The Foreign Service Journal, February 2007

view as a welcome respite of relative peace and order to the wartorn coun- try. The new fighting set off a stream of refugees toward Kenya, which has now closed its borders. In January, Ethiopian Prime Minis- ter Meles Zenawi said his U.S.-trained troops would be withdrawn in two weeks, but Somali officials now say they may be needed much longer in the fractured country ( http://all africa.com/ ) . Members of the Som- alia Contact Group met in Brussels on Jan. 3, with the full group meeting in Nairobi on Jan. 5, to press for an all- African peacekeeping force and a new round of negotiations between the TFG and moderate leaders of the fun- damentalist forces. A plan to send peacekeepers was approved in December by the African Union and the U.N. Security Council, but has remained stalled for lack of volunteers and resources to support them. Uganda has offered troops, but declines to take the lead. The U.S., concerned over the ICU’s suspected harboring of key ter- rorists involved in the 1998 bombing of American embassies in Africa, dis- patched U.S. Navy ships from the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa based in neighboring Dijbouti. The ships were ordered to patrol the East African coastline and prevent the al-Qaida suspects’ escape as Ethiopian troops drove the funda- mentalists southward. On Jan. 8, U.S. forces launched air strikes on an alleged al-Qaida training camp in southern Somalia near the Kenyan border. The deployment and air strikes were part of the first U.S. offensive in Somalia since 18 Ameri- can soldiers were killed there by Somali clansmen in 1993 in the events recounted in the book and movie, “Blackhawk Down.” In 1991, the toppling of dictator Mohammad Said Barre precipitated relentless clan warfare in Somalia that left tens of thousands starving and prompted a huge U.N. relief effort in which the U.S. participated. U.S. involvement in a mission to crush a particular warlord in Mogadishu led to the 1993 military fiasco. The U.S. promptly withdrew; the U.N. mission was scaled back and then, in 1995, abandoned; and years of lawlessness ensued as a dozen attempts to set up a government ended in failure ( www. mercurynews.com/mld/mercury news/news/world/16420357.htm ). Following the events of Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. officials began a close watch on Somalia, as the failed state appeared to be a likely place for al- Qaida operatives to seek shelter, and were soon working with various war- lords to track down terrorists. In 2004, as a result of negotiations in Kenya, the U.N. set up a transition- al government, but the warlords ensconced in Mogadishu, and backed by the CIA, refused to accept it, so the new government had to set itself up in Baidoa, 150 miles from the capital. In January 2006, Islamic militants of the ICU began fighting the warlords, and by August had extended their control over much of southern Somalia. The Islamic militia’s decision in late fall to advance on Baidoa, directly challeng- ing the transitional government, trig- gered the U.S.-Ethiopian interven- tion. Settlement of the crisis will not be easy. It involves untangling and resolving a series of local and regional enmities that have been roiled by a succession of what the International Crisis Group, in a detailed August 2006 assessment, terms “ill-con- ceived” foreign interventions ( www. crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?i d=4333&l=1 ). The ICG recom- mends that Somali President Yusuf of the TFG dismiss the current govern- ment and invite a senior Hawiye leader to form a government of national unity through negotiations with the Islamic Courts. In a December report for the Council on Foreign Relations, “Avoid- ing Conflict in the Horn of Africa,” analyst Terrence Lyons presents the urgency of addressing the region’s “multiple challenges to stability” ( www.cfr.org/publication/12192/ ) . Lyons urges the U.S. to attempt to resolve the long-running border de- marcation dispute between Ethiopia and Eritea, which, he argues, is con- tributing to the instability in Somalia (Eritea is backing the Islamic rebels). The BBC’s “Somalia in Crisis” page is a useful resource for following developments in this strategic region ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_dept h/africa/2004/somalia/default.stm ). In addition, the International Crisis Group issues periodic updates on the region and offers detailed background reports ( www.crisisgroup.org/home /index.cfm?l=1&id=1166 ). — Susan Maitra, Senior Editor F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 15 C Y B E R N O T E S 50 Years Ago... One has only to serve as a member of a selection board to realize the exactness and the sincerity of the statement in President Eisenhower’s greeting to the United States Foreign Service at Christmas. He said: ‘On your judgment and patient efforts a great measure of the welfare, not only of our nation but of the world, depends.’ — Marvin L. Frederick, from “A Public Member Looks at Selection Board Procedures,” FSJ , February 1957.