Somaliland: Homegrown Democracy In The Horn Of Africa
Press Release: 9 Somaliland Forum

Ref: SF/EC/mg 04/15/2005


The Somaliland Forum Organization dutifully encourages the United Nations, African Union, and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Arab League and the European Union to weigh and study Somaliland's case for recognition deliberately. Is there a developing Country in the World today which is practicing democracy better than Somaliland? After careful consideration, one cannot come to a different conclusion than marvel the success this country has achieved in such a short period. Omitting and ignoring such achievements from the World stage neither helps the Horn of Africa nor advances Democracy around the world.


The people of Somaliland had the right to self-determination like any other free society. The country obtained its independence in 1960 and subsequently initiated a 'Union' with Somalia. In 1991, Somaliland withdrew from that 'Union' after lingering in 30 years of unbalanced entanglement with Somalia in which the scale was overwhelmingly tipped toward Somalia. There are not many Nations in the Globe which, haven't at one time or another, exercised this inalienable right. Somaliland will never negotiate this right as evidenced by not attending the futile and countless reconciliation conferences of the failed State, nor will she sell her soul again to submit to anyone.


Somaliland had nothing to apologize to anyone for, especially Somalia. She won independence before any of the original ethnic Somali territories of Eastern Ethiopia, Northeast Kenya, ex-French Somaliland (Djibouti) and ex-Italian Trusteeship of Somalia. Somaliland was a separate State Pre and Post Colonization and was recognized by 35 nations in 1960. This fact alone validates Somaliland sovereignty. Therefore, why would anyone argue today that Somaliland is part of any of the 4 territories when in reality, she preceded them all? And if Somaliland is part of any of them, than what exempts the other 4 territories from being part of the equation? Is Djibouti or any of the others willing to join a unified Somali flag? The simple answer is no, therefore, they cannot have it both ways.


Since the 5 Territories will never unite under one flag, is it not prudent for IGAD and particularly the AU to deal with the possible instead of the impossible? Squabbling about non-issues negates the future that could be attained for the Horn as well as Africa. Somaliland broke no international treaties nor to the agreed principles or boundaries at the end of Colonialism. The secessionist argument also has no merit. How could a State secede from a Territory it was never ingrained nor intrinsic part of? It wasn't even a breach of a partnership. It is that simple.


It was Somaliland that first initiated the 'Union'. Just as she had the right to initiate such union, she had the right to exit that 'Union." It is to everyone's benefit that the Recognition process be expedited. The UN and AU must recognize the statutory requirements for Statehood had been gratified. The Charters agreed upon by the AU had also been safeguarded by Somaliland's refusal to disregard the Colonial boundaries agreed upon.


Since September the 11th, 2001, terrorism has increased exponentially around the World. Terrorism or extremism camouflaged in any way or shape is a threat to any civilized people. They are equivalent to an opportunistic bacteria looking for a guest host. Any weak host is susceptible to this penetration. Somalia in its chaos, today finds herself such a host. Unfortunately, such extremists crossed into Somaliland from Mogadishu and assassinated a British


couple and an NGO employee who was originally from Kenya. Their attempt to destabilize Somaliland failed miserably. The Somaliland government immediately denounced these acts and apprehended 5 suspects. The government sent a clear indication that it was a Nation of laws and such barbaric acts will never be tolerated.


The people stood against the reprehensible acts of those who hold a distorted or narrow view of Islam. Such extremism will not be allowed in its boundaries. The sanctity of life and respect for humanity is what Islam instructs. Such groups find Somaliland's shift to Democracy directly foreboding. Somaliland, without equivocation, holds that Islam and Democracy could coexist.


Democracy is a notion the country has put into practice. Democratic Nations need to immediately recognize and support emerging democracies, especially Muslim democracies that are very scarce to begin with. Representative governments are the antidote to terrorism and extremism. This support would also diminish civil unrest and unnecessary uprisings. This is not a benefit to Somaliland alone, but to all nations.


The apprehension as to whether Somaliland be recognized should now be incontestable. Possible options ceased to exist in 1991. Submission to or dependence on a lawless Somalia is a suicidal road to take. The only thing the many Warlords in Somalia agree upon is their animosity and envy towards Somaliland. Had they channeled a fraction of the effort into building their Nation; they would enjoy what Somaliland has enjoyed for the past 14 years.


