UN Council for peacekeeping plans in Somalia

United Nations, May 1: The Security Council asked the United Nations today to draw up contingency plans for UN peacekeepers in Somalia by mid-June, should members decide conditions merit such a force.

But the council is still far away from authorizing a military mission in the northeast African nation, where fighting has intensified and some 350,000 people have fled Mogadishu, the capital, since February.

In a policy statement read at a formal meeting, the 15-nation Security Council asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to immediately begin ''appropriate contingency planning for a possible United Nations mission, to be deployed if the Security Council decided to authorize such a mission.'' The council called for backing African troops trying to secure a peace. So far only Uganda has sent 1,500 troops with other African nations saying they lack money and equipment.

Somali and Ethiopian troops have been battling insurgents since late in March and hundreds of civilians have been killed in Mogadishu's worst violence in 16 years.

Council President Emyr Jones Parry, Britain's U.N. ambassador, said no U.N. peacekeepers would go to Somalia, unless there was a ''sufficient peace to keep.'' ''If the situation improves sufficiently, the U.N. would then be prepared to consider whether or not it should deploy,'' Jones Parry told reporters.

The council's statement also called on Somalia's transitional government ''to show leadership'' and reach out to all components in society, particularly clans in Mogadishu.

The United States and European Union have criticized Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's government and Ethiopia's military for obstructing relief aid, which Somali and Ethiopian officials have denied.

Somalia has been a byword for anarchy since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Islamist militia captured Mogadishu from warlords last year but were ousted over the New Year by the forces of the Western-backed interim government of President Abdullahi Yusuf, bolstered by Ethiopian troops.

Since then an insurgency blamed on the Islamists has grown in Mogadishu, challenging Yusuf's effort to restore central control.

The secretary-general, in a recent report, suggested if violence increases, a ''coalition of the willing'' with a strong military capability should be considered.

The term ''coalition of the willing'' refers to a group of like-minded countries that decide to take action in a trouble spot and are authorized by the United Nations but are not under U.N. control. So far only African nations have volunteered.

But outside intervention in Somalia has a dismal history.

The killing of U.S. troops in Somalia in late 1993 in the so-called ''Black Hawk Down'' battle marked the beginning of the end for a U.S.-U.N. peacekeeping force that quit Somalia in 1995 and influenced U.S. policy for years.

Reuters>