Friday, December 19, 2008
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s public admission that there is no global support for a U.N. peacekeeping force to help stabilize the African nation of Somalia got a reaction: Somalia’s president refused to back down on his decision to fire Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein.
The firing will further destabilize the country and give the powerful Islamic insurgents who have rendered the government impotent even more strength. The Bush administration has warned that Somalia could be a terrorist breeding ground, and has accused the most powerful Islamic faction, al-Shabab, of harboring the al-Qaida-linked terrorists who blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
But it’s the human toll of the violence-ridden nation in the Horn of Africa that makes Secretary-General Ban’s admission all the more disturbing. Thousands of Somalis have been killed or maimed by mortar shells, machine-gun crossfire and grenades since warlords overthrew a dictatorship in 1991. The warlords then turned on one another.
The United Nations says there are 300,000 acutely malnourished children in the country, but attacks and kidnappings of aid workers have shut down many humanitarian projects.
Neighboring Ethiopia, which has been protecting the Somali government, recently announced it would withdraw its troops by the end of this month. That will leave the government vulnerable to Islamic insurgents, who began a brutal insurgency in 2007.
The answer, of course, is a peacekeeping force under the auspices of the United Nations, but Ban’s explanation for why he got thumbs down from 50 counties is cause for concern.
He said it would be too risky sending U.N. peacekeepers to Somalia, where piracy is rampant off the coast and Islamic militants are gaining ground against the weak transitional government.
“The situation is not ripe, the conditions are not favorable to consider a U.N. peacekeeping operation,” the secretary-general said. “The situation is very volatile and dangerous, risky for peacekeeping operations to operate there.”
Ban said the first priority should be to strengthen the African Union mission. First deployed in March 2007, it is authorized to have 8,000 soldiers, but has only 2,600, mostly Ugandans and Burundians.
Ridiculous notion
Too risky for peacekeepers? The idea that conditions should be ideal before the U.N. sends in troops to save innocent lives is ridiculous on its face. Such an attitude has given dictators around the world the freedom to kill or maim at will.
If 300,000 acutely malnourished children aren’t reason enough for the head of the world organization to make the case for a peacekeeping force, what is?
“Not one nation has volunteered to lead,” Ban said of his efforts. “The replies have been very lukewarm or negative. ... There are one or two who have expressed their willingness to provide some troops.”
It’s time for Ban to earn his keep. Lukewarm or negative responses to the secretary-general’s request for soldiers should not be accepted by the General Assembly.
Meanwhile, Somalia’s president, Abdullahi Yusuf, is digging in for a political fight. Lawmakers are planning to seek his impeachment.
If the reaction from other African leaders in similar situations is any indication, Yusuf will hold on to the reins of power by whatever means at his disposal. Bloodshed is sure to follow.
Yusuf unilaterally fired Prime Minister Hussein this week after months of public feuds over the best way to bring peace in Somalia, but parliament soundly rejected Yusuf’s decision and voted to keep the prime minister.
The president said Wednesday that parliament’s vote was illegal and that he had a right to appoint a new prime minister.
The lawlessness in the country is allowing piracy to flourish off the coast; bandits have taken in about $30 million in ransom this year.
Somalia, Sudan, Congo, Zimbabwe ... the list of African countries falling through the cracks keeps growing.