Garowe Online (Garowe)
21 March 2009
The long-standing dispute over foreign troops has resurfaced in Somalia following reemergence in the interest of expanding the under-staffed African Union peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) into a full-fledged U.N. peacekeeping force, Radio Garowe reports.
Mohamed Abdullahi Oomar, Somalia's new foreign minister, told the U.N. Security Council during a Friday address that the Government of National Unity's top priority is restoring security across the war-torn Horn of Africa country.
"The people of Somalia and the international community have paid a high price to reach this point, and we see it as the moment of truth," the Somali Foreign Minister was quoted in a VOA report.
Foreign Minister Oomar appealed to the U.N. to continue supporting AMISOM peacekeepers and Somali government troops, who are currently being reorganized under the terms of the 2008 Djibouti Agreement.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is expected to present a report to the Security Council in April, detailing whether security and political conditions in Somalia have improved to deploy U.N. blue helmets.
Minister Oomar reportedly said the Somali government would welcome the U.N. peacekeeper plan.
'Remove AMISOM'
Mr. Ahmed Abdullahi "Fanah," a Somali lawmaker, told reporters that Foreign Minister Oomar is "alone" in his comments.
"Parliament did not ratify the Foreign Minister's call for U.N. peacekeepers," MP Fanah said, adding: "Somalia does not need new foreign troops, but we need help in building Somali security forces and to remove AMISOM, since the government has approved Islamic law."
The Government of National Unity is led by ex-Islamic Courts chief, President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, who supports the introduction of a Shari'ah, or Islamic law, as the country's national constitution.
The 550-seat expanded Somali Parliament, composed of clan-based and Islamist politicians, is expected to debate and ratify President Sheikh Sharif's request for Shari'ah law soon.
Somali MPs have always been divided over the issue of foreign peacekeepers, reflecting on the country's general distaste of foreign soldiers.
The Ethiopian army's unpopular two-year military intervention in south-central Somalia, which concluded in January, has further deepened the sentiment and provided fuel for the growing power of Islamists.
Violent opposition
The issue of foreign peacekeepers has been a cornerstone of Somali politics since 2004, following the election of Col. Abdullahi Yusuf as the interim President of Somalia.
He called for a 20,000-strong peacekeeping force that year, but the African Union later approved 8,000 peacekeepers to deploy in Somalia.
About 4,000 soldiers from Uganda and Burundi have been serving in Mogadishu since March 2007, where they help protect major infrastructure like the capital's international airport and the main seaport.
But Islamist hardliners, namely Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam [Party of Islam], have refused to recognize the authority of President Sheikh Sharif, after accusing him of being a "puppet" of the West.
Combined, Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam control vast regions in south-central Somalia, including strongholds in Mogadishu neighborhoods from where they routinely launch attacks on AMISOM peacekeepers.
Both groups are factions that broke off from the Islamic Courts movement, which at one point united all of Somalia's various Islamist groups.
Somalia has been mired in political anarchy since 1991, when the country's last effective government collapsed.
President Sheikh Sharif's Government of National Unity is the international community's 15th attempt to restore national order.
The new government faces violent opposition from Islamist hardliners in the south-central regions, and political challenge from regional governments in the northern sub-states of Somaliland and Puntland.
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