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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
SOMALIA: No government-in-exile, new president says
ADDIS ABABA, 26 Oct 2004 (IRIN) - Somalia's newly elected president said on Monday his administration would not remain in exile, but would return to the war-ravaged country before security was completely restored.
President Abdullahi Yusuf said once his cabinet was selected they would return - although they would initially establish themselves outside the capital, Mogadishu. He rejected calls for the new government to return only when security is restored. "The first thing this new government should tackle is security," he told journalists at a joint press conference with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. "Somalia has been destroyed."
Yusuf has asked the African Union (AU) for between 15 and 20,000 peacekeepers to help restore order in Somalia, which has been devastated by 14 years of civil war.
"For the past 14 years that destruction has been going on and all the infrastructure including the military and security forces has been destroyed," he said. "We need forces from Africa to help us in peacemaking. At the same time, it is essential we start building new Somali forces comprise military police and military."
He also pledged to begin as soon as possible the difficult task of disarming the 55,000 militias in Somalia. "The government, as soon as the cabinet is formed, will like to move inside the country and do what is possible in terms of restoring security and peace," he said. "What we need is for the government to go inside and start work. We are not going to be a government of refugees. We are not going to be a government of exiles.
"The government needs to prepare the grounds for having some security forces," he added. "We need to prepare on the reconciliation side - the government will make sure that when it's moving into Mogadishu, Mogadishu is ready in terms of accommodating the government."
Yusuf, sworn in on 14 October after a 275-member transitional parliament elected him in Nairobi, Kenya, also played down difficulties with the self-declared republic of Somaliland, which said it would not recognise him. "We want to solve the problems in Somalia peacefully - including Somaliland," he said. "We would never resolve matters through force. Dialogue and discussion is much better than resorting to violence."
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi also stressed that the government should move to Somalia at the earliest opportunity and move to Mogadishu when security permits.
"I think Somalia has got a very rare opportunity," Meles said. "The Somalis have taken a risk in establishing a new government and the international community should take a similar risk in making sure this opportunity is not squandered. The international community should not wait for stability to be established in Somalia before it can send a stabilising force because that is a contradiction in terms."
The Horn of Africa country has been divided into fiefdoms ruled by rival warlords since 1991, when long-time president Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted. There have been 14 other peace efforts and two previous governments were formed, but they never managed to take effective control over most of the country.
However, the Ethiopian Prime Minister said this initiative and election were different. He said the Somali president had been elected by a parliament in "fair, transparent elections" and that there had been "immediate international support".
Meles also said while Ethiopia was "a bit stretched" in terms of peacekeeping forces, it would act if asked. Ethiopia has already sent peacekeepers to Liberia and Burundi.
"If it is of the opinion of the African Union that we send troops and is the wish of the Somali people and the Somali government that we help them out by sending peacekeeping troops, that is something we shall consider positively," he added.
Said Djinnit, AU commissioner for peace and security, said it was "too early" to say when an African peacekeeping force would arrive in Somalia. An AU delegation will travel to Somalia next month as a part of on-going efforts to draw up a concrete peacekeeping plan.
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
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