troop deployment would be divisive and inflammatory

[macalimuu]

Somalia peace talks in Kampala today

By Kakaire A. Kirunda & Agencies

Mar 7, 2005

 

KAMPALA - The Inter -Governmental Authority on Development defence ministers are expected to meet in Kampala today to discuss the deployment of peacekeepers in Somalia.

 

According to the weekend's edition of South Africa's Sunday Times and agencies, the Igad defence ministers and senior military officials will review the findings of an expert-level fact-finding trip to Somalia to prepare a report on the mission.

 

Quoting the Permanent Secretary of Uganda's Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr Julius Onen, reports indicated that the defence chiefs are to prepare a situational analysis and come up with the number of troops needed for the mission, its budget and other logistics.

 

Onen said the talks would set the stage for a meeting of Igad foreign ministers on the issue of Somalia to be held on March 16 and 17 in Nairobi.

 

Plans by Igad member states (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda) to send peacekeepers follow authorisation from the AU to help the country's new transitional government get traction in Mogadishu when it eventually relocates from exile in Nairobi.

 

Onen said the defence ministers would discuss rejection by influential Somali warlords of troops from Djibouti and Ethiopia but "that threat will not stop the mission because the region is ready to deploy troops in Somalia."

 

Uganda’s troops are ready but in a recent interview, the Director of the International Crisis Group's Horn of Africa Project, Mr Matt Bryden told the Voice Of America radio that the issue (troop deployment) would be divisive and inflammatory.

 

"Members of the Cabinet, the parliament and the Somali public have got deeply opposing views," he said.

 

 

 

 

© 2005 The Monitor Publications.