Unresolved questions could delay launch of new mission.
The foreign ministers of the EU’s 27 member states agreed today to set up a new EU mission in Uganda to train Somali security forces but to hold off on its launch until a way has been found to ensure effective government control over the soldiers.
The mission is to be operational in time for the next intake of trainees in the spring, if the question of government control has been resolved by then.
Preparations for the mission had been under way for several months but the European Commission as well as individual member states are worried that military training in the absence of functioning government structures would potentially aggravate the situation in Somalia, where a weak but inclusive national government is fighting a fierce Islamist insurgency.
The fighting has displaced tens of thousands and has left half of the country’s population dependent on international food aid for survival. The government only controls parts of the capital Mogadishu and, to do so, requires the help of African Union peacekeepers.
The ministers insisted today that they would not launch the operation unless all major concerns about its sustainability and about the mechanisms used to finance Somalia’s security sector were addressed. In their final statement, the ministers said that the training would part of a “wider international effort” that would also involve the vetting of soldiers who are to be trained and the “monitoring and mentoring of the forces once back in Mogadishu and the funding and payment of the salaries of the soldiers”. They stressed the need “to ensure that these issues were satisfactorily addressed on a continuing basis, including before the launch of the mission”.
The foreign ministers also agreed to establish a training mission as part of Eufor Althea, the EU’s current peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This ‘non-executive’ training component is to take over once the situation has stabilised sufficiently to allow the withdrawal of the peacekeepers, who operate under a mandate from the United Nations.
Several troop contributors are eager to draw down as soon as possible but are hesitant to do so at a time when tensions are running high ahead of general elections in October.
Bosnia has seen a marked deterioration of its political climate over the past year or so. Few decision-makers believe that a return to large-scale war as in 1992-95 is possible, but many fear that, in the current atmosphere, minor incidents could spark greater instability. The ministers rebuffed an effort by the Bosnian Serb authorities to cancel decisions made by Valentin Inzko, who serves both as the international high representative and as the EU’s envoy.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, is to travel to Bosnia in the coming weeks.
The foreign ministers agreed today to despatch around 300 police and gendarmerie officers from France, Italy and Spain to reinforce the UN in its efforts to establish law and order in Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit the country on 12 January. The decision followed a request by Ban Ki-moon, the UN’s secretary-general, last Monday (18 January). EU development ministers met in Brussels that day and signalled the willingness of their governments to contribute reinforcements.
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