Cape Town — South Africa's defence minister, Mosiuoa Lekota said today that although the deployment of the country's troops as peacekeepers in Somalia was "improbable," the armed forces had offered to help train Somali forces to take full control of their country.
Speaking in Cape Town, Lekota also criticized the role of the United States in Somalia. "Given the history… it would really be better if the U.S. was not one the players," he said. "It's not sensitive to the bruised emotions that persist."
In other points, Lekota:
• Warned against withdrawing peacekeepers too early from the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and
• Vigorously defended his government against charges that it was concentrating too much on the problems of the DRC, Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan and Somalia, while doing too little to stop the "meltdown" of its neighbour, Zimbabwe.
Lekota was speaking during a week of ministerial briefings of journalists and diplomats during the opening week of this year's session of the South African parliament.
Appearing with the deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, at a session on South Africa's international relations, Lekota said the South African National Defence Force was at risk of becoming "over-stretched" by peacekeeping operations. The country is contributing to efforts in the DRC, Burundi and Sudan, with more limited involvement in the Comores, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Hence, on Somalia, the Defence Force had recommended to President Thabo Mbeki "that we should not go the route of deploying troops on the ground. Nevertheless we… will be able to undertake a role of supporting the training in some numbers of Somalis themselves, who can go and be on the ground and deal with the situation… as citizens of that country."
Lekota said Uganda, the first country to offer peacekeepers for Somalia, was more familiar with the situation than South Africa. It was important to secure the involvement of countries "with a measure of understanding of what the dynamics are."
Asked about the involvement of the United States, Lekota said it would be preferable to "introduce in that situation… countries which do not come with historical baggage. I do not think it is helpful when you bring into that situation countries whose motives may be questioned and be questionable.
"If you really want resolution, it is best that fresh players, untainted by the problems of the past, be the ones to give the country a fresh start… It's worse when you get reports that suggest that some of the
people who recently lost their lives [in U.S. raids on Somalia] were… ordinary civilians, tribesman who were just herding their cattle. Mistakes of that nature can only exacerbate… the wounds of the past."
Lekota described the DRC as the single most important country for the future of the Great Lakes region:
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"The view of the African Union, and the view of South Africa, is that it's far too early to begin to withdraw from the DRC. It is better… that we concentrate our strength on a project that we are already involved in, and make sure that it is a success, rather than to risk spreading ourselves all over the place and ultimately not being successful anywhere."
Responding to criticism of South Africa's policy on Zimbabwe, Lekota said the government was committed to a multilateral approach with other nations of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
"[Movement] may be painfully slow but we are advancing… and we don't want to stick out as 'better than thou' in a community in which we are one of the partners, perhaps stronger than others in other ways, but nevertheless a partner."
