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Condi Rice Chooses Somali Prime Minister Over
Pirate President, Dodges on Eritrea
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 16 -- Condoleezza Rice
sided Tuesday with the Somali prime minister whom that country's
President has
fired, and in so doing agreed with the Ambassador of Sudan, among
others. Inner
City Press asked Ms. Rice to comment on her Department seeking to deem
Eritrea
a state sponsor of terrorism, and on who is the leader of Somalia who
can
legitimately authorize military incursions by the U.S. and other
want-to-be
fighters of piracy. Ms. Rice referred to
"difficulties caused by the policies of Eritrea" and said "we'll
look at what actions we should take." Video here,
from Minute 14.
A
Democratic Party-leaning think tank, the Enough Project, last week
accused Rice
and George W. Bush of planting landmines in Somalia policy to trip up
Barrack
Obama, Hillary Clinton and Condi's namesake -- and former student --
Susan
Rice. But South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, when Inner City
Press asked
if he thought the U.S. taking action on Eritrea would be a good idea,
said he
hadn't heard of it. He acknowledged that it is hard to know who is in
control
in Somalia -- some say there are two Prime Ministers, he said. Video here,
from
Minute 1:43.
But what is
behind President Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed firing Nur Hassan Hussein and
replacing
him with former interior minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled? Inner City
Press'
UN sources say that once Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed lost the support of
Ethiopia, and
became accused of profiting from piracy, he saw the end was near for
him. He is
like a sinking ship, and everyone from Condi Rice to Sudan's Ambassador
is
jumping to the side of the prime minister Nur Hassan Hussein.
Condi Rice at UN on Dec. 16, moves against
Eritrea not shown
One thing
on which Rice and Sudan are not in agreement is whether the U.S. will
use the
piracy resolution to justify incursions onto the Somali mainland and to
establish, as Sudan put it, a permanent presence in the region. Inner
City
Press asked, don't the U.S. and France already have permanent bases in
Djibouti? That's different, Sudan's Ambassador said. That is arranged
with the
countries. Video here,
from Minute 1:11.
Yeah, but
it's permanent, and some suspects picked up in Somalia have been
whisked to
Camp Lejeune in Djibouti. Perhaps Obama will solve all this. Perhaps.
Postscript, 11 p.m. -- Hours after the UN Security
Council's
Somali pirate session ended, a few blocks south through the snow, Inner
City
Press learned yet more about the day's proceedings. The Somali foreign
minister
had asked to speak first, before the vote, for a mere five minutes. But
the
Croatian President of the Council said no, because Permanent Five
members said
that their ministers should speak first, their time was more important.
Or were
they concerned that the Somalis might not agree to turn their territory
over to
foreign intervention?
Earlier at
the Contact Group on Somalia meeting, two of the Permanent Five opposed
each
other on what a peacekeeping mission in Somalia should look like. US
versus the
UK -- as it was in Kenya, Inner City Press' snarky sources say...
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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