UN chief rules out Somalia forceThe time is not right to send United Nations peacekeepers to Somalia, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said.
BBC
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
On Tuesday US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for a UN force to be sent to the conflict-hit nation.
But Mr Ban said the situation in Somalia was too risky and there was no peace to keep.
There was also very limited world support for a multinational stabilisation force, he added, with few countries prepared to take part.
He had contacted 50 nations - but none had agreed to lead such a force and only one or two were willing to send troops, he said.
Somalia has not had an effective national government for 17 years, leading to a collapse of law and order.
Ethiopia-backed government forces have been fighting Islamist insurgents for the last two years, but the Ethiopian troops are due to pull out next month - leaving only the 3,200-strong African Union peacekeeping force behind.
The danger of anarchy in Somalia was "clear and present", Mr Ban said, and action must be taken.
But he said conditions were not in place for sending peacekeepers...
Instead, he said, more efforts were needed on an inter-Somali peace process and to bolster the current African Union force.
The UN proves itself to be pointless again and again. I think of it as a big money laundering operation, and not much more.