By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 25 -- The day after new International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said on the drought in the Horn of Africa "the IMF stands ready to provide financial assistance to affected countries," Inner City Press asked IMF spokesman David Hawley what the IMF is doing in the famine's epicenter, Somalia, and in adjacent Eritrea.
Hawley replied that he had "no timeline of contacts with Eritria" and that the IMF has "no operat[ions] in Somalia," saying that there has been "no recognized government there for several years."
But the UN and others have recognized the Transitional Federal Government; there is a UN funded African Union peacekeeping mission, AMISOM, supporting the TFG.
Lagarde said, "We are discussing requests from Djibouti and Kenya for additional assistance, and are ready to provide more to other affected countries if requested by the authorities.” But what authorities, in the case of Somalia?
On Libya, Hawley said that the IMF is not involved in the frozen assets issue -- click here for Inner City Press coverage of the issues -- and that the IMF does not yet deal with the National Transitional Council.
When he was pressed about many large IMF members having recognized the NTC, he maintained that there was not yet international consensus to deal with the TNC -- similar, it seems, to the position that South Africa took -- alone, the US said -- in the Security Council on August 24. Watch this site.
Footnote: Hawley confirmed that Dominique Strauss Kahn is planning a "personal" visit to the IMF. Hawley said DSK would meet with staff, and that it would be closed to the public and press. Expect a circus outside.
