PM warns Security Council

Addressing the UN Security Council on 19 October, the prime minister of Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG), warned that unless his fledgling administration received more international support Somalia could disintegrate further and become a haven for international terrorism. Ali Khalif Galayr said more money was needed to build a properly functioning state in Somalia, adding that the consequences would be dire if his plea went unheeded. "In the worst-case scenario, Somalia will degenerate again into lawlessness and a lack of central authority," he said. "This will be a place for terrorists, for people who are trafficking in drugs, people who are involved in the arms trade." Galayr assured the Council that the TNG was already doing everything it could to combat terrorism, primarily through the establishment earlier this month of a terrorism task force. He said the government had enlisted the support of religious leaders in the fight against terrorism, and was engaged in dialogue with the owners of the "hawalah" cash-transfer agencies, which have been accused in the past of acting as conduits for the transfer of funds to terrorist groups. The prime minister also welcomed a recent report on Somalia issued by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, but expressed deep regret that it had not recommended the establishment of a peace-building mission. The report had concluded that Mogadishu, the Somali capital, was still too insecure to establish a high-level inter-agency UN presence there. However, Galayr challenged this assumption, and called for a UN mission to be sent to Somalia with a mandate to examine the work of the UN Somalia Security office based in Nairobi, which had recommended to Annan to rule Mogadishu as remaining unsafe. Galayr said failure to establish such a mission would send the wrong message to the international community, donors and warlords, and would further contribute to the vicious cycle of insecurity.