WASHINGTON - Sen. Norm Coleman waded into the question of sending United Nations peacekeepers into Somalia, urging the leader of the African nation's transitional government Tuesday to promote reconciliation among all factions that are "not associated with terrorism."
The Minnesota Republican met with Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, president of the Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Republic of Somalia, which has been warring with Islamist forces who controlled wide swaths of the country for more than a decade.
"I emphasized that reconciliation is the key to future peace in Somalia," said Coleman, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Coleman, whose state is home to an estimated 30,000 Somali immigrants, sought the meeting with Ahmed, who has been in the United States urging the U.N. Security Council to send peacekeeping troops to help stabilize his war-torn and famine-plagued country. The prospect of bringing foreign troops back into Somalia has deeply divided the nation's opposing clans.
Coleman said he supports a U.N. force in Somalia when the conditions allow it. For that, he urged greater efforts at political reconciliation between Ahmed's government and other "stakeholders" in Somalia.
"The U.N. looks at peace keeping, not peace making," Coleman said. Some form of reconciliation, he added, would be the key to further action by the U.N.
Coleman said his interest arises from the size of Minnesota's Somali community, one of the largest in the nation. Most relocated to the Twin Cities metro area after years in refugee camps.
"He knows that it's important to me because of the number of Somalis we have in our state," Coleman said. "Obviously, Minnesota has a deep interest in what happens in Somalia."
