Annan calls for progress in Somali political process

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that peace-building activities in Somalia should be based on discussions with the new government and political progress within Somalia.

International support can only do so much, Annan said in his latest report to the Security Council on Somalia, which was issued on Tuesday. "Somalis themselves must show seriousness if they are to re-establish peace and stability in their country," it said.

Any enhanced role for the UN, he added, would be incremental and based on the outcome of the discussions with the new government.

"At this critical stage in the peace process, I can only re-iterate the crucial importance of progress in the political arena being accompanied by serious efforts on the part of the Somali leaders to bring about tangible improvement in the security situation," Annan said. He appealed to the international community to provide generous support to Somalia.

Col Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was inaugurated in Kenya on 14 October as the new Somali transitional president, after being elected by the newly constituted 275-member Somali transitional parliament.

During a summit on Friday, a day after president Ahmed was inaugurated, east and central African leaders had appealed to the UN to "take immediate action to deploy a mission to Somalia to assist in securing the new government and also help train security forces for Somalia".

The new president faces an immediate challenge after the self-declared breakaway republic of Somaliland said it would not recognise him. Annan’s report noted that the security situation in Somalia had remained precarious and was unlikely to improve over the coming months. Much of the insecurity stemmed from crime, delinquency, clashes between rival militias for control of the highways, ports and airports, and other resources at the local level, the report said.

Somalia ceased to function as a modern state in 1991 when armed groups overthrew the regime of Muhammad Siyad Barre, precipitating a ruinous civil war that saw numerous warlords and their militias carve the country into fiefdoms.

Ahmed’s predecessor, Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, was elected by the Transitional National Government (TNG) in August 2000. In subsequent months, however, the TNG's authority withered amid opposition from warlords.

The new president is expected to appoint a prime minister before the new administration can relocate to Mogadishu. The president and his government have a five-year mandate, after which, general elections will be held inside Somalia.

The report to the Security Council can be found at: www.un.org