Saturday, July 21, 2007
advertisements
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has expressed optimism over the ongoing Somali peace dialogue, saying it may come up with solutions to the decades-long conflict.Museveni told reporters here on Friday that the warring parties can use the dialogue to come up with concrete solutions to the conflict that has brought untold suffering to the people of Somalia.
"The way forward is that let the dialogue go on, they will get a solution to the conflict," Museveni said, adding that the situation in the country is now returning to normalcy despite a few violent attacks in the capital of Mogadishu.
The dialogue aimed at reconciling the different factions blocking a return to normalcy in Somalia was interrupted on Sunday when attackers fired seven mortar shells in Mogadishu, two of which exploded near the venue of the peace talks.
Museveni noted that the Ethiopian troops, who helped the transitional government to oust the Islamic militants, can not be pulled out now since other Africa Union (AU) member states failed to deploy their promised peacekeepers to Somalia.
"Ethiopians have to go out of Somalia because some Somalis look at them as traditional enemies. The only problem with this is that other African countries have not deployed peacekeepers and Ugandan troops can not stay there alone because they are covering a small part," Museveni said, adding that for this reason the Ethiopian troops can not leave.
He hailed the Ugandan troops deployed in the volatile country under the African Union, saying that the situation in Mogadishu is returning to normal.
"Their performance has been very good. I told them to concentrate on the airport, port, presidential palace and a certain junction. By doing this Somalia is now open to the outside world and the government is earning some revenue," he said.
An 8,000-strong AU force is needed to stabilize the war-ravaged country but only half of that number has been promised. Uganda is so far the only country that has sent 1,500 peacekeepers to Somalia.
The AU decided to extend the Ugandan peacekeepers' mission for another six month on Wednesday night, hours before the force's mandate expired.
Source: Xinhua, July 21, 2007