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UN's Somalia Envoy Favors Referral to Ocampo, TFG
Promises Justice for Killers of Aid Workers
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
July 23 -- On Somalia there was
strangely upbeat talk Wednesday at the UN Security Council. Despite few
countries stepping forward to contribute troops, UN envoy Ahmedou
Ould-Abdallah
said that now is the time for a UN peacekeeping force. The Transitional
Federal
Government's foreign minister Ali Ahmed Jama said that it can be done
with
substantially less that the 26,000 soldiers previously requested.
Inner
City
Press asked him, when would the Ethiopian force finally leave Somalia?
He said
120 days after the Djibouti Agreement is signed, which he said will be
in two
weeks. We'll see. When Inner City Press asked him about reports that
the TFG or
elements of it may be involved in the threats against and killing of
humanitarian workers, he said the responsibility is with "criminal
elements" who will be "pursued...and brought to justice." Video
here,
from Minute 5:43.
Inner City
Press asked Ould-Abdallah if he would recommend to the Security Council
that
they refer the situation in Somalia to the International Criminal Court
for
investigation and prosecution. "Definitely," he said, adding the
"recent developments... in [the former] Yugoslavia" show that there
is "no place to hide." Video here,
from Minute 2. The arrest of Radovan Karadzic continues to be
cited by UN diplomats, as a message to Sudan, for example, or now to
Somalia.
(Notably it has not been linked, at least publicly, to Myanmar).
TFG's Ali Ahmed Jama at the
UN, end of impunity not shown
When South
Africa's Dumisani Kumalo emerged from the Council with the U.S.'s
Zalmay
Khalilzad, the two went together to the microphone joking. "A Zimbabwe
question," Inner City Press called out. Khalilzad, laughing, said
"Ask him about it, it's his now, he has to fix it." Video here,
at
beginning. Khalilzad backed away, and Inner City Press asked Kumalo
about Ould-Abdallah's
statement about referring Somalia to the ICC.
"We
are all very serious about impunity," Kumalo began. "But you guys get
on an impunity kick. It's only one of the things of the situation."
Video
here,
from Minute 4:09. He went on to decry the lack of follow-through in
providing naval protection for humanitarian goods.
People continue to suffer, while the news to
the Council on Somalia is strangely described as good.
Inner City
Press asked UN spokesperson Michele Montas what the Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations had to say about the call for a mission to Somalia. It's up
to the
Council, Ms. Montas said. But DPKO is on record with concerns about
Somalia.
Who the unnamed troop contributors might be remains a mystery. Amb.
Khalilzad
referred to a coalition of the willing. We'll see.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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Other,
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