PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECRETARY-GENERAL’S SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR SOMALIA

In light of a new round of conflict in Somalia, the top United Nations official there had asked the Security Council to urge States to abide by the arms embargo on that country and refrain from interfering in its internal affairs, he said at Headquarters this afternoon.

At a press conference following his briefing to the Council, François Lonseny Fall, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, said the June ceasefire agreement reached in Khartoum, Sudan, between Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government and the Union of Islamic Courts had been interrupted by a new round of conflict, amid reports of Ethiopian forces moving into Baidoa in support of the Government side.  At the same time, some Government troops had been confirmed to have defected to the Islamic militia.  Those developments had led to the postponement of a second round of talks, originally set for this month.

Mr. Fall said he had briefed the Council on a conversation this morning with the Union of Islamic Court regarding its refusal to attend the talks in the Sudanese capital until all Ethiopian troops had left Somali soil.  However, neither the Special Representative’s Office in Nairobi, Kenya, nor its contacts in Baidoa had any monitoring capacity and could not confirm reports of an Ethiopian military presence in Somalia.  The topic of Ethiopian troops had not surfaced during this morning’s briefing, he added.

Denying a correspondent’s suggestion that the United Nations was turning a blind eye to the presence of Ethiopian troops, he said that country’s support for the Transitional Federal Government did not translate into a green light for any country to interfere in Somalia “at this critical moment”.  However, his Office had been informed of Ethiopian security concerns in light of recent events, and reports had been received about Ethiopian troop movements on the border between the two countries.

He said his Office was active in encouraging both sides to resolve their differences through dialogue and, while it supported the Transitional Government, it had taken pains not to isolate the Union of Islamic Courts.  “We are in close contact with the Courts in Mogadishu.  I have had conversations with Sheikh Sharif himself,” Mr. Fall said, referring to the Union’s leader, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.  The United Nations viewed the Transitional Government and the Islamic Courts as the only parties to the peace talks, despite the existence of another group -- in one reporter’s words –- in the “more-or-less autonomous” Puntland region in north-eastern Somalia.

Another topic of discussion with the Security Council this morning had been whether it could modify the terms of the United Nations arms embargo to allow the Transitional Government to create an armed force, Mr. Fall said.  The Council was waiting to hear from military leaders of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member countries, who were meeting today to work out the details of a peace support mission to Somalia.

[Last month, the Security Council had stated its willingness to consider the possible deployment of a peace-support mission on the basis of a detailed plan from IGAD or the African Union.  It had expressed its readiness to consider an exemption to the 1992 arms embargo, in order to pave the way for deployment of such a mission and help facilitate the re-establishment of Somalia’s national security forces.]

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For information media • not an official record