In this issue: * STATEMENT BY NEW FORCE COMMANDER OF UN OPERATION * HARGYESA DISARMAMENT * FOREIGN-SPONSORED "PEACE" CONFERENCES: PART OF THE PROBLEM OR OF THE SOLUTION? ____________________________________________________________________ S O M A L I A N E W S U P D A T E ____________________________________________________________________ Vol 3, No 6 February 22, 1994. ISSN 1103-1999 ____________________________________________________________________ Somalia News Update is published irregularly via electronic mail and fax. Questions can be directed to Bernhard.Helander@antro.uu.se or to fax number +46-18-151160. All SNU marked material is free to quote as long as the source is clearly stated. ____________________________________________________________________ STATEMENT BY NEW FORCE COMMANDER OF UN OPERATION (SNU/UNIC, Uppsala, February 16) - The new Force Commander of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM II), Lieutenant-General Aboo Samah Bin Aboo Bakar, of Malaysia, after being introduced to the press at today's noon briefing by the Spokesman for the Secretary- General, made the following statement: "I began my duties as UNOSOM Force Commander on 18 January 1994. The call of the United Nations on me personally and on my country, Malaysia, to render service to the people of Somalia and the international community could not have come at a more critical time in the involvement of the United Nations in Somalia. My appointment coincided with the fundamental review of the UNOSOM mandate the Security Council decided to undertake pursuant to operative paragraph 5 of its resolution 886 (1993), adopted on 18 November 1993. The Council, by its resolution 897 (1994), approved a revised mandate which no longer includes provisions on forcible disarmament of the various factions in Somalia. The revised mandate, while maintaining the fundamental role of UNOSOM in protecting major ports, airports, lines of communication and personnel and equipment, emphasizes that UNOSOM will assist the Somali people and their leaders in attaining the goals of political reconciliation, reconstruction and stability in Somalia. This is a major task which is not going to be without difficulty, but it can be done if the Somali people take advantage of this window of opportunity, settle their differences and move the process of political reconciliation forward. Then a great deal can be achieved. The forces committed by the troop-contributing countries and I will endeavour to implement fully the mandate of the Security Council. In the accomplishment of this task, we will no doubt benefit enormously from the support and understanding of not only the members of the Security Council and the troop-contributing countries, but also that of the international community. The goal of the international community, which undoubtedly coincides with the hopes of the people of Somalia, is the achievement of national political reconciliation which would allow for the reconstruction of the country and rebuilding of its institutions". The resigned UN force commander, the Turkish General Bir, last month called the aborted UNOSOM attempts to disarm the southern warring factions a "half-measure". HARGYESA DISARMAMENT (SNU, Hargeysa, February 22) - The campaign to disarm former militias in the area surrounding Hargeysa, the capital of the break-away republic of Somaliland, is continuing. Since President Egal's call for voluntary disarmament at a rally at the Hargeysa football stadium last month 22 "technicals" equipped with anti-aircraft guns, 14 artillery pieces, 1 tank, 14 anti-tank guns, and 5 heavy machine guns have been voluntarily handed over. The personnel in charge of these weapons, numbering 340, are now voluntarily encamped and are receiving training to facilitate their reintegration into civilian life. The spokesman for the Somaliland presidency, John Drysdale, today informed SNU that the weapons collected were in the possession of five different brigades in the Hargeysa area and that weapons belonging to two other SNM brigades, Nos. 12 and 3, still remain to be handed over. FOREIGN-SPONSORED "PEACE" CONFERENCES: PART OF THE PROBLEM OR OF THE SOLUTION? (SNU, Uppsala, February 22) - When a Dutch parliamentary delegation headed by Mrs. Josephine Verspaget on December 16 last year took part in the opening ceremony of the so-called "Peace and life" conference in Garowe in Nugaal region, they may not have understood that part of the conference's agenda concerned the unresolved dispute over the Sool and Sanaag regions. The problem is that while the Garowe meeting called for "regional cooperation", two of the regions invited to cooperate - Sool and Sanaag - form part of the Somaliland republic, i.e. the North-western part of Somalia that broke away from the rest of the country in May 1991. While several locally initiated conferences, attended by the leaders of clans in the Sool and Sanaag, have expressed support the secession, some groups related to these clans remain unconvinced. Other groups, including strong pressure groups in exile, would like to the see the Sool and Sanaag region dissociated from the Somaliland republic and joined with the other regions of the north-eastern part of Somalia. The vital issues (see SNU No 4/94) dealt with by the Garowe meeting notwithstanding, the setting up of mechanisms for regional security cooperation with part of Somaliland but without the consent of the Somaliland government is by Hargeysa seen as an intrusion in the internal affairs of the republic. From the Hargeysa perspective this infringement is even more serious since it was facilitated by a Dutch-based NGO, NOVIB, who used their contacts to invite the Dutch group parliamentary members to attend. A spokesperson for NOVIB, however, denies that NOVIB had any part except financing in the setting of the Garowe meeting. "All actual planning was made by one of our partners, a Somali organization calling themselves the Somali Peace and Development Society", the NOVIB spokesperson told SNU. ____________________________________________________________________ SNU is an entirely independent newsletter devoted to critical analysis of the political and humanitarian developments in Somalia and Somaliland. SNU is edited and published by Dr. Bernhard Helander, Uppsala University, Sweden. SNU is produced with support from the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden. ____________________________________________________________________