Tuesday, May 15, 2007
John Holmes, the most senior U.N. official to visit the city in a decade, cut short his trip on Saturday after bombs planted by suspected insurgents killed at least three people.
The United Nations says recent battles between rebels and allied Somali-Ethiopian forces have killed some 1,300 civilians and triggered the worst displacement crisis in the world.
"In terms of numbers and access to them, Somalia is a worse displacement crisis than Darfur or Chad or anywhere else this year," Holmes told a news conference in neighboring Kenya.
"We estimate we are only reaching 35-40 percent of those in need ... many are already suffering from a cholera outbreak."
The United Nations say more than 300,000 people have fled the shell-scarred city in recent weeks.
Holmes said human rights abuses had clearly taken place, citing fierce fighting that shattered many residential parts of the capital, and the unexplained disappearance of citizens.
"Clearly human rights abuses have taken place, but the government categorically denied reports and accusations of their involvement," he said, adding the government said it would let U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour visit.
There has been relative calm in Mogadishu since the interim government and its Ethiopian military backers declared victory over insurgents two weeks ago, in a move that has encouraged small numbers of Somalis to return home.
But residents still fear the insurgents -- a mix of Islamist fighters and some disgruntled clansmen -- may be regrouping to resist a government they see as propped up by Ethiopia and biased against the city's dominant Hawiye clan.
Holmes said he did not believe he was the target of Saturday's bomb blasts but that they sent a message that the capital remained unstable.
"I do not think you can say this is a recovering city. It is a fairly depressing prospect," he said.
During a brief meeting on Saturday, Holmes urged President Abdullahi Yusuf to dismantle checkpoints at the city limits to let food and aid enter Mogadishu as quickly as possible.
It followed complaints by aid workers who accused the authorities of failing to clear food shipments for distribution. The government has promised to clear any obstacles to providing aid to tens of thousands stricken by the fighting.
Meanwhile, foreign diplomats in Addis Ababa said that of 46 foreign detainees sent to Ethiopia in the aftermath of the war to re-take Somalia over the New Year, 29 were still being held.
Rights campaigners have decried the eventual transport to Ethiopia of suspects captured in Kenya then returned to Somalia. Some countries have been demanding word of their detainees.
"You have 29 still remaining," a Western diplomat in Addis Ababa said on Monday.
(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu and Andrew Cawthorne in Addis Ababa)
Source: Reuters, May 15, 2007