IGAD military experts due in Mogadishu

Military experts from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) were expected in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Friday to assess the situation ahead of the proposed deployment of a peace support mission to the war-torn country, a Ugandan foreign ministry official said.

"Officers from five countries are going to Mogadishu to assess the situation and analyse the logistical requirements for the deployment of an IGAD peace mission to Somalia," Julius Onen, permanent secretary in the Ugandan foreign ministry, told IRIN on Friday.

The military mission, he added, consisting of 10 people, would spend at least a week in Somalia as part of a confidence building mechanism for the country that has had no real government for the past 14 years.

IGAD, whose members are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, sponsored two years of peace talks between various Somali clans and factions that culminated in the formation of the Somali transitional federal government (TFG) in October 2004.

However, the newly created government remains based in Nairobi, Kenya, where it was set up, because security concerns and lack of resources have prevented it from officially relocating to Mogadishu.

A tentative date of 21 February has been set by the TFG for relocation, dependent on funding from the donor community to facilitate the move.

On the sidelines of the recently concluded African Union summit in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, the IGAD heads of state, who met under the chairmanship of the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, committed to send a peace support mission to Somalia to assist the peaceful establishment of the TFG in Mogadishu.

"Towards the end of the month, the team will present their findings to the IGAD countries' military chiefs-of-staff, who will present the same report to the ministers of defence from the region in early March before it is given to the chairman, the Ugandan president," Onen said, adding that Museveni would then mobilise the resources required for the mission.

Onen told IRIN that the mission to Mogadishu would also look at issues such as the training of law enforcers in Somalia as a way to facilitate the formation of the anarchic country.

Meanwhile, the Brussels-based think tank, the International Crisis Group (ICG), has warned that any deployment of foreign troops that lacked the approval of the Somali parliament risked not only the censure of the assembly, but also impeachment proceedings against the interim president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

In a letter to the IGAD heads of state, including Yusuf, Garth Evans, ICG president, said: "It is vital that the planning and deployment of any peacekeeping force be undertaken in close consultation with the Somali people and their leaders."

"If it is not," he added. "The mission could destabilize the interim government and derail the peace process, both of which remain fragile at this time."

The letter was also sent to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the head of the African Union, Alpha Konare, the Arab League secretary-general, Amr Musa and Javier Solana, the European Union's representative for common foreign and security policy.

Evans' letter follows a Wednesday press release by ICG cautioning IGAD countries against sending troops to Somalia without the express approval of parliament. The proposed IGAD peace support mission, it said, could jeopardise the fragile peace process.