Neighboring Countries should not see Somaliland as a threat but a future partner coexisting in peace and trade. In a peaceful Horn, all the Nations will benefit. Somaliland will eventually tap into her natural resources to further her development and those around her. The gateway to Somaliland, the port of Berbera, on the Gulf of Adan, is also a great asset to not only Somaliland but also all others. Those who presuppose Somaliland's success is to others failure are regrettably erroneous. It is not to her interest to see her neighbors fail. To the contrary, Somaliland insists on all African Nations to finally come together and develop this vastly fruitful Continent, which is burdened with despair, disease, dictators, destruction, underdevelopment and corruption.


The Somaliland Forum Organization elicits and kindly reminds the World community the urgency that exists in the Horn of Africa. The UN, AU, IGAD, AL, EU and the United States of America must all recognize and concede the established achievements of Somaliland carefully and without duplicity. If Democracy is to be advanced around the world, is it not applicable to the Republic of Somaliland?

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The Somaliland Forum is an independent organization which brings together Somaliland citizens in the Diaspora who support the sovereignty and Independence of Somaliland. The Forum helps Somaliland communities and friends around the Globe to work together and contribute to the socioeconomic and political development of the Republic of Somaliland.

For more information: Somalilandforum.com or Chair








Jamhuuriya Online

The Controversial 10,000 Strong IGAD Peacekeeping Force for Somalia
Abdullahi Mohamed (Deputy Editor Geeka Afrika Online)
Djibouti (HAN) March 17, 2005
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The Controversial 10,000 Strong IGAD Peacekeeping Force Planned for Somalia




Experts from the Inter-government Authority on Development (IGAD), have agreed to send eight battalions (roughly 10,000 troops) of peacekeepers to war-torn Somalia

ADDIS ABABA, March 16 (Reuters) - The African Union (AU) said on Wednesday it planned to send between 6,000 and 7,000 troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help disarm militias threatening peace in the region, officials said


MOGADISHU (HAN), March 17, 2005 --The Security Council today requested the UN Secretary General to re-establish, within 30 days and for a period of six months, the Monitoring Group focusing on the ongoing arms embargo violations in Somalia, including transfers of ammunition, single use weapons and small arms.



The IGAD Frontline peacekeeping force will be deployed in Somalia at the end of April, according to a senior Ugandan military officer. The peacekeepers will be chosen from the countries of Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti. The controversial 10, 000-strong regional peacekeeping force planned for Somalia will deploy across the country except in the breakaway region of Somaliland, a senior Ugandan military officer has said.
"The force will deploy throughout Somalia, from Puntland all the way to the south, but not in Somaliland," the officer said after meetings of east African military experts at which the eight-battalion deployment was worked out.
Somalia has been without any functioning central authority for the past 14 years but the region of Somaliland has established its own governmental structures and claims independence from the rest of the war-shattered nation.
The officer said the first phase of the proposed deployment, which has been recommended to begin on April 30, would see three-and-half battalions of troops sent to lawless Somalia to assist the country's transitional government relocate there from exile in Kenya.
The first peacekeepers to go would include a battalion each from Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia and a half battalion from Djibouti, he said on condition of anonymity.
He stressed that the proposal, presented by defence chiefs from the seven-nation Inter-Governmental Authority on Development on Monday, still had to be approved by IGAD foreign ministers.
The officer added that the proposal did not take into account strong opposition from some Somali warlords and Islamic clerics to the participation in the force of troops from Ethiopia and Djibouti.
Those two countries, as well as Kenya, are seen by opponents as having ulterior motives in Somalia.
"The foreign ministers will handle those policy matters," the officer said. "We wrote down the concept and it is them to decide the implementation policy."
However, on Monday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the current chair of IGAD, said the force, to be known as the IGAD Peace Support Mission for Somalia, would deploy with or without the support of the warlords.
"We are going to deploy with or without the support of the warlords," Museveni told defence ministers from IGAD, which comprises Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and nominally Somalia. - AFP

Somalis pressing Coleman for help
Posted on ThRally seeks backing for their homeland

BY TODD NELSON

Pioneer Press


More than 50 Minnesota Somalis on Wednesday jammed Sen. Norm Coleman's St. Paul office seeking support for their war-torn homeland's fledgling government.

With U.S. and Somali flags raised, the group filed into the office suite, quickly filling the reception area to overflowing, as community members quietly but firmly demanded a meeting with the Minnesota Republican. The Twin Cities metro area has one of the country's largest concentrations of refugees from the East African nation, last year reaching more than 25,000, according to a state estimate.

