By LARA JAKES AP National
Security Writer
WASHINGTON—Twenty years
after the U.S. military's "Black Hawk Down" disaster, the Obama
administration is slowly stepping up relations with Somalia even though
security requires American officials to be sheltered behind blast walls and
unable to see nearly any of the chaotic country.
The high caution in
Somalia sharply displays the frustrating balance of fostering diplomacy in a
country recovering from war while avoiding risks to American personnel after
last September's killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans
at a diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Diplomats live in near lockdown
conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan, have limited ability to travel in Pakistan
and Lebanon, and are under tightly guarded protection in Jordan and Nigeria.
But several diplomats say
they are frustrated with what one called "a huge Benghazi hangover"
in U.S. foreign policy in general.
Nowhere are U.S. diplomats
as constrained as in Somalia, which last week was ranked the world's worst
failed state by the Fund for Peace. American diplomats gingerly began building
ties with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud after his election last year,
and President Barack Obama formally recognized the new government in Mogadishu
in January.
It was the first time
since 1991 that Washington has accepted the Somali government as legitimate.
"We're able to go in
more often and for a longer duration than we ever have been able to in the last
20 years," Pamela Fierst, the State Department's senior official on Somali
issues, said in a recent interview. "The U.S. government is in a period of
great, cautious optimism on Somalia."
The State Department
officials, most of whom are based in Nairobi, Kenya, fly to Mogadishu in U.N.
planes and spend up to two weeks at a time at a heavily fortified compound at
the capital's airport, where African Union troops and other international
security personnel are based. Three U.S. officials familiar with the trips said
the diplomats never leave the airport compound because of the risks, given the
number of successful attacks in Mogadishu by local al-Qaida-linked militants
known as al-Shabab.
Instead, Somali government
officials come to the airport compound to meet with the American diplomats. One
of the U.S. officials described the trips as useful but frustrating given the
clampdown on their ability to see the country they are trying to help improve.
The U.N. also has offices
inside the airport complex, not far from the embassy Britain opened in April.
The U.S. diplomats also operate inside the base out of temporary metal
containers that they live and work out of. Foreign intelligence officers who
operate in the city, such as for the CIA, also base themselves at the airport.
The official also said the
U.S. is likely to have an increasingly bigger presence in Mogadishu over the
next 12 months to 18 months, including longer trips in and more personnel on
the ground. But there is no word on when a consulate or embassy might be
opened. The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were
not authorized to discuss the issue by name publicly.
Libya, Sudan, Yemen,
Turkey and Britain have embassies in Mogadishu. The European Union also has an
office there, and Western aid workers have traveled around the capital and
elsewhere in Somalia numerous times over the past 18 months.
"It's important for
us to have a presence, and we have to be able to follow the evolving needs of
the most vulnerable to deliver our aid in the best way possible," said
Mira Gratier, an EU aid worker who has been working off and on in Mogadishu
since last fall, when "you could see a city coming back to life."
The EU office is located
outside the airport compound, and tries to assist Somalis who have been forced
from their homes because of famine or violence. Gratier described Mogadishu's
security as "extremely volatile," but said EU workers continually
assess the situation "to know how we can operate safely and minimize the
risks."
The State Department's
security service long has been overly cautious about U.S. officials traveling
in danger zones, spurring grumbling from diplomats in places like Baghdad and
Kabul. Officials say diplomatic security has gotten even tighter since the
killings last Sept. 11 in Benghazi, which not only left the ambassador to Libya
and three other Americans dead, but also touched off a U.S. political maelstrom
over whether the Obama administration tried to cover up its response to the
attack and whether the State Department has spent the necessary money—or
whether Congress has appropriated enough money—to keep American diplomats safe.
Security has improved
significantly in Mogadishu since 2007 when African Union troops began fighting
back against al-Shabab. The extremist group has for decades terrorized the
public and caused the rest of the world to shun most of Somalia, but was
largely routed from the seaside capital in late 2011.
But few deny the danger
that Somalia continues to face. On Tuesday, a bomb exploded inside Mogadishu's
largest market, wounding at least five soldiers aboard a military vehicle.
Last month, seven
al-Shabab militants stormed the United Nations compound in Mogadishu, killing
13 inside before dying in the assault. The U.N. had just expanded its presence
inside the Somali capital as one of a handful of diplomatic missions that
recently have been set up there, including Turkey and Britain.
The U.S. has had no
embassy in Mogadishu since 1991 when Somalia's government collapsed after years
of civil war. American troops were sent to Mogadishu the next year to help
stave off the country's famine on a peacekeeping mission that lasted until
their 1994 withdrawal—about five months after the humiliating "Black Hawk
Down" debacle in late 1993, when Somali militiamen shot down two U.S.
helicopters; 18 servicemen were killed in the crash and subsequent rescue
attempt.
Since 2007, the U.S. has
given $134 million to Somalia's security forces and another $450 million to
African Union nations that have sent troops to Somalia. But officials say the
Obama administration is interested in helping Somalia stabilize its government
and economy more than just focusing on terror threats, and Mohamud's
inauguration in September opened the door to the small but steady influx of
American diplomats to Mogadishu.
In May, Obama called on
Congress to boost funding to secure U.S. embassies. Noting that diplomats face
"irreducible risks," particularly in the Mideast, Obama said he
nonetheless believes "that any retreat from challenging regions will only
increase the dangers we face in the long run."
Sen. Chris Coons, chairman
of a Senate Foreign Relations panel that oversees African issues, said American
diplomats must be able to travel freely in the countries where they work to be
successful.
But with Benghazi as a
backdrop, Coons said, it's unlikely that will happen anytime soon.
Building diplomatic ties
in Somalia and helping bring together rival clans "requires being able to
travel widely out of Mogadishu," Coons said in an interview last month.
"But in light of the tragedy in Benghazi, I think it's only prudent for
State and the U.S. to proceed in a cautious and measured way."
———
Associated Press writers
Abdi Guled in Mogadishu, Somalia, Jason Staziuso in Nairobi, Kenya, Sebastian
Abbot in Islamabad, Zeina Karam in Beirut, Michelle Faul in Johannesburg,
Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, and Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan,
contributed to this report.
———
Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter
at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP
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