The United States strongly opposes Kenya’s effort to establish a buffer zone in southern Somalia, a leaked diplomatic cable shows.
In the December 2009 message recently posted by WikiLeaks, a US State Department official is said to have “forcibly underscored” Washington’s concerns over reports that Kenya was “recruiting and training an ethnic Somali force as part of a ‘Jubaland’ initiative”.
US deputy Assistant Secretary of State Karl Wycoff expressed America’s position to Foreign minister Moses Wetang’ula at a meeting in Djibouti, the cable indicates.
Mr Wycoff emphasised to Mr Wetang’ula that the Jubaland move “is a bad idea that would more likely add to Somalia’s instability than to help stabilise the country”.
“Wetang’ula defended the initiative by noting that it was an evolving concept and that Kenya had carefully coordinated every aspect of it with the TFG (Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government)”, the cable says.
The minister is said to have insisted nearly two years ago that the al Shabaab insurgency was “weak”.
He recalled during the Djibuouti talks that Ethiopian troops had marched into Mogadishu in 2006 “like a hot knife through butter”.
According to the cable, Mr Wetang’ula further said that the Kibaki administration hoped that the Kenyan-backed effort to defeat al Shabaab militants in southern Somalia would “cage in the Hawiye”, Somalia’s largest clan.
The US should not only criticise Kenya’s plan but should also present its own proposals, the Foreign minister is said to have suggested. “I sincerely believe that good ideas should give way to better ideas,” he said.
Kenya could in any event no longer afford to sit on the sidelines, Mr Wetang’ula stressed. The threat of a major terrorist attack in Nairobi was increasing every day, he warned.
Difficult to implement
The cable also reports on Mr Wetang’ula’s acknowledgment that “some excited Kenyan military officers” had “bungled the earlier phases” of the Jubaland initiative.
The Jubaland plan had also been difficult to implement, Mr Wetang’ula added, because some Kenyan politicians of Somali ethnicity “saw any effort to weaken al Shabaad as an ‘Ethiopian plot’”.
The Foreign minister voiced confidence, however, that the plan would succeed, the cable reports.
A Human Rights Watch report last month noted that Kenya’s move to establish an 80-kilometre-wide buffer zone on the Somali side of the border would also allow Kenyan officials “to make the argument that Somali refugees could stay there instead of coming into Kenya”.
By KEVIN J. KELLY NATION Correspondent New York
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Source:
kaarshe
07/09/2011
The creation of Azania state in southern Somalia was not an innocent Somali initiative, but was an organised initiative engineered by Kenya and conveyed with Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. Kenya trained and recruited the tribes who live that area to create a buffer zone with Somali Islamist. Kenya Foreign minister Moses Wetang’ula says the tribal regionalism in Somalia is an “evolving concept”.
Excerpts from earlier articles:
” creation of Azania was celebrated on Sunday in a colorful ceremony in Kenya’s capital”. AP 04.04.2011
“Kenya supports the new administration as it creates a buffer zone near its border with Somalia.” AP 04.04.2011
“A former Somali Defence minister Prof Mohamed Abdi Gandhi has been sworn in as the president of the newly created semi-autonomous region of Jubaland.” Dialy Nation 06.04.2011
Azania President Mohamed Abdi Gandhi says “Our aim of establishing this administration is to first liberate these regions,’ ‘We are not breaking away from Somalia.’ Much of Somalia’s southern and central regions, including large swaths of the capital of Mogadishu, are controlled by al-Shabab.” AP 04.04.2011
Rashid Abdi, a Somali expert at the International Crisis Group saya “The whole process is being driven by local people who just said ‘let’s try at different options that are responsive to our local needs,’” AP 04.04.2011
Asha Gele Puntland’s minister for women and family affairs says “The government has failed those people who are establishing new administrations,” “If the government gave them directions they would not have acted by themselves. What is missing is the government’s role.” AP 04.04.2011
Somali Information Minister Abdulkareem Jama said the new states are a bad idea. ‘Taking that path is a disaster,’ he said. ‘The idea that every region and every group of people has to form their own government without the consultation of the national government will only create more differences among communities and encourage Somalis not to come together.’ AP 04.04.2011
Kenya Foreign Minister Moses Wetang’ula “Wetang’ula defended the initiative by noting that it was an evolving concept and that Kenya had carefully coordinated every aspect of it with the TFG (Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government)”, the cable says. Daily Nation 07.09.2011
“It was not clear whether the Kenyan Government supported the election but recent WikiLeaks revelations showed that the country supported the creation of an autonomous region near its border with Somalia to prevent the flow of illegal arms” Daily Nation 06.04.2011
“Nairobi Plans for the formation of another semi-autonomous region in the anarchic Somalia is an idea whose time has come.” Standard 06.04.2011
“Talks in Nairobi this week, which brought together elders, religious leaders and activists from Lower Juba, Middle Juba and Gedi regions to consolidate ideas, have come at the right time.” Standard 06.04.2011
“Kenya has had to bear the brunt of the spillover of continued fighting in Somalia and it is high time it moves to safeguard its interests.” Standard 06.04.2011
“The talks for the southern semi-autonomous regions is a good example.” Standard 06.04.2011
“Kenya must support initiatives that promise to bring hope and peace in Somalia because it is in its best interest. Those initiatives must be those that offer win-win deals for Kenya and Somalia.” Standard 06.04.2011
I leave to every Somali person to judge whether creation of these tribal regional states is pure Somali initiative.