10 July 2009
editorial
The UPDF has been supplying arms and munitions to fighters of the Somali Transitional Federal Government on behalf of the United States government. The Americans, keen to stop radical Islamists from taking over the troubled country, have then been paying the UPDF to restock its supplies.
Few people will argue against the need for countries in the region, as well as interested parties such as the United States, to seek a peaceful Somalia. It is the reason our government deployed peacekeepers to Somalia, under the aegis of the African Union, to help support the fledging government there. However, supplying arms to one party in such a conflict takes away the flag of neutrality that our peacekeepers are expected to have and opens them up to the possibility of attack from 'enemy' combatants.
As the Americans discovered in 1993 when 18 of their soldiers were killed in gun battles in the capital Mogadishu, anyone who gets involved into the back-alley military adventures of Somali politics ought to be prepared to pay a high price. Why then would our government want to put our men in uniform in the line of fire where others - including the Americans - are not willing to deploy their own? It might win us friends in foreign capitals but is it in our long-term national interest to walk this lonely and dangerous journey?
It is now clear that the Transitional Federal Government has failed to impose its will, either militarily or politically, over Somalia and that even if it wins the war it will, in all likelihood, lose the peace. It is also clear that there is no peace for our soldiers to keep in Somalia.
If keeping the TFG in power is in our interest and that of neighbouring states, the African Union and the international community, let them all contribute the men and resources required to defeat the Islamist fundamentalists - and rebuild Somalia's political systems and institutions.
We cannot continue to pretend to keep the peace in Somalia while arming some of the combatants, neither should our national army be turned into a mercenary force to fight on behalf of foreign interests.
Unless we maintain the neutrality that the peacekeeping mandate assumes or mobilise a multilateral effort to seek long-term solutions to Somalia's problems, we shall be making Uganda a target for terror groups.
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Americans are investing, to kill off these agressive, radical ARABS. Nomads in Africa