UN Council Meets Many UK-based Somalis, Dodges Requests for Human Rights Prosecutions

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press in Africa
www.innercitypress.com/unsc4djibouti060308.html

DJIBOUTI, June 3 -- Many of the Somalis meeting at this luxury hotel in Djibouti with UN Security Council members from New York came in not from Somalia but from the UK. That the Transitional Federal Government is top-heavy with UK citizens has recently been exposed, as discussed here. But it emerged on June 2 that even the vice-chairman and spokesman for the ostensibly Eritrea-based Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, Abdulrahman Abdishakur Warsame, lives in London.

When Inner City Press asked him about reports that the town of Baidoa is surrounded and about to fall, he replied, "I am not in Baidoa, you should ask the Transitional Federal Government." That he was not then physically in Baidoa was obvious. But the disconnect is more fundamental. The A.R.S. delegation in Djibouti is distant both from compatriots still in Asmara who demanded the immediate withdrawal of Ethiopian troops and from the insurgents on the ground who are fighting the Ethiopians.

UK Ambassador John Sawers was seen meeting Monday night with some of the A.R.S. delegation, after a liquor-less reception thrown by the Saudi Arabians. Earlier he had encouraged the traveling UN press corps not to freeze the A.R.S. into a hard-line position about the withdrawal of the Ethiopian, which apparently would be accomplished by quoting what they actually said.

Tuesday before the Council and press headed to Juba in South Sudan, they received a "Statement by Somali Non-state Actors and Civil Society" which read suspiciously like a production of the UN's Ould-Adballah. The statement called Ould-Adballah's Office "the best institution to lead the current International supported peace process." Inner City Press has asked about how the Somali delegations' hotel bills at the Djibouti Palace Kempinski, with its $90 buffet, are being paid. "Half by the E.C.," was the beginning of an answer. If and when we get more information, it will be reported on this site.

Afterwards, Inner City Press asked the Somali Peace and Human Rights Network's Abdinasir A. Osman who, in his view, has been committing the human rights violations in Somalia, only the insurgents or also the Ethiopians and the Transitional Federal Government? He answered by referring to Amnesty International's reports, and said that the Security Council should consider referring perpetrators for criminal prosecution, presumably by the International Criminal Court, to which the Council can and has referred cases, such as in Darfur.

At the Council's close-out press conference in Djibouti, Inner City Press asked UK Ambassador John Sawers if the Security Council is going to act on the civil society request that the Council "establish a commission of inquiry to investigate violations of human rights." Amb. Sawers said that will be up to the Somali parties. This is not the approach the Security Council has taken toward Sudan, to which the Council members were headed, on their special UN plane.

Curtain-raising footnote: Three weeks after violence emptied the southern Sudanese town of Abyei, the UN Security Council headed to Juba, to meet with the president of the South Sudan region, Salva Kiir. They were also slated to visit -- and render "homage," one Ambassador said -- at the tomb of John Garang. We will report from there, or from Khartoum after that. President al-Bashir has traveled to the food summit in Rome, and so the Council will wait to speak with him.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc4djibouti060308.html

Ethiopian Troops Cast Shadow on Djibouti Talks, But Who Could or Would Replace Them?

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press in Africa
www.innercitypress.com/unsc3djibouti060208.html

DJIBOUTI, June 2 -- The Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia delegation meeting the UN Security Council laid down a condition for moving forward: there must be a timeline for Ethiopian troops to leave Somalia. Some saw this as a softening of the A.R.S. position, in which actual departure was the threshold for discussion. But who would replace the Ethiopians?

When A.R.S. vice-chairman Abdulrahman Abdishakur Warsame emerged from meeting with the Council to take questions, Inner City Press asked if the Alliance would support a UN Peacekeeping force in Somalia. Yes, he said, we would support that. But earlier in the day, the Council was told that there are no countries waiting to send troops. So what if the Ethiopians were "re-hatted" as UN Peacekeepers?

Inner City Press asked Abdulrahman Abdishakur Warsame about reports that the town of Baidoa, defended until now by Ethiopian troop and those of the Transitional Federal Government, is surrounded and about to fall. I am not in Baidoa, he answered. "You should ask the TFG." Inner City Press did ask, the TFG's minister of information. He did not deny the town might change hands. Instead he said that the TFG has taken the decision to "stop all operations," including apparently operations to defend Baidoa, and Jowar before it. What these talks can or do have to do with events on the ground in Somalia is not clear.

UK Ambassador John Sawers afterwards told the press that perhaps the A.R.S. representatives here in Djibouti are having to take into account the less flexible views of their compatriots still in Eritrea. Inner City Press' sources say that "the A.R.S. members in Eritrea are demanding that the breakaway group that is now in Djibouti return to Asmara for consultation. The ARS members in Eritrea are actually accusing the SRSG and these 'UN mediated talks' as a U.S. inspired program to divide the resistance." Al-Shabaab's representative was even more focused on Monday, saying that the UN is the U.S.. Djibouti is crawling with U.S. military presence; there's talk of beer in the Sheraton Hotel and even a red light district.

Footnote: U.S. Ambassador Wolff, meanwhile, took a surprisingly (but perhaps understandably) low profile in Monday's talks in Djibouti. France took an even lower-key approach: their Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert is skipping Djibouti and will fly directly to Sudan. Never a dull moment...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc3djibouti060208.html