"We need peace in Somalia," community activist Fardousa Yossuf, 48, of Minneapolis, told Coleman staffers in the senator's office in the Court International building on University Avenue. "We want the American government to help us establish peace in Somalia. Whether we are here or at home, when you don't have peace, you don't have peace."

Pointing to a wall-mounted TV airing coverage of Senate budget hearings, Tom Steward, Coleman's communications director, said his boss was in Washington, possibly in the Senate chamber at that moment.

"He very much shares your concerns and will pass them along to the State Department," Steward told the group, composed mostly of women.

The Somalis initially said they would not leave the office without a phone call from Coleman but relented after Steward said Coleman would meet them when he returns to the state. Mahamoud Wardere, a Somali native and community outreach member of Coleman's staff, interpreted comments from both sides.

"The participants are understandably concerned about the situation in their homeland," Steward said later in an interview. "We certainly assured them that the senator takes those concerns seriously and shares them and shares their goal of greater stability in Somalia."

Somalis here hope Coleman, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, can help build U.S. support for a transitional national government established in October after two years of talks in neighboring Kenya, said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization in St. Paul.

Security concerns have prevented the new government from entering Somalia, which plunged into civil war and lawlessness after the fall of President Siad Barre in 1991. Much of the country is under the control of heavily armed warlords.

"We are appealing to Sen. Norm Coleman and the United States government to help the African countries bring Somalia back," Jamal said. "These women are victims of 14 years of civil war, rape and torture and are grateful to be brought here. The failure of the new government will prolong the suffering. They have been victimized enough."

Greater stability in Somalia would help resolve tribal differences that have followed many Minnesota Somalis from their homeland, Jamal said.

Mustafa Adam, 25, of Minneapolis, said local Somalis sometimes feel the stress of the disorder in Somalia personally.

"People here collect money to pay warlords for the release of their relatives," Adam said. "In places where they rule, they have militias and they kidnap for ransom. They're like gangs."

SOMALIA

• East African nation has been without a functioning central government since civil war broke out in 1991.

• Somali had an estimated population last year of more than 8 million.

• Minnesota's Somali population was estimated at more than 25,000 last year, rising 124 percent from 2000.

• Somalis, most of them Muslims, came under scrutiny in the Twin Cities after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Federal agents shut down Somali-run money-transfer agencies, some of which were cleared of suspicion and reopened.


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Todd Nelson can be reached at toddnelson@pioneerpress.com. or 651-228-5575. u, Mar. 17, 2005

Somali lawmakers reject troops, then fight
Posted on Thu, Mar. 17, 2005
RODRIQUE NGOWI

Associated Press


NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali lawmakers-in-exile fought each other with clubs, chairs and walking sticks Thursday after a hotly disputed vote rejecting the use of troops from neighboring countries in a force planned to secure a transitional government in Somalia.

Television footage showed Kenyan police intervening to stop the turmoil in the hotel where the lawmakers voted. Some legislators were later seen with head wounds as police confiscated clubs.

Some of the lawmakers had reacted angrily to the speaker of parliament's decision to allow lawmakers to vote by a show of hands instead of a secret ballot.

The contentious motion that was rejected would have allowed participation of troops from neighboring countries in a proposed regional peace support mission in Somalia.

Somalia has been without a central government since clan-based warlords overthrew the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other, sinking the Horn of Africa nation of 7 million into anarchy.

Somalia's government and parliament are based in Kenya because the Somali capital, Mogadishu, is considered unsafe.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi denounced the vote as unconstitutional and accused powerful warlords-turned-Cabinet ministers and their allies of sabotaging efforts to restore order in Somalia.

"Warlords who sabotaged previous attempts to bring peace in Somalia are back again," Gedi told reporters.

Somali ministers, Islamic clerics, some residents and the U.S. State Department have warned that sending troops from neighboring countries would derail fragile efforts to end a 14-year civil war in the Horn of Africa nation.

Demonstrators and faction leaders in Somalia have repeatedly warned that they are prepared to shed blood if troops from neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya are deployed as part of the interim force that will go to Somalia ahead of a fuller African Union peacekeeping force.

Kenya boosts security after village massacre
March 16 2005 at 10:25AM

Nairobi - Kenya has boosted security along its north-east border with Somalia after a brutal massacre there by Somali gunmen of 22 members of a rival clan that forced thousands of villagers to flee their homes, police said on Wednesday.

"We have boosted security and patrols along the areas that we think are vulnerable to revenge attacks," said Gabriel Ndolo, the commander of police in Kenya's North-eastern Province where Tuesday's pre-dawn raid took place.

