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By Abdi Sheikh
Saturday, October 24, 2009
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The Arab League is trying to broker negotiations between Somalia's fragile U.N.-backed government and Islamist insurgents, but it said on Saturday that rebel hardliners did not want to talk.
Western security agencies say the drought-ravaged nation has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who are using it to plot attacks across the region and beyond.
Ibrahim al-Shuwaymi, the Arab League's ambassador in Somalia, said it had been trying to broker discussions between the government and the insurgents behind the scenes since the League opened an office in the capital Mogadishu in July 2008.
"Somalia's politics are very complicated, but we shall never lose hope of reconciling them," he told Reuters in an interview.
"I meet the government and Islamists officials in an effort to bring peace. But the problem comes from the Hizbul Islam and al Shabaab (rebel) groups, which do not want dialogue."
Al Shabaab, which Washington says is al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia, has vowed to strike Burundi and Uganda's capitals in revenge for Thursday's rocket attacks by peacekeepers from those countries that killed 30 people in Mogadishu.
Burundi and Uganda both have about 2,600 peacekeepers in the Somali capital for the African Union's AMISOM force.
Fighting in failed Horn of Africa state has killed 19,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and uprooted 1.5 million, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies.
Shuwaymi said the worsening insecurity made delivering aid even more difficult for the international community.
"PEACE BEFORE SHARIA"
"Even local aid workers are killed and groups deprive internally displaced people of food relief," he said. "There is no reliable group through which aid can be delivered."
Despite the lack of progress, the ambassador said his organisation would continue its mediation efforts.
"Somalia is a member of the Arab League and it is our duty to play an important role in restoring peace ... We will always be ready to convince the opposition groups," he said.
"Blood must not be shed. What's needed is Somali government. Later, Somalis can discuss what kind of sharia or principles the government will adopt. Peace comes before sharia."
In a separate interview with Reuters in Uganda, Somali Foreign Minister Ali Jama Ahmed said more AU troops would be sent soon to boost AMISOM to its planned strength of 8,000.
"We expect our African brothers to complete the deployment of an additional 2,800 in the coming two months," Ahmed said.
"There are some countries that have indicated that they will be sending peacekeepers and are now being trained by the U.N. because they said they did not have experience in peacekeeping."
He did not elaborate. Several African nations had agreed to send troops for AMISOM but have so far failed to do so, some saying in private they are put off by the incessant violence.
AMISOM troops come under near-daily attack from the rebels. Last month, al Shabaab hit the mission's main headquarters in Mogadishu with a twin suicide car bombing that killed 17 peacekeepers, including the Burundian deputy force commander.
Source: Reuters, Oct 24, 2009