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UN's Somalia Envoy Favors Referral to Ocampo, TFG Promises Justice for Killers of Aid Workers

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, July 23 -- On Somalia there was strangely upbeat talk Wednesday at the UN Security Council. Despite few countries stepping forward to contribute troops, UN envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said that now is the time for a UN peacekeeping force. The Transitional Federal Government's foreign minister Ali Ahmed Jama said that it can be done with substantially less that the 26,000 soldiers previously requested.

   Inner City Press asked him, when would the Ethiopian force finally leave Somalia? He said 120 days after the Djibouti Agreement is signed, which he said will be in two weeks. We'll see. When Inner City Press asked him about reports that the TFG or elements of it may be involved in the threats against and killing of humanitarian workers, he said the responsibility is with "criminal elements" who will be "pursued...and brought to justice." Video here, from Minute 5:43.

   Inner City Press asked Ould-Abdallah if he would recommend to the Security Council that they refer the situation in Somalia to the International Criminal Court for investigation and prosecution. "Definitely," he said, adding the "recent developments... in [the former] Yugoslavia" show that there is "no place to hide." Video here, from Minute 2.  The arrest of Radovan Karadzic continues to be cited by UN diplomats, as a message to Sudan, for example, or now to Somalia. (Notably it has not been linked, at least publicly, to Myanmar).


TFG's Ali Ahmed Jama at the UN, end of impunity not shown

   When South Africa's Dumisani Kumalo emerged from the Council with the U.S.'s Zalmay Khalilzad, the two went together to the microphone joking. "A Zimbabwe question," Inner City Press called out. Khalilzad, laughing, said "Ask him about it, it's his now, he has to fix it." Video here, at beginning. Khalilzad backed away, and Inner City Press asked Kumalo about Ould-Abdallah's statement about referring Somalia to the ICC.

   "We are all very serious about impunity," Kumalo began. "But you guys get on an impunity kick. It's only one of the things of the situation." Video here, from Minute 4:09. He went on to decry the lack of follow-through in providing naval protection for humanitarian goods.  People continue to suffer, while the news to the Council on Somalia is strangely described as good. 

  Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Michele Montas what the Department of Peacekeeping Operations had to say about the call for a mission to Somalia. It's up to the Council, Ms. Montas said. But DPKO is on record with concerns about Somalia. Who the unnamed troop contributors might be remains a mystery. Amb. Khalilzad referred to a coalition of the willing. We'll see.

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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

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