UNITAF

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The Unified Task Force (UNITAF) was an United Nations sanctioned effort to assist in stabilising Somalia in the face of widespread lawlessness and a severe famine. UNITAF was controlled by the USA but included personnel contributions from several other nations. The mission ran from December 1992 until May 1993 when UNOSOM II began.

Contents

[edit] Background

Faced with a humanitarian disaster in Somalia, exacerbated by a complete breakdown in civil order, the United Nations had created the UNOSOM I mission in April 1992. However, the complete intransigence of the local warlords operating in Somalia and their rivalries with each other meant that UNOSOM I could not be effective. The mission never reached its mandated strength.[1]

Over the final quarter of 1992, the situation in Somalia continued to worsen. Factions in Somalia were splintering into smaller factions and splintering again. Agreements for food distribution with one party were worthless when the stores had to be shipped through the territory of another. Some elements were actively opposing the UNOSOM intervention. Troops were shot at, aid ships attacked and prevented from docking, cargo aircraft were fired upon and aid agencies, public and private, were subject to threats, looting and extortion.[2] Meanwhile, hundreds, if not thousands of poverty-stricken refuges were starving to death every day.

By November, General Mohamed Farrah Aidid had grown confident enough to formally defy the Security Council and demand the withdrawal of peacekeepers, as well as declaring hostile intent against any further UN deployments.[3]

In the face of mounting public pressure and frustration, UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali presented several options to the Security Council. Diplomatic avenues having proved largely fruitless, he recommended that a significant show of force was required to bring the armed groups to heel. Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations allows for “action by air, sea or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security”. Boutros-Ghali believed the time had come for employing this clause and moving on from peacekeeping.[4] Significantly, this invocation of Chapter VII waived the need for consent on the part of the state of Somalia; effectively the first time the UN Secretariat had endorsed such an act.

However, Boutros-Ghali felt that such action would be difficult to apply under the mandate for UNOSOM. Moreover, he realised that solving Somalia’s problems would require such a large deployment that the UN Secretariat did not have the skills to command and control it. Accordingly, he recommended that a large intervention force be constituted under the command of member states but authorised by the SC to carry out operations in Somalia. The goal of this deployment was “to prepare the way for a return to peacekeeping and post-conflict peace-building”.[5]

Following this recommendation, on 3 December 1992 the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 794, authorising the use of "all necessary means to establish as soon as possible a secure environment for humanitarian relief operations in Somalia". The Security Council urged the Secretary-General and member states to make arrangements for "the unified command and control" of the military forces that would be involved.[6]

[edit] America's Involvement

Prior to Resolution 794, America had approached the UN and offered a significant troop contribution to Somalia, with the caveat that these personnel would not be commanded by the UN. Resolution 794 did not identify America specifically as being responsible for the future task force, but mentioned "the offer by a Member State". On the evening of 4 December 1992, President George H. Bush made an address to the nation, informing them that the USA would send troops to Somalia. Known as Operation Restore Hope, the mission would formally become UNITAF. The operations of UNOSOM 1 were suspended.

The first elements of UNITAF landed on the beaches of Somalia amid a media circus on 9 December 1992.

[edit] Composition of UNITAF

The vast bulk of UNITAF's total personnel strength was provided by America. (Some 25,000 out of a total of 37,000 personnel.) Other countries that contributed to UNITAF were Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Kuwait, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe.

The national contingents were co-ordinated and overseen by U.S. Central Command, however, the relationship between CentCom and the contributing nations varied. There were a few diplomatic and command confrontations over the methods and mandates employed by some contingents. For example, the Italian contingent was accused of bribing local militias to maintain peace, whilst the French Foreign Legion troops were accused of over-vigorous use of force in disarming militiamen.[7]

[edit] Difficulties

Disarming the factions and bandits was the major bugbear for UNITAF. America took the stance that disarming the whole country was a sheer impossibility. The UN though took the perhaps more naïve but nevertheless logical view that a “secure environment” was not possible with so much heavy weaponry in private hands. Boutros-Ghali even claimed that he had had some sort of gentlemen’s agreement with the US administration that the Somali militias would be disarmed, though the White House denied this, stating that such a program of disarmament would be a long-term issue to be incorporated under a separate mandate.[8] This compromised approach towards peace enforcement and disarmament would eventually prove the downfall of the American mission to Somalia under its subsequent manifestation as UNOSOM II.

[edit] The transition of UNITAF

UNITAF was only intended as a transitional body. Once a secure environment had been restored, the suspended UNOSOM mission would be revived, albeit in a much more robust form. On 3 March 1993, the Secretary-General submitted to the Security Council his recommendations for effecting the transition from UNITAF to UNOSOM II. He noted that despite the size of the UNITAF mission, a secure environment was not yet established and there was still no effective functioning government or local security/police force.[9]

The Secretary-General concluded therefore, that, should the Security Council determine that the time had come for the transition from UNITAF to UNOSOM II, the latter should be endowed with enforcement powers under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter to establish a secure environment throughout Somalia.[10] UNOSOM II would therefore seek to complete the task begun by UNITAF for the restoration of peace and stability in Somalia. The new mandate would also empower UNOSOM II to assist the Somali people in rebuilding their economic, political and social life, through achieving national reconciliation so as to recreate a democratic Somali State.

UNOSOM II was established by the Security Council in resolution 814(1993) on 26 March 1993 and formally took over operations in Somalia when UNITAF was dissolved on 