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UN fails to gather troops for Somalia stabilization

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-13 22:05

UNITED NATIONS  -- The United Nations has been unable to put together a multinational military force to stabilize Somalia, which diplomats said means the lawless Horn of Africa country might be left to fend for itself.

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In a report to the UN Security Council last month, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made clear that the kind of force that would be needed for Somalia was beyond the capabilities of blue helmet peacekeepers, who are typically deployed to monitor an existing peace agreement and not to crush an insurgency.

Ban said the initial stabilization force would need around two brigades -- roughly 10,000 troops -- and would have to be a "highly capable, self-sustaining, expeditionary force with full capability to defend itself against hostile threats."

Council diplomats said that UN officials had been lobbying countries to lead or join an international "coalition of the willing." But so far none is willing to supply troops.

They said Ban had hoped to persuade Turkey, a NATO member with a strong military and a predominantly Muslim country like Somalia, to lead the force. But Ankara turned him down.

"One country has offered to provide airlifts, logistical support and funding," a diplomat told Reuters. He declined to name the country but others said it was the United States.

"No one wants to go to Somalia, it's too risky," he said.

For months members of Somalia's transitional government and the African Union have pleaded with the Security Council to authorize a UN peacekeeping force that could take over from AU troops, who say they are incapable of stabilizing Somalia.

The country has been in virtual anarchy since the collapse of a dictatorship 17 years ago. Islamists now control most of the south. Feuding heavily-armed clan militias hold sway in many other areas and a weak, Western-backed interim government has little authority outside the capital of Mogadishu.

Ethiopian troops have supported the government but Addis Ababa says it will withdraw its troops at the end of the year. The AU says it also will withdraw its 3,200 soldiers.

PIRACY: "JUST A SYMPTOM"

Outside intervention in Somalia has a checkered history. The killing of US troops in Somalia in late 1993, which inspired the film "Black Hawk Down," marked the beginning of the end for a US-UN peacekeeping force that left in 1995.

Several council diplomats and UN officials said that Western countries want to combat the scourge of piracy off the coast of Somalia but are unwilling to deal with the root problem -- the lawlessness that allows piracy to flourish.

A surge in piracy this year in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off Somalia has driven up insurance costs, brought the gangs tens of millions of dollars in ransoms and prompted foreign navies to rush to the area to protect shipping.

The US delegation has circulated to the 15-nation council a draft resolution that would give countries the right to pursue pirates on land as well as at sea. Council members including Indonesia and South Africa said they were not impressed.

"They need to deal with the problem of piracy in a holistic manner," Indonesia's UN Ambassador Marty Natalegawa said, adding that he could not support the text in its present form. "Piracy is a symptom of a larger problem."

The Security Council's Monitoring Group on Somalia reported on Thursday that the transitional government was disintegrating and the vast majority of its soldiers and police had deserted.