Radio France Interviews UN Envoy for Somalia on Mogadishu Situation

[Mintid Farayar]

UN envoy to Somalia says recent attack on capital "coup attempt"

13 May 2009

12:41 AM

BBC Monitoring Africa

English

© 2009 The British Broadcasting Corporation. All Rights Reserved. No material may be reproduced except with the express permission of The British Broadcasting Corporation.

 

Text of report by French state-funded public broadcaster Radio France Internationale on 13 May; subheadings inserted editorially

 

[ Presenter ] Our guest is the UN secretary-general's envoy for Somalia, Mauritanian diplomat, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah. He is speaking about the situation in Mogadishu following the attack by Islamists in the past few days against the government of national unity. Let us listen to Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah speaking to Cyril Bensimon from Addis Ababa.

 

Recent attack on Mogadishu a coup attempt

 

[ Bensimon ] Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, are you concerned with the days of the government of national unity in Somalia?

 

[Ould-Abdallah] No. I am not really worried about this government since it has just repulsed an attack which I believe was a coup attempt. However, I am still concerned about the stability in Somalia after 20 years of civil war. We are not going to come back to this every time. Somalia's problems are not only religious.

 

[ Bensimon ] Why can't any government be accepted up-to-date by any of the Somali parties?

 

[Ould-Abdallah] Those causing the most problems are the south-central provinces. However, no government had been accepted because up until now we never had a government which combined legitimacy and legality. I sincerely believe that the government of [somali President] Shaykh Sharif Ahmad represents this. It is a legitimate one [government] because he himself comes from a renowned family of Shaykhs. He was at the helm from June to December 2006 and he has just come to power through an election by Members of Parliament which was broadcast live on television and which I had organized in Djibouti.

 

[ Bensimon ] But obviously he is not accepted due to the opposition of his former comrade in arms in the Islamic Courts, Shaykh Hasan Dahir Aweys. According to you, is the opposition by the Islamists really motivated by religion or is it a fight for power disguised as a religious war?

 

[Ould-Abdallah] Indeed, his former associate, Col Aweys, came from Asmara and he does not agree [with the government] but they are in touch. The others are Islamists who receive an important outside help. However, it is not only Islam behind all of this. We forget to mention the issues of the Somali tragedy such as economy, resources, criminality. There are [word indistinct] on foreign currencies, import and export, on immigrants and on coal. In fact, there are important financial and commercial aspects which have been neglected and not reported.

 

Al-Shabab admission on foreign fighters propaganda

 

[ Bensimon ] The Islamists of Al-Shabab have admitted receiving the help of foreign fighters. Who are they and where are they from, how many are they?

 

[Ould-Abdallah] It is very difficult to give an answer to all those questions. However, I continue to say that there is likely religious dimension and the economic and financial aspects are important and this attracts a lot of people; foreigners from the region probably from the East African Community - Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania. There are elements from Asia, especially from the Middle East, but, I believe most of them are Somalis who have US or European citizenships, particularly with British or Swedish citizenship. These are young people who have difficulty integrating in their new countries and who have been destabilized by [words indistinct] who made them come and take advantage of their patriotism or their naivete or fragility.

 

[ Bensimon ] How do you analyse the Somali Islamists' admission about having in their ranks foreign fighters when they have always denied it?

 

[Ould-Abdallah] I analyse this in two different ways. First, they can no longer hide it owing to the fact that the people are visible perhaps because of their physical appearance or because of the language they use. I believe they also use this as propaganda to attract more foreigners.

 

Arab countries not behind destabilization attempt in Somalia

 

[ Bensimon ] Are African or Arab countries behind the destabilization attempt of the government of national unity?

 

[ Ould-Abdallah ] I believe Arab countries are not behind this. There are probably individuals who might be funding this or that movement. East Africa countries mainly (?Djibouti), Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, are backing the current government as well as Ethiopia and Sudan.

 

[ Bensimon ] What is Eritrea role?

 

[ Ould-Abdallah ] The opposition had their base in Eritrea for a long time. Those who fled the Mogadishu fighting two years ago returned from Asmara with a chartered flight which landed 50 km from Mogadishu. I don't know Eritrea's role, however, I hope that there will not be problems between two countries [word indistinct] especially when Somalia is still fragile and does not need more violence.

 

Source: Radio France Internationale, Paris, in French 1830 gmt 13 May 09