (PhD), who came to Addis Abeba on December 5, to hold discussions with heads of states of the Great Lakes region on security concerns.

In a closed ministerial consultation on Somalia at the Sheraton Addis, the Secretary reassured senior regional ministers that the US would back efforts to wipe out what she dubbed 'terrorists' from the East African country.

"Counter terrorism requires good intelligence sharing and good training of forces that can deal with bad elements," said Secretary Rice implying that the US is ready to aid and collaborate with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia, established in 2004 in neighbouring Kenya.

The meeting included Secretary Rice, Jendayi Frazer, US assistant secretary for African Affairs, Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, Prime Minister Nur, senior ministers of the region and representatives of the African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN).

Though Prime Minister Nur, who took office on November 22, 2007, felt relieved with the commitment of the superpower to assist his government, he was in a state of dismay with what has brewed in the cabinet he formed.

Four cabinet ministers resigned a day after swearing in on December 2, claiming that their clan is not adequately represented in the new Prime Minister's government. Ethiopia also believes that the cabinet hardly represents the population of Somalia.

"Frankly speaking, we have been deeply disappointed by the cabinet that was announced three days ago," Foreign Minister Seyoum told Prime Minister Nur at the consultation. "The TFG needs to be broadly representative and include the opposition who are not in any way attached with terrorists."

What disappointed Ethiopia, whose troops are still in Somalia, is the fact that Prime Minister Nur, a career public servant and lawyer who worked as a senior police officer and attorney general, picked almost all of his cabinet ministers from Parliament, which, according to Ethiopia, does not fairly represent the population.

"It is old wine in a new bottle," a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) told Fortune. "It is not a selection based on merit."

Though Somalia's transitional charter, established in 2004, allows the selection of cabinet members only from the 275-seat Parliament, a consensus has been reached through the National Reconciliation Congress three months ago to name ministers from outside the parliament to balance the representation of the populace that has so many clan divisions. However, only two non-parliamentarian faces are included in the cabinet of 31 ministers, and the rest are members of the previous cabinet.

Despite his dissatisfaction with the Somali cabinet, Foreign Minister Seyoum was thrilled with the partaking of Secretary Rice in the consultation, which according to him is a strong indication of the US commitment to Africa.

"It would have been extremely difficult to make any progress in terms of fighting extremism in Somalia without your support," Seyoum told Secretary Rice.

Though Seyoum contends that much progress in stabilising Somalia is apparent, pundits argue that Ethiopian forces there are in a quagmire. Often, reports have paralleled the Ethiopian operation in Somalia to the US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan predicting the same fate lacking resolution.

Though the first contingent of Ethiopian troops had started pulling out of Mogadishu a month after they were sent last December, no dates for final exit from the country struggling with an intense Islamic insurgency were given. Secretary Rice urged that situation could not continue indefinitely.

"We do believe that Ethiopian forces should not stay past a certain point," said Secretary Rice.

Peace has eluded the Horn of Africa nation after the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), ruling based on Sharia law and functioning around Mogadishu and its surroundings, was toppled. Unhappy with the Ethiopian support of the TFG, on December 21, 2006, Sheik Hassen Dahir Aweys, one of the UIC leaders, declared from Mogadishu that Somalia is in a state of war with Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Parliament answered by approving a bill authorising the government to take any necessary measure to counter the threats to the east. They enjoyed international backing as the UN passed resolution 1725 on December 6, 2007, authorising the entry of armed personnel to Somalia.

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