"Somalia will sink into chaos and anarchy”

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) warned on Wednesday of the sending to Somalia of a peace force of the African Union (AU), which the Security Council had advocated on Tuesday. "A permanent peace cannot be forced on Somalia from the outside”, said the GfbV Africa expert Ulrich Delius. "As long as the Somali provisional government supported by the USA and the European Union does not allow the just distribution of power and the formation of a representative government of national unity with representatives of all the important clans, there will be no peace in Somalia.”

"Somalia is threatened with an ever faster sinking onto chaos and anarchy”, warned Delius. This also means a failure of the EU, the USA and Ethiopia. For they have not succeeded in forcing the Somali government, which is supported by themselves, to a credible opening towards the political opposition.

The AU peace force planned is rejected by many Somalis because it is not seen as neutral and independent. For initially Ethiopia, whose army marched into the neighbouring country at Christmas 2006, suggested the sending of such a peace force.

The situation of the civilian population above all in the area surrounding the Somali capital Mogadishu is worse than before the invasion of Ethiopia, criticised the GfbV. For days now artillery fire has been shattering the city at night. Yesterday alone at least 16 persons were killed and 40 were injured. Many inhabitants of the city, who had held out for 16 years in Mogadishu during the civil war, are now fleeing. It is also disturbing to note that governmental authorities have forbidden three media from reporting at the weekend on the extent of the violence and on the flight of the civilian population.