By Nick Wadhams
The statement, offered on Tuesday, says that if the council believes a “peace support mission” would help Somalia, it would consider a detailed proposal from either the African Union or the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an organisation of several Horn of Africa nations.
At the same time, the draft statement would stress the council’s belief that the arms embargo now in place does contribute to security.
“The Security Council reiterates its intention to consider urgently how to strengthen the effectiveness of the arms embargo,” the draft statement says.
Such statements must be agreed to by the entire council and are not legally binding. Council support for a peace mission is necessary because only the council can ease the arms embargo that would allow them to go in.
Somalia has been without effective government since 1991. But Islamic militias wrested Mogadishu and some other areas of the country from a US-backed secular alliance of warlords last month, bringing weeks of relative calm to a city that has seen little more than chaos in recent years.
The volatile nation has been a particular concern to the United States, which has long-standing fears that Somalia will become a refuge for members of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network, much like Afghanistan did in the late 1990s.
The council statement would demand “complete and unhindered” humanitarian access, and guarantees of aid workers’ safety.
Source: AP, July 12, 2006
