15 November 2007

The U.N. farce over Africa continues. This time it is Somalia; where optimistic statements of January - February have turned into clueless silence. Suddenly, however, one-sided megaphone diplomacy has awakened. While half a million have been displaced over the last six months to the point that the World Food Program could help no more; a special statement was made expressing great satisfaction that the Prime Minister had resigned peacefully, without a military clash with the President. The two former allies, former enemies of Ethiopia, interim friends of Ethiopian troops, future enemies of Ethiopian troops, were bickering since forming an interim team of government. They are not to be confused with other forces on the ground whose alliances and adversity keep shifting on the ground while ordinary Somalis look for food and shelter.

How could a government's resignation be considered a victory for U.N. diplomacy is as puzzling as another feted "accomplishment." A headline in a specially issued communique bragged that the U.N. envoy in Somalia was in KENYA to hold a meeting with the President of SOMALIA who had made an effort, together with a delegation, to get there!

If the U.N. Secretary General's Special Representative in Somalia cannot enter or stay in Mogadishu, and if the "President" of Somalia cannot hold a sustained meeting in his own capital, why advertise it?

CLUELESS.