"We just want to ensure that normal life resumes," he said from the provincial seat of Garissa south of the attacked village of Elgolisha near the frontier town of Mandera.

Eight of the about 40 attackers were killed by Kenyan security forces and officials said the surviving gunmen had escaped into lawless Somalia despite a massive search by paramilitary police assisted by a helicopter.

The surviving gunmen had escaped into lawless Somalia
"They fled into Somalia and it is very difficult to pursue them into the country because it has no administration," Ndolo said. "But we shall do everything to ensure that somebody is held responsible.

"We cannot allow such attacks to go on," he said.

Police believe that Tuesday's raid on Elgolisha - which targeted members of the Garre clan and has been blamed on the rival Gurule faction - is the worst single attack in the dustbowl region known for ethnic clashes, mainly over water and pasture rights.

In it, the Murule attackers used guns, machetes and clubs to shoot, hack and slash to death their victims, many of them women and children including a six-month-old infant, police said.

The marauders also killed nearly a dozen livestock, destroyed a number of rudimentary homes and wounded at least three people in the raid.

As the scale and ferocity of the attack became clear, as many as 5 000 terrified villagers fled their homes around Elgolisha which sits only about two kilometres from the Somali border, the Kenyan Red Cross said.

Ndolo said authorities in the region were working to help the more than 1 000 families - each with three to five members - who fled Eloglisha to the relative safety of the nearby town of El Wak.

"We are making great effort to ensure that people return to their homes," he said. "We are also meeting with clan elders to discuss the issue of security because this is a long-standing problem." - Sapa-AFP

U.N. adviser gloomy on anti-poverty goals
Wednesday, March 16, 2005 ? Last updated 10:48 p.m. PT
By EDITH M. LEDERER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

UNITED NATIONS -- In a poor village not far from Senegal's capital, representatives of rich donor countries spent three years trying to sell insecticide-treated bed nets to the 7,000 residents who suffer from malaria. But only 400 had enough money to buy the protective covers.

In a village hospital in Kenya, three patients were squeezed into every bed and one nurse was caring for 70 patients. The hospital's administrator pleaded for extra nurses. But donors haven't been able to figure out how to help Kenya hire 4,000 nurses laid off because of budget constraints ordered by the International Monetary Fund.

In a village outside Mekele in Ethiopia's Tigray province, where there's no water to produce crops because seasonal rains haven't fallen for five years, near-emaciated residents were digging in the dry river bed to get to the water table. They didn't have a water pump.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's top poverty adviser, Jeffrey Sachs, used these three examples Wednesday from trips he made during the last two weeks to illustrate why U.N. goals to reduce extreme poverty won't be met unless there are dramatic changes in what he called "the ludicrous state of reality today."

While governments in the rich world blame poor countries for bad practices that create these problems, Sachs said many rich countries have failed to meet a pledge they made 35 years ago to earmark 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product to help alleviate poverty in the developing world.

"This is mutual responsibility, not one side's responsibility," he said. "The poor countries are obligated to have good governance and the rich countries are obligated to help them to make the basic investments to keep their children alive - and we're not doing it."

In a speech to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, Sachs was especially critical of the countries that have not set timetables to reach the 0.7 percent goal, and of the IMF and World Bank for not pressing donors to give more. The United States now spends about 0.15 percent of its GDP on development aid while Japan next year will spend 0.21 percent and Germany 0.32 percent.

"For 35 years we've been fighting whether the rich world will give 70 cents out of $100 of its income and keep $99.30. That's what we've been debating. And I don't know how many resources, political and otherwise, the rich world has spent saying we're not even giving 70 cents out of $100," an obviously exasperated Sachs said.

He was the lead author of a recent U.N.-sponsored report by hundreds of development experts that concluded global poverty can be cut in half by 2015 and eliminated by 2025 if the world's richest countries more than double aid to the poorest countries.

"The truth is we've come to the crossroads because people are dying by the millions because of the lack of 70 cents," Sachs said. "But we have rigorous proof that for 70 cents millions could be saved. That's our stark choice this year."

Annan is expected to make recommendations to world leaders Monday on U.N. reform and on meeting the U.N. development goals, using Sachs' report as a basis. The secretary-general has invited the leaders to a summit in September to take action so the United Nations can tackle 21st century threats and achieve a major reduction in poverty and improvements in health and education.

Sachs stressed that ending extreme poverty "is technically, scientifically, economically feasible."

