SECRETARY OF STATE RICE Bilateral Meeting with His Excellency Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, President of the Somalia Transitional Federal Government.
QUESTION: And the other meeting with the Somali?
MR. MCCORMACK: Somali -
QUESTION: And the (inaudible) resolution?
MR. MCCORMACK: The --
QUESTION: Proposed UN resolution.
MR. MCCORMACK: Proposed UN resolution on what, piracy?
QUESTION: Well, piracy, yeah.
MR. MCCORMACK: Piracy. It was a very interesting meeting and the president is clearly somebody who is committed to the process of reconciliation within Somalian society and to try to expand the rule of a central Somalian government over all of Somalia. Clearly, there is a long way to go in that regard. And he is clearly somebody who is committed to trying to fight piracy. And he's going up to the UN, I think either today or tomorrow, to talk about that And that's something -- certainly we support those efforts.
There is also another issue. They talked about the peacekeepers, deployment of peacekeepers, and that's something, again, that we strongly support. And I know the president is going up to the UN and that is going to be another issue on his agenda. So, a very interesting meeting -- somebody who is clearly trying to work on behalf of the best interest of the Somali people. It's very difficult. They have had, as he described it, 17 years of civil war.
And he believes politically they have made some progress in terms of trying to bring some reconciliation between -- among the clans. There are still, as he described it, elements who are intent on using violence -- violence, al-Qaida and other associated groups to try to undermine that progress. And we certainly expressed our support for the president in bringing about a process of political reconciliation and also trying to act in a responsible manner in the international community. And I would point to the piracy issue as an example of that.
Elise. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2008/apr/103971.htm
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