Annan urges unity between gov’t, Islamic leaders

©  Lusa News UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

NAIROBI, 16 Jun 2006 (IRIN) – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged Somalia’s Islamic courts and the transitional government to work together to restore law and order in the Horn of Africa country, which has had no functioning national administration for 15 years.

Forces loyal to the Islamic courts drove out militiamen allied to a group of leaders of armed factions from Mogadishu early this month and have since extended their control to a number of areas in southern Somalia.

“The people of Somalia are totally fed up with the warlords who brought such misery and destruction to their country, who have terrorised them for over 15, 16 years, that I suspect most Somalis, except those with vested interests, will say ‘Good riddance,'” Annan told a news conference in New York on Thursday. “I would urge them [Somalis] to work together – the Islamic court, the transitional government and the population.”

Asked whether he was concerned the Islamic victory in Mogadishu could herald a

takeover by a regime similar to that of the Taliban in Afghanistan, which could then turn Somalia into a haven for terrorists, Annan said he had heard such reports but had no evidence to support them. “But what I can say is that the people have been fed up with the warlords and probably had helped the other side defeat the warlords, just to get their liberty back.”

In a related development, the African Union has urged the international community to help Somalia’s transitional government restore stability in the country.

“There is an urgent need to give support to the Transitional Federal Government to help bring back stability,” Mohamed Ali Foum, the AU’s special representative for Somalia, told reporters in Addis Ababa, where the pan-African body is based. Foum was speaking on Thursday after a meeting of the AU’s Peace and Security Council to discuss Somalia.

The AU council appealed to the international community to “extend all the necessary assistance to the transitional federal institutions to enable them to fully assume their responsibilities, with a view to restoring peace, reconciliation and stability in Somalia,” Foum said. The group also called upon all Somali leaders refrain from actions likely to aggravate instability and instead engage in dialogue.

The AU repeated its request to the UN Security Council to lift the arms embargo on Somalia to enable the deployment of a peacekeeping force from neighbouring countries.

[ENDS]

Source: IRIN, June 16, 2006