Kenya calls on the world to support war-torn Somalia

Kenya on Tuesday called on the international community to back the transitional government of Somalia to restore peace and stability in the Horn of African nation which has been rocked by factional fighting.

Kenya's Foreign Affairs Minister, Raphael Tuju said the world's backing was essential for Somali's transitional government, which has failed to exert control over the warlords-infested country.

"It is an indictment of the civilized world that we have allowed a country to exist without a government for that long. As world leaders, we bear some responsibility for this neglect," Tuju told lawmakers from across the world during the ongoing Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting in Nairobi, the capital.

"I would like to urge that we all pay attention to Somalia. That after 15 years, we must have the presence of mind courage to appreciate that this now must be solved. As parliamentarians we have taken the first step of recognizing the transitional parliament," said Tuju.

He said Kenya, which hosted the two-year reconciliation conference, has absolutely no option but to forge ahead to support Somalia for the sake of regional stability, in spite of the many obstacles facing the process.

"We have struggled with the limited resources we have to help Somalia. Unfortunately most of the rest of world has tended to just standby," the minister lamented.

The east African nation has suffered the burden of instability in the region, particularly the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees as well as illegal arms, which the minister said was a growing threat to international peace and security.

"May I request that those of us who have the capacity to take this matter up with our home governments should kindly do what we can to address the issue of Somalia. We owe it to the present and future generations of Somalis," Tuju said.

"Besides, in a world that has become one village, we cannot run away from Somalia. You will have to encounter Somalis in Toronto, London, Stockholm and Nairobi or in the high seas," he added.

Somalia's exiled transitional government last year officially relocated from the relative safety of neighboring Kenya to the Horn of Africa nation to embark on a key task of rebuilding the war-torn nation after decades of anarchy.

Regional analysts, however, say relocating without foreign peacekeepers, the transitional government fears the militia-rule in Somalia will prevent ministers and their teams from carrying out their work in safety.

At least 35 people have been killed in three days of fighting in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, with rival militias using heavy weapons.

Fighting has spread to the city center from the north, as an alliance of warlords and an Islamist militia fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

The violent ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 plunged the country into a patchwork of fiefdoms governed by warlords, who have defied more than 14 rounds of peace talks to restore a semblance of national administration there.

Source: Xinhua