EU sets conditions for funds to Somalia

BRUSSELS: The European Union would help finance African peacekeepers in Somalia only if the interim government reaches out to Islamists and other parties in the quest for peace, the bloc’s top aid official said on Monday. “The situation in Somalia is far from being stable. The attack against the Villa Somalia where President (Abdullahi) Yussuf was is characteristic of the risk of a return to civil war,” EU aid Commissioner Louis Michel told reporters on Monday. A broad-based government “is the only way to politically stabilise Somalia, therefore I have established a clear link between financing the stabilisation force and the opening to dialogue and reconciliation process,” he said. The Islamists were chased out of strongholds in Mogadishu and much of the south over the New Year by Somali soldiers and Ethiopian tanks, troops and fighter jets. But mortar rounds slammed into the presidential palace in Mogadishu on Friday night and assailants, assumed to be Islamists, fought presidential guards for about 20 minutes before retreating, officials said. The Islamists have vowed to fight on against the government and its Ethiopian allies, and the African Union (AU) has approved a nearly 8,000-strong peacekeeping force for Somalia. The 15 million euros ($19 million) the EU executive has set aside to help finance an AU peace force, replacing Ethiopian troops in Somalia, will be handed over only if there is a real reconciliation process, Michel insisted on the margins of a meeting of EU foreign ministers. That money would represent funding for three months for three of the nine battalions envisaged for deployment. Government and Ethiopian forces are hunting the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC), who fled south towards Kenya. “It is of the utmost importance to ensure that all key stake holders-including clan elders, Islamic leaders, representatives of the business community, civil society and women-are engaged in an inclusive political and institutional process,” EU foreign ministers said in a statement. Asked what steps the interim government should take, Michelsaid: “reinstate the president of parliament in his function, secondly lift fully or partially the martial law, thirdly give freedom of expression back to media.” Ethiopian troops and Somali police opened fire on Mogadishu demonstrators on Monday, killing at least three in the latest violence in parts of the capital where support for ousted Islamists ran high, a witness said. EU foreign ministers said they were concerned by the situation but saw “a window of opportunity” for a sustainable solution and urged all parties to seize it “to reach a durable political settlement.”