From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sat Feb 20 2010 - 06:10:09 EST
U.S. says not playing politics with aid to Somalia
Sat 20 Feb 2010 | 11:00 GMT
* Rice says claim is "false and unfounded"
* Blames Muslim insurgent group al Shabaab
By Basil Katz
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 20 (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Susan Rice on Friday dismissed a U.N. official's charge that the United
States was withholding funds and aid to a U.N. food agency in Somalia for
political reasons.
This week, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia Mark Bowden accused
Washington of "politicization of serious humanitarian issues" after
negotiations aimed at releasing millions of dollars for Somalia stalled.
"First of all, we utterly reject that claim," Rice told journalists. "We
think it's false and unfounded."
Rice called the World Food Program suspension of aid last month to parts of
Somalia "an unfortunate development" but said the rebel group al Shabaab,
fighting to overthrow the Western-backed government in Mogadishu, was to
blame.
"The reason why aid is not now proceeding to the people of southern Somalia
is one reason alone and it's quite clear: it's al Shabaab's attacks on WFP
and other U.N. agencies, its kidnapping of innocent relief workers, its
extortion of funds," she said.
The World Food Program announced on Jan. 5 it had suspended its work in much
of southern Somalia due to threats by al Shabaab, which Washington accuses
of being al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia. The U.N. agency has denied U.S.
concerns that some aid has been diverted to rebels.
"No U.N. agency has paid any money to al Shabaab," Bowden told journalists
in Nairobi on Wednesday.
WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon in Nairobi on Wednesday also denied that food
aid meant for Somali civilians was finding its way into the hands of al
Shabaab, which controls much of southern and central Somalia. A WFP internal
investigation had found no evidence of diversions to the group, Smerdon
said.
The U.S. State Department said it remained concerned about the issue. "In
the case of Somalia we do have concerns that aid was being diverted or money
was exchanging hands," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said on
Friday. "We're not going to pay a terrorism tax to al Shabaab."
"The U.S. is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to Somalia," Rice
said. "We have been consistently over many years."
Somalia has lacked an effective central government since 1991. An African
Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia is slowly being built up. It currently
consists of about 5,200 troops and will eventually increase to 8,000.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn in Washington; Editing by Patrick
Worsnip and Bill Trott)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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