UN-chaired International Group urges Support for Somalia

An international gathering on Somalia, chaired by the United Nations, wrapped up in Rome on Wednesday with a call for stepped up support for the country, whose capital has witnessed intense fighting in recent weeks. Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed did not attend.

In a statement issued at the end of the two-day meeting of the 33-member International Contact Group on Somalia (ICG), the body condemned "the recent attempt by extremist armed opposition groups to overthrow the legal, legitimate and internationally recognised Somali government." Noting the financial and logistical contributions made by the international community, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for West Africa Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah urged these funds to be disbursed and used expeditiously to enhance the capabilities of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). At the meeting, Ould-Abdallah proposed a new approach to help Somalia -- restarting state institutions, rebuilding the army and police and reconstructing the Central Bank, adding that "human rights violators must be condemned."

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that over 117,000 people have been displaced in recent weeks in the capital of Mogadishu since violence erupted between government forces and the opposition Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam groups in May.

The "Contact Group" is an UN masterminded group, which first was put in place to counter-balance the weight the SACB, the EU-led Somali Aid Co-ordination Body, had achieved in the 90ies. The SACB did excellent co-ordination work in the beginning but then got involved politically. Cleverly the UN had invited Italy to be at the helm of these meetings in the beginning of the International Contact Group. Also inside Europe criticism was launched that the former colonial power of Somalia was not only masterminding the EU policy but also forging the SACB into a tool for their own influence. Italy had and has her fingers everywhere in the Somali issues, much less than the UK in "their" former protectorate "Somaliland". The US just watched the game and only briefly tried to hi-jack the Contact Group for anti-piracy purposes recently.

The ICG must, however, not be mixed with the International Crisis Group (ICG) an independent think-tank. But while the SACB was an all-embracing body, getting countries, international organizations, NGOs and Somalis together, the IContactG has been streamlined into tool set to provide for a carte-blanche of legitimacy to the UN policy. Summa summarum - still too many cooks around while the chef is holed up in the empty kitchen of Mogadishu, where only the scavengers strive at the moment. Where are all the supplies pledged by so called friends?

Source:Ecoterra, June 11, 2009

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