Sudanese and Ugandan peacekeepers to be deployed first - IGAD

Sudan and Uganda will be the first countries to send peacekeepers to Somalia, while neighbouring states will initially only provide logistical support, a top official at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) told IRIN on Monday.

Ugandan foreign minister and chairman of the IGAD Council of Ministers, Sam Kutesa, said the regional body had decided to send just Sudanese and Ugandan troops "because of the suspicion among many Somalis that frontline states, such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti, supported different factions during the war, and therefore have their own interests".

"They [frontline states] will be involved in later phases of the process," Kutesa told IRIN.

IGAD’s Council of Ministers said on Friday that other member states would, during the first phase of the deployment, be required to provide equipment and emergency assistance, as well as to train the Somali army and police force.

Troops from the other states were, however, expected to participate in the second phase of the peacekeeping mission, after which an African Union force was planned for Somalia, the council said in a communique.

The inclusion of troops from the neighbouring countries has divided Somali politicians, with some supporting the deployment and others saying that soldiers from Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya might be tempted to meddle in Somalia's internal affairs.

IGAD - which comprises Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda - sponsored the reconciliation process that culminated in the formation of Somalia's transitional federal government (TFG) in Nairobi last year.

The TFG is expected to re-establish law and order in Somalia, which descended into anarchy and bloodshed following the overthrow of the government of Mohammed Siyad Barre in 1991. Security concerns have, however, prevented the TFG from moving from its current base in Nairobi to Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

Last Thursday, fighting broke out among members of Somalia's transitional federal parliament, which was meeting in a hotel in Nairobi to debate the proposed deployment of peacekeepers. Several Members of Parliament (MPs) were hurt in the scuffle, which erupted after a vote showed that members opposed to the participation of soldiers from Somalia's immediate neighbours had won the motion.

IGAD ministers said their council "deplores the shameful and unbecoming conduct of those members of [the] Somalia Transitional Federal Parliament who engaged in acts of violence and caused injury and damage to property."

The ministers urged the people of Somalia and members of the transitional parliament to unite, stressing that they "have no better friends than their neighbours".

They also criticised some members of the international community for allegedly trying to "drive a wedge between IGAD member states and the people of Somalia".

"The activities of some NGOs conducting research and advocacy work in our sub-region have also contributed to creating confusion and [an] unhealthy state of mind," they warned.

In a related development, some members of the Ugandan parliament said they had tabled a motion seeking to prevent the deployment of Ugandan troops to Somalia.

Omara Atubo, an MP representing Otuke county in Uganda's northern district of Lira, said it made no sense to send soldiers to a foreign country when Uganda itself was faced with insecurity.

"It is illogical to take troops outside our borders when we can't defend all our people inside the borders. We want to advise the president very strongly not to deploy troops to Somalia until all areas of Uganda are pacified," Atubo told IRIN on Saturday.

Since 1988, Ugandan troops have been fighting rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army, a shadowy and brutal group that often maims, abducts and murders civilians in the northern region.

"The reason that we are being given for not solving the conflict in Uganda was that we did not have enough soldiers, and it is the reason we recruited so many auxilliary forces," said Atubo.

"In Lango alone, we have recruited 10,000 of them, but the rebels move freely in the region. They are on the rampage and violence has escalated. What is the logic of sending troops outside Uganda when we don't have enough to defend ourselves?" he asked.

However, Uganda's minister of defence, Amama Mbabazi, told IRIN on Monday his country would send one battalion – about 1,000 soldiers – to Somalia.

"Somalia is part of our region, and when there is chaos in Somalia, it spills over and affects all its neighbours. Things like drug-trafficking, when there is no government, affect the entire region," he said.

"For example, if Somalia became a terrorist hub, the region would suffer - in sending peacekeepers to Somalia, we are actually defending ourselves.

"We will not spend beyond our current budget to send peacekeepers. We will have to find funding outside the budget, so military operations in Uganda will not be affected," Mbabazi said.