Somalia as proxy war, Eritrea and US involvement
Somalia-Eritrea-USA, Politics, 11/7/2006

Postponed peace talks for solving the crisis in Somalia, now scheduled to be held in mid-December, offer the best hope for the war-torn country, and neighboring States must avoid interfering in its affairs and using it for a "proxy war," a United Nations envoy said today.

"We will continue to prepare the ground for the success of this round in mid-December with all the key actors," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Somalia, François Lonsény Fall, told reporters after briefing the Security Council, noting that the third round of talks in Khartoum on 30 October were postponed because the two parties came with some preconditions.

"We think now this is the best way how we can solve peacefully the Somali crisis," he said of the conflict, which has increased in scope since the Union of Islamic Courts seized control of Mogadishu, the capital, earlier this year and began expanded its authority against the Transitional Federal Institutions based in Baidoa.

The third round is set to discuss security and power sharing in the impoverished drought-afflicted country has been wracked by factional fighting and has not had a functioning national government since President Muhammad Siad Barre's regime was toppled in 1991.

Asked how he would rate the chances of a wider conflict developing, Fall said the regional dimension of the problem was one of the issues he discussed with the Council.

He recalled that in a report to the Council in July he highlighted "the fact that there's a real danger of engulfing this crisis to all the Horn of Africa because we see there is some interference in the Somalia issue" and added that the Council "is well aware about it and that's why we are doing our best there to recall to all the Member States in the region to respect the maximum restraint, to not interfere directly in the Somalia issue because we know that Somalia can be the theater of a proxy war between some countries in the region."

"That's why we're trying to work closely with all of them... to avoid that conflict to be spread in the region."

Meantime, asked about Somalia making a move to take in the Islamic movement to try to avoid chaos and that Somalia's most powerful lawmaker offered the country's Islamic movement a role in government, but said it must pull back its militia to avoid a looming war, US Department Of State spokesman Sean McCormack said today "we have encouraged dialogue between the Transitional Federal Institutions and the Islamic Courts, which are not a monolithic movement. There are various factions within the Courts that are competing for control over which way they're going to head. We would hope that they would play a positive role in Somalia and that by coming together with the Transitional Federal Institutions, the TFI, they can chart a better future for Somalia than they've had over the past couple of decades. But that is our general policy."

He added "There are a number of efforts to try to get the two sides to come together and chart a common pathway forward. That would be positive."

Asked about other countries in the neighborhood and their involvement or that they should perhaps stay away, such as Eritrea supporting the Islamic Courts and that USAID was kicked out of Eritrea almost a year ago and US relationship with Eritrea right now regarding not only with Somalia but also bilateral relations, McCormack said "we want to have a good relationship with Eritrea. There are a lot of outstanding issues in which we have an interest that need to be resolved including the final demarcation of the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, also the Horn of Africa is a place that we're watching quite closely. There's a lot of activity there. Somalia's obviously a real concern. There have been some bumps in the road with Eritrea recently. You point out a couple of the issues, but we want to have a good relationship with Eritrea. And if there are any issues that we need to resolve then we're ready to work through them. But, no, there have been a couple of bumps in the road recently."

Previous Stories:
  Abul Gheit: Egypt closely follows up Somali developments   (10/23/2006)
  Somalia peace talks seen positive   (9/5/2006)
  Somalia: UN envoy urges pressure for talks   (8/16/2006)
  On Islamists control of Somalia   (7/1/2006)
  Somalia's Islamist groups consolidate gain   (6/14/2006)
  US conference on Somalia, Islamists not invited   (6/10/2006)

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