The international community must focus on ending impunity in Somalia, where warlords have committed gross human rights abuses against civilians for many years, a senior U.N. official said on Friday. The U.N. Security Council renewed the authority this week for a small African Union peace force for the country and agreed to debate next month whether U.N. troops should be sent there. But Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, U.N. special representative for Somalia, said Wednesday's resolution was missing a key element. "I am under pressure from Somalis in the Diaspora and within the country, the victims, to explain why no mention is made of ending impunity," Ould-Abdallah told Reuters in an interview. "They say that unless it is addressed, there's no possibility of a return to peace, or a return to a normal economy or the normal delivery of humanitarian assistance." Lawless Somalia has been wracked by conflict between a fledgling interim government, its Ethiopian allies and heavily armed remnants of a hardline Islamist group that they chased out of the capital Mogadishu at the start of 2007. This week's resolution extended the U.N. endorsement of the AU mission for six months and included several positive statements that amounted to progress, Ould-Abdallah said. The protection of civilians and humanitarian relief efforts were placed front and centre, while member states were urged to help guard merchant shipping from pirates off the Somali coast, especially vessels carrying vital U.N. food aid.
