U.S. military support to international efforts in Somalia was discussed during a media roundtable March 4, 2010, in Brussels, Belgium, with two senior members of the U.S. Africa Command staff who were visiting representatives of the European Union.

The two U.S. AFRICOM officials, Ambassador J. Anthony Holmes and Major General Richard J. Sherlock, stressed that the U.S. military does not have a direct role in Somalia but has supported training of African Union peacekeepers. Holmes is U.S. Africa Command's deputy to the commander for civil military activities. Sherlock is director of strategy, plans and programs.

The two officials were in Brussels to discuss possible ways for the United States and the European Union to complement one another when working with African partners on a range of security issues, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and maritime security programs.

During the roundtable, the two officials articulated current U.S. policy with regard to Somalia. They noted that the United States seeks ways to work with international partners to strengthen ongoing stability efforts in Somalia and other countries.

Following is a partial transcript of the media roundtable's remarks relating to Somalia and other African security topics:


AMB HOLMES [during opening comments]: You mentioned Somalia, that’s an area where we’re going to do a lot more ... the EU is already doing a lot, and we’ll be doing more, and we’d like to harmonize what we’re doing, to coordinate better, to communicate, to listen, to understand, and then begin working together as it suits both of us to be able to more effectively spend our money, to have a result that is greater than the sum of the parts, to have interoperability, to ensure that there is the right balance to supporting the TFG and supporting AMISOM, to make sure that we get the right regional and int’l partners involved. We do things ... for example, in the Sahel, in terms of [Security Sector Reform] and a lot of post-conflict states, we’re heavily involved in Liberia, I think we will be working together under some sort of UN umbrella in Guinea, [and it] wouldn’t surprise me if something came out of Niger and the transition to democracy in Niger. There are so many weak, failing reconstructing states that need security investment to permit the governments of Africa to provide the security that both their people need and that their economies need in order to be able to grow to attract investment.

. . . [Discussing other topics]

AMB HOLMES: The creation of AFRICOM in 2007 and its formalization in 2008 reflects a much higher priority that we give Africa now than we have in the past, in an understanding that what happens in Africa has implications for the national security of the U.S. What the creation of AFRICOM was really just a, an internal reorganization within the US military and the US defense department, and it unified the continent under one joint military command, whereas before it had been spread out under three, most of the continent under Europe.

. . . [Discussing other topics]

AMB HOLMES: AFRICOM has an additional dimension ... we were able to fashion it to deal with the Africa of the 21st century; Africa Command was created to be something else in addition to the traditional functions of all of our joint commands, we have an engagement function as well. What that means ... we are committed to a sustained engagement with Africa to develop African capacity, and we try to do that in a variety of ways. But what AFRICOM does is it tries to reflect the inherent long-term nature of the problems and challenges in Africa and to provide a sustained engagement by the US to help these countries develop their own capacity to deal with these problems.

The other important thing to understand about AFRICOM ... is that AFRICOM implements ... it’s the State Department and the administration that create policy. So this is not a militarization of our Africa policy, what this is a military organization that in the area of mil-to-mil relations and in a few areas of civil-mil relations, we support the overall US Africa policy.

Now we try to do that in a variety of ways ... at its base it’s a recognition that this is a long-term proposition, this is the work of generations, it’s not something that’s going to be done in a small project here, something that lasts a year or two. ... When I say generations ... I’m speaking literally ... it’s a long term project, and it can only be done by the Africans themselves and our intention is to support African efforts. Support is a broad term, that entails education sometimes, certainly it entails a lot of training and exercises. It entails working with the continent on three different levels, one is bilaterally of course, but also regionally, and then at the continent-wide level. So we work very closely with the African Union in Addis Ababa to develop its peace and security architecture, to allow it to confront, to manage, to frame the issues and make decisions and to reach out to partners like the US and the EU or all of the other -- the UN -- and all the other int’l partners.
Almost any security issue is regional in nature ...

