[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 20, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6149-S6150]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         INSTABILITY IN SOMALIA

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, given the continuing instability in 
Somalia, the growing tensions between the Transitional Federal 
Government and the Islamic Courts Union, ICU, and the worsening 
humanitarian conditions throughout the country, it is more essential 
than ever that the U.S. Government and the international community 
engage fully in efforts to bring about a peaceful solution to the 
conflict that has plagued Somalia for more than 15 years.
  Most immediately, it is essential that the ICU recognize the 
legitimacy of the TFG and that it engage in good-faith efforts to 
support the TFG's role and authority as Somalia's legitimate 
Government. The ICU must take immediate actions to begin assisting the 
TFG to extend its authority to Mogadishu, and it must do so in a 
transparent and expeditious manner.

[[Page S6150]]

  The international community must also play a productive--and more 
aggressive--role. The United Nations must address this issue 
immediately and must make the necessary decisions and actions to allow 
for every option and tool for establishing stability in Somalia to be 
pursued. It is clear that both regional and international efforts must 
be strengthened and coordinated more effectively, and we must heed the 
calls of international humanitarian organizations on the ground for 
additional humanitarian assistance to increasingly vulnerable 
populations there.
  Somalia's neighbors must be cautious and patient as conditions within 
Somalia continue to change. Somalia's neighbors must play a supportive 
role to the efforts of the TFG, the United Nations, and the African 
Union to secure peace. Hasty, aggressive, or meddling actions could 
undermine or further complicate efforts to find a political solution to 
the stand-off between the TFG and Islamic Courts Union. All 
international actions relating to Somalia must be coordinated, and 
activities that may undermine current efforts there must not be 
tolerated.
  Finally, the U.S. Government must take instability in Somalia 
seriously. Just last week, Ambassador Hank Crumpton, the State 
Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, testified in front of 
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and said that the State 
Department has only one full-time Foreign Service officer, based in 
Nairobi, working on Somalia-related issues. The administration has 
failed to create a strategy for Somalia and is only now, after years 
and years of instability and chaos throughout the country, engaging in 
international efforts to address some of the problems Somalia faces. 
The administration must create one sound policy framework to support 
stabilizing and rebuilding Somalia within which all U.S. Government 
activities can be coordinated. It must also appoint a senior-level 
coordinator to manage the multifaceted challenges that conditions in 
Somalia pose to both the United. States and the international 
community.
  Past efforts have been insufficient. It is past time to take the 
deteriorating conditions within Somalia seriously, and we must do so 
immediately. Recent developments in Somalia threaten to destabilize the 
entire region and plunge Somalia further in to despair. We can help 
prevent this if we act now.

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