It doesn't take "rocket science" to get bed nets to people who need them, to give malaria sufferers effective medication, to get diesel pumps to villages, and to have a vehicle in villages like the one in Tigray Province in Ethiopia where a mother dying in childbirth must now travel more than 20 miles on a donkey to get to a hospital, he said.

Even before the summit, Sachs said, "We could have several quick wins: malaria could be controlled with a mass distribution of bed nets and effective anti-malarials. School meals programs could be in every hunger hotspot using locally produced foods. User fees for schools and clinics could be dropped immediately with donors making up the financing difference."

This week, he said, he went to the malaria-ridden village outside Dakar with a donation of 3,000 bed nets from Sumitomo Chemical Co., the manufacturer, and gave them to the community.

"So in one day we did seven times more than the donors have done in three years" selling a total of 400 bed-nets, Sachs said.

As for the desperately needed nurses in Kenya, Sachs said the World Bank responded to his plea a year ago by saying it needed to study the request. "It's unbelievable," Sachs said, but he still can't find a way to get donors to fund 4,000 nurses for the East African nation.

Sachs, who heads the Earth Institute at Columbia University, said climate change was probably to blame for the lack of rains in Tigray.

"So we don't implement climate control, and Ethiopians die of hunger because there's no rains to produce the crops, and then we blame Ethiopia for not good governance," he said.

SOMALIA: IGAD to deploy peacekeepers despite opposition by faction leaders
ENTEBBE, 15 Mar 2005 (IRIN) - The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) plans to deploy peacekeepers in Somalia next month, regardless of opposition by faction leaders in the war-ravaged country, IGAD chairman and Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, said on Monday.

"We are going to deploy with or without the support of the warlords," said Museveni, on the closing day of a meeting of IGAD defence ministers in the central Ugandan town of Entebbe.

"Why should the warlords for example reject Ethiopia and Kenya?", questioned the chairman. "If the two countries go there, what will happen? It is a shame for one of [the] ancient races in Africa to suffer for so long, as the rest of Africa looks on."

It was proposed at the meeting that up to 10,000 peacekeepers, as part of the IGAD Peace Support Mission to Somalia (IGASOM), be deployed from 30 April. The proposal, however, has to be endorsed by the IGAD Council of Ministers before it can be implemented.

"What are we waiting for? You should work out the deployment programme as soon as possible," Museveni told the defence ministers.

Uganda’s military chief, Lt-Gen Aronda Nyakairima, said that IGASOM would be deployed throughout Somalia, with the exception of the self-declared republic of Somaliland.

"We shall deploy from Puntland all the way to the south," Nyakairima said.

However, according to a communique issued by the ministers on Monday, the IGASOM force is expected to be replaced by an African Union (AU) force after nine months.

In February, the AU authorised IGAD - which comprises Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda - to send a peace mission to Somalia. Its purpose would be to help the country's transitional federal government (TFG) get a foothold there when it relocates from Nairobi, Kenya.

Although the TFG requested the peacekeeping force, opposition to troops from the country's immediate neighbours is widespread in Somalia. Some faction leaders, including those who are members of the TFG cabinet, have said they would not accept troops from neighbouring countries.

"We endorse the deployment of troops from the international community without the involvement of contingents from Somalia's immediate neighbours, Ethiopia and Djibouti," several faction leaders said in a statement recently.

Members of the TFG cabinet who signed the statement included: Hussein Mohamed Aidid, deputy prime minister; Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, minister of national security; Musa Sudi Yalahow, minister of trade; Botan Isse, minister for demobilisation; and Omar Mohamud "Finnish", minister for religious affairs.

The United States and a think-tank, the International Crisis Group (ICG), have also expressed concern about including troops from neighbouring countries without the approval of the Somali people.

"It would be premature for foreign governments to send troops into Somalia when the [Somali transitional federal] parliament is yet to debate the issue," Matt Bryden, the director of the ICG’s Horn of Africa project, told IRIN on Tuesday. "There is popular opposition to the peace mission within Somalia, and such a move could jeopardise the peace process."

IGAD defence officials held their meeting in order to thrash out a deployment plan for the peace mission, including logistics, funding, and the size of the force. The mission is expected to cost about US $500 million, according to an official at the talks.

On 2 March, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his country was ready to send peacekeepers to Somalia, if invited.

"The bottom line is our offer is still on the table, but we are not going to impose ourselves on Somalia," Meles told a news conference in Addis Ababa. "It is up to the Somali government and the Somali people."