. . . [Discussing other topics]


MAJ GEN SHERLOCK: We did mention that AMB Holmes and I were in Kinshasa and Kisangani two weeks ago for the opening ceremony for the train and equip effort that we’re beginning in Kisangani, outside of Kisangani, with a battalion of the FARDC. That battalion will be trained over the next several months and will not just be trained on basic military skills, but will also include, in an effort to make it, if you will, a center of excellence, a pocket of excellence within the FARDC. It will also receive training on the rule of law and how to operate within the rule of law. It will also receive training on how to address issues of sexual and gender based violence. It will also receive training on -- an example of training from our military mentors that are there on how to operate as a military within a civilian controlled government in a way that is responsible to the government and responsible, responsive to the security needs of the people of the Congo. What we are trying to do is produce a battalion that can be seen as example to other units and further training efforts of the FARDC to continue to develop and address many of the internal problems that they’ve had.

[Discussing other topics]

Q: When you talk about establishing relationships with the EU... ?

AMB HOLMES: Our first priority is to understand priorities in terms of SSR. We’re AFRICOM, we’re military, in the U.S. system we have legal constraints .... That’s why State gets involved in so many SSR initiatives in Africa. The U.S. military can deal with the defense aspect, but are not allowed to, by law, for example, to train police. We want to find out from EU perspective how we can work together to complement each other.

. . . [Discussing other topics]

AMB HOLMES: Somalia is extremely important to us (meaning the U.S.) in supporting the TFG ... and AMISOM. Working with, for example ... EU is involved in training Somalis in Uganda, and that’s something that we think that we might be able to work closely with to support.

Ugandans and Burundians are the two providing troops so far ... we’ve assisted in the training of Ugandan - AMISOM - troops, but now we’re talking about Somalis who would be supporting the TFG.

Q: At the moment, the US is not actually engaged in training Somali troops.

MAJ GEN SHERLOCK: No, we’re not involved in the direct training of Somali troops.

PAO: We’re not directly involved right now with Somalia.
Sherlock: There are many areas where we look to explore where our interests align and where we could be contributive of each other. In the example that was just cited, I think that there are ways that we could look to contribute to or to be a part of what would be an int’l effort to support the TFG in addition to our support for (AMISOM.) So again, one of the first things that we’re here to do is to listen and learn as to what is the (EU) commission priorities and where our areas can align with each other, then to be able to explore areas where we might be able to work with each other and work with a variety of our int’l partners to be contributive to an int’l solution.

. . . [Discussing other topics]

Q: Could you be more specific on how exactly you could contribute to the training of Somali forces in Uganda.

AMB HOLMES: Sure, I mean we do a variety ... lots of examples.

MAJ GEN SHERLOCK: We have the capacity to train on a number of levels. Again, we’re at the very beginning stages of discussions to see what all is going on and what all of the efforts are and where we can be compatible and contribute. I think that ... one of the things that European and Western armies do very well is NCO training. There are very few parts of the world that have NCOs and warrant officers that are as strong as many European nations and the US. That’s an area that I think we can be contributive to that will help grow their professional capacity. There are many other areas even more basic than that, but we need to have those discussions and find out ... primarily we need to learn what all of the efforts are and how we can be compatible with those efforts at this point.

AMB HOLMES: Another example is how to counter IEDs. That’s where most people are killed, most peacekeepers, most TFG troops are killed by IEDs -- car bombs, roadside bombs -- because of Iraq, AFG ... but not just the US ... for example, the UK has a lot of experience in this area, as well. And we can provide training to both the TFG forces as well as the AMISOM forces on how to negate the threat, how to reduce the threat of the IEDs.

END OF PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT

For more on U.S. policy with regard to Somalia, see remarks by Ambassador Johnnie Carson, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, in an interview published March 3, 2010.

http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=4117&lang=0

With regard to Somalia, Carson said, "We continue to support the Djibouti Process, the TFG [Transitional Federal Government], and Sheikh Sharif’s government. We think it is important to marshal as much support as we can behind this process to help strengthen it, and to give Somalia an opportunity to come out from a political nightmare and a security nightmare that has gone on for two decades. We support the Amisom [African Union Mission in Somalia] effort and we hope that more countries would support it."