IGAD to seek new ways to safeguard interim gov't

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is to find other ways to safeguard Somalia's transitional government after the UN Security Council on Thursday upheld a 1992 arms embargo despite a request for an exemption that would allow peacekeepers into the country, a source said.

The Kenyan special envoy to the Somali peace process, Bethuel Kiplagat, said the Council's decision not to lift the embargo meant IGAD would have to "go back to the drawing board" and find other ways of ensuring the country was safe for the government and the citizens of Somalia.

"We are involved in encouraging dialogue between members of the Transitional Federal Government [TFG] to encourage them to end their disagreements so that they can begin the important work of rebuilding their nation," he told IRIN on Friday.

The TFG recently relocated to Somalia from Nairobi, Kenya, but remains deeply divided over the government's location and the proposal to deploy peacekeepers, particularly those from neighbouring states, to the Horn of Africa state.

The IGAD council of ministers, Kiplagat said, would meet in the near future to decide on the next course of action. The organisation would continue "to stand by" the TFG, he added.

IGAD, whose members are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, sponsored two years of peace talks that culminated in the formation of the TFG in October 2004 in Nairobi.

The Security Council upheld the arms embargo despite a request by the African Union (AU) to lift it. However, the Council said it stood "ready to consider this matter on the basis of information on the mission plan".

It called on "all leaders in Somalia to exercise maximum restraint and take immediate effective steps to reduce tension".

"The Security Council expresses its concern at the recent disagreements and increased tensions among Somali leaders, which threaten the viability of the TFIs [Transitional Federal Institutions]," Greek ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, the Council president for July, said.

The TFIs should, as a matter of urgency, come up with a national security and stabilisation plan to include a comprehensive and verifiable ceasefire agreement, the Council added.

The director of the Horn of Africa division of the International Crisis Group (ICG), Matt Bryden, welcomed the Council's decision to uphold the embargo.

"This is the right message to send - to let the Somali government know that they have no alternative but to reunify the transitional institutions; political dialogue is the only way forward," he said.

Bryden said the ICG was not against the idea of peacekeepers entering Somalia, but said the timing had to be right. In addition, growing tensions in the transitional institutions had to be reduced before peacekeepers were deployed, or there would be "no peace to keep".

"In principle, foreign peacekeepers are a good idea, but broad consensus must first be reached within the TFG, and the AU and IGAD must work out a detailed mobilisation plan," he added. "They must be clear about the mission, its scope and tasks."