As
EU
Hits In
Somalia,
Question of
Consent,
Mahiga's
Tardiness
Echoed by TFG?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 15 --
While US
Ambassador
Susan Rice on
Tuesday
stressed
that the
Somali
Transitional
Federal
Government
must finally
transition to
a new elected
government by
August 20, the
UN's envoy
Augustine
Mahiga arrived
more than 20
minutes late
for the
Security
Council
meeting.
Whether
or not
Mahiga's
tardiness
portends
another delay
for the TFG,
Inner City
Press inquired
into why he
had come late
and was told
"he was to
meet with Karl
Wycoff," a US
official on
Africa.
Mahiga
was to
have addressed
the Council
first, but
once he did
not arrive TFG
president
Sharif Sheikh
Ahmed took his
place, and
asked for the
arms
embargo to be
removed. This
came right
after the
first of what
may be
many European
Union
helicopter
raids inland
in Somalia.
Inner
City Press
asked the EU
about this
plan, and was
told not to
over-focus on
inland
attacks.
Specifically,
on
April 27
Inner City
Press asked
Operation
ATALANTA
commander
Admiral Duncan
Potts about
this proposal,
he said the
reporting was
"incorrect."
Potts
told Inner
City Press, "I
wouldn't focus
too much on
the two
kilometers. We
want to create
the perception
in the mind of
the pirates
that they can
no longer act
with impunity
from beaches
of Somalia.
It's about the
perception of
impunity
rather than a
kinetic
effect."
At the
at time Inner
City Press wrote that it
still seems
that the way
the EU wants
to "create
this
perception" is
to shoot guns,
from
helicopters,
up to two
kilometers
inside Somali
territory.
And now it has
happened.
Sharif
Sheikh
Ahmed to his
credit did a
UN TV
stakeout, at
which Inner
City Press
asked him
about the EU
inland
helicopter
action and how
and why it
was approved,
and about
other
non-Somali
military
actors in the
country.
He
said that the
way to solve
piracy is
ongoing
development,
that one or
two action
like this
won't solve
it. I have no
details on
approvals, he
said
somewhat
strangely.
Another
Security
Council
diplomat said
Germany
described not
only approval
but close
cooperation.
Sharif
Sheikh
Ahmed had with
him a big
entourage,
from Permanent
Representative
to
First
Secretary,
amid much talk
of the
Millennium
Hotel. But
when
will they take
the T out of
the TFG and
actually hold
elections?
Watch this
site.
, 
