UN head against new Somalia force 联合国秘书长反对索马里增兵

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, has warned against sending a UN peacekeeping force to Somalia.

联合国秘书长潘基文反对派遣联合国维和部队到索马里。

Mr Ban warned UN peacekeepers could worsen Somalia's conflict

He said a UN force should remain the UN's goal, but that deploying¹（展开，配置，部署） now could worsen the country's conflict.

Mr Ban said the goal would only be achieved after progress on political reconciliation²（调和） and restoring peace after two decades of conflict.

He spoke³ ahead of a donor⁴（捐赠） conference aiming to raise 200m euros ($260m) for peacekeeping and national security.

The EU has already said it will pledge（保证，誓言） at least 60m euros ($78m) towards Somalia's security at the meeting, which opens in Brussels（布鲁塞尔） later on Thursday.

The international donor conference is seeking to raise funds for the African Union peacekeeping effort and to create national security forces.

Those forces could include a 6,000-strong national security force and police force of 10,000 officers.

Correspondents say such forces might contain pirates off Somalia's coast.

Only about 4,300 peacekeepers from an intended 8,000-strong AU force are currently deployed⁵ in Mogadishu（摩加迪沙）.

The EU hopes the announcement of its financial pledge will be a benchmark for other donors⁶ at a time when the situation could hardly be more critical, says the BBC's world affairs correspondent, Mike Wooldridge.

The EU, which is hosting the conference with the United Nations, considers Somalia now has its first credible⁷ government in many years, though in reality it currently controls little beyond a few areas of the capital, Mogadishu.

The US and AU have been pushing for a UN presence but finding troops to participate has been difficult because of the dangers in Somalia.

The AU currently has about 4,300 peacekeepers in Mogadishu

High-risk option

Ban Ki-Moon spoke against a background of a Security Council request last December for a UN peacekeeping mission to replace the existing AU force.

The Security Council asked Mr Ban to give his recommendations on such a force, based on his assessment⁸（估价，评估） of the situation in the country, and gave a 1 June deadline for a final decision.

"The deployment⁹ of a United Nations peacekeeping operation directly, at this stage, would be a high-risk option," said Mr Ban.

"The insertion（插入，刊载） of international security forces in Somalia remains¹⁰ a divisive（区分的，分裂的） and politicised issue with the potential to exacerbate¹¹（加重） the conflict.

"The issue of deploying a United Nations peacekeeping operation remains contentious¹²（有异议的）, with divided positions among the Somali political actors."

He called for the UN to continue strengthening the AU force in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, and provide the government with political and security assistance.

In December, Mr Ban had said few countries were willing to send peacekeeping troops to Somalia, as there was no peace to keep.

The world's attention has largely focused recently on Somali piracy¹³, especially since the high seas drama in which US Navy Seals killed three pirates and rescued Richard Phillips, the abducted¹⁴（诱拐，绑走） US captain of a cargo¹⁵ ship.

One of the aid agencies operating in Somalia, the International Rescue Committee, has urged donors not to allow piracy to divert attention from the country's humanitarian¹⁶ crisis which, the agency said, was affecting hundreds of thousands of Somalis.