Somalia and the death of Responsibility To Protect

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah didn't have to call Somalia an R2P situation in his press briefing today, but, at the prodding of a reporter, he did. So here we go.

Somalia is the worst example of R2P imaginable, because foreign meddling and the ongoing proxy war between Eritrea et al vs. Ethiopia et al are responsible for nearly all the problems the country faces today. Really, Somalia would be so much better if everyone just stayed the hell out. Call it the Responsibility To Not Make It Worse. Trekkies have another name for it.

Mr. Ould-Abdallah, the Secretary-General's special envoy to Somalia, argued in a speech to the Security Council today that the Council should:

1. Move UN operations back to Mogadishu despite the daily shelling that happens there. The best way to do this, he said, would be to set up a Green Zone "similar to those elsewhere." Apparently, Mr. Ould-Abdallah hasn't read Imperial Life In The Emerald City.

2. Support the African Union's AMISOM peacekeeping force. AMISOM is staffed entirely by pro-Ethiopian forces from Burundi and Uganda and opposed entirely by foreign fighters allied with Eritrea. So, when is a peacekeeping force not a peacekeeping force? When it's one side of an ongoing proxy war! So the UN's solution to the catastrophe in Somalia is to back the pro-Ethiopian side and hope they win. This is Responsibility To Protect? Apparently it is.