Secretary General’s Special Representative for Somalia Addresses IGAD Special Session - Emphasizes Importance of Dialogue to Peace Process in Somalia

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Nairobi, 1 August - The Secretary General's Special Representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, told the IGAD Council of Ministers today that the continuation of dialogue between the Transitional Federal Government and the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts was an essential first step towards a solution to the present situation in Somalia.

“The Security Council has repeatedly emphasized the need to establish a comprehensive and verifiable ceasefire,” Ambassador Fall said. “It is necessary to have the agreement of all parties not to engage in hostilities in any form and for their forces to remain in place and not make any move that could be seen by others to be provocative.”

Speaking at a special meeting called by Kenya’s Minister for Foreign Affairs (Raphael Tuju) to “address the unfolding crisis in Somalia”, Ambassador Fall told Ministers and delegates that recent statements of the UN Security Council contained useful guidelines regarding the African Union’s request for a partial lifting of the UN arms embargo: “to pave way for a possible deployment of a Peace Support Mission (PSM) and to help facilitate the re-establishment of the national security forces of Somalia.”

Ambassador Fall said the UN Security Council had expressed its willingness to consider this request, if it judged that a peace support mission would contribute to peace and stability in Somalia. He reminded IGAD members (*) that the Security Council also required a detailed mission plan from IGAD or the AU as the basis on which an exemption could be considered.

Ambassador Fall said a continuation of the dialogue initiated in Khartoum between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) offered the parties in Somalia an opportunity to negotiate such an agreement.

“Once an agreement has been negotiated, there may be a role for the peace support
mission, as a neutral third party, to observe and possibly monitor the ceasefire through
the deployment of a relatively small-unarmed observer force,” he said. “This may become the first phase in a staggered approach to the deployment of the proposed peace support mission, leaving scope for expansion if circumstances require and allow it to do so.”

Ambassador Fall said that the UN Political Office for Somalia and the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations were willing to provide technical advice in the areas of mission planning, demobilization disarmament and reconciliation, and police training, provided that a request for such assistance was made through the African Union.

“We have reached a critical stage in the political process in Somalia,” he said. “Every step that we as the international community takes can either improve or worsen the situation on the ground. Any decision we take can make all the difference between the consolidation of peace or its unraveling. It is therefore very important to take each step with due consideration and extreme care and to refrain from any action that could exacerbate the tense situation in Somalia.”

(*) IGAD Member States are: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

For more information please contact: UN Political Office for Somalia(Nairobi, Kenya) Tel. +254 20 762 21 31 Please visit: www.UN-Somalia.org