Somalia had no central government between 1991 and October 2004, which was when the TFG was formed in Kenya, after two years of IGAD-sponsored peace talks between various Somali clans and factions.

However, the administration has remained in Nairobi because of security concerns, although officials of the new government have visited the country to build support for their return.

[ENDS]

34 die in Kenyan clashes
Tuesday, March 15, 2005 Posted: 7:46 AM EST (1246 GMT)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Assailants armed with guns and swords shot and hacked to death 22 people, mainly women and children, from a rival clan in northeastern Kenya Tuesday, officials said.

Security forces later killed 12 suspects during an operation to restore order in Mandera, a district troubled by clashes between the Garre and Murule clans, said police spokesman Jaspher Ombati. The clans, two of the ethnic Somali communities that dominate northeastern Kenya, traditionally fight over access to pasture and water for their cattle.

At least 22 people were killed and three injured when Murule fighters launched the pre-dawn raid on a Garre village as residents slept in their homesteads, Ombati said.

Officials said preliminary information indicates that the Murule fighters crossed into Kenya from Somalia, 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from Mandera, officials said.

The killings could trigger revenge attacks similar to those in January in which at least 22 people were killed in a week in the region, 795 kilometers (494 miles) northeast of the capital, Nairobi.

Paramilitary and regular police officers were sent to the region to prevent further violence, Ombati said.

Large parts of the arid region are notoriously lawless, with bandits, some from neighboring Somalia, often carrying out attacks.



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Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Illegal Arms Still Flow Freely Into Somalia
From Reuters
UNITED NATIONS — Weapons are still pouring into Somalia at "a brisk and alarming rate" despite a 1992 U.N. arms embargo, threatening efforts to install a new national government, U.N. monitors reported Monday.
Despite rising prices, individuals from both the transitional federal government and opposition groups are buying up the illegal weapons, according to the latest report from the monitoring group.
The group recommended tightening controls along Somalia's borders and coastline.
Somalia, a lawless Horn of Africa country of about 10 million people, has been carved up into fiefdoms run by rival warlords since 1991. A transitional federal government was formed in neighboring Kenya last year and is trying to establish itself inside Somalia.

Uganda's president presses African countries to send troops to Somalia
By HENRY WASSWA, Associated Press Writer
Museveni
ENTEBBE, Uganda, Mar 14, 2005 (AP) -- President Yoweri Museveni on Monday pressed African countries to send troops to secure Somalia's transitional government as it returns home from exile in Kenya -- even without the support of Somali warlords who presently control the country.

"Somalia has suffered for the past 14 years and we have to deploy troops with or without the support of warlords," Museveni told defense ministers and officials from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development that is planning to send a regional peace support mission ahead of a fuller peacekeeping force.

"For the warlords to say that they are protecting the people and yet they have guns and are holding these people hostage is wrong," said Museveni, who heads the seven-nation regional group. "It is a shame for one of the ancient races in Africa to suffer for so long as we are looking on."

Warlords-turned-Cabinet ministers have said they are prepared to accept peacekeepers from the African Union and the Arab League -- but not troops from neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya.

They, along with Islamic clerics, some Somali residents and the U.S. State Department have that warned sending troops from the neighboring countries would derail fragile efforts to end a 14-year civil war the Horn of Africa nation.

Warlords and lawmakers from a clan that controls the Somali capital on Sunday offered to withdraw 15,000 militia fighters from Mogadishu to guarantee the security of the country's government -- but only if troops from neighboring countries are not sent.

Ethiopia actively supported Somali factions with money and weapons in the civil war that started in 1991, and its troops could seek to advance Ethiopian interests if deployed in the Horn of Africa nation, some Somali lawmakers said.

Somalis also remember the war they lost in 1977 over control of Ethiopia's southeastern Ogaden region, largely inhabited by ethnic Somalis. The Somali army never recovered from the defeat, a fact that eventually helped warlords to overthrow dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Somalia's government is based in neighboring Kenya because Mogadishu is considered unsafe.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's Cabinet asked the African Union and Arab League earlier this month to send between 5,000 and 7,500 troops with a one-year mandate to protect the government as it organizes a police force and army.

The AU Peace and Security Council authorized deployment of an interim force ahead of a fuller AU mission.

Military experts meeting in Uganda on Sunday recommended sending a 10,000-strong force to Somalia for a mission that will last for around eight months at a cost of some US$500 million (A?374 million), an officer attending the talks said. The proposal was discussed by defense ministers and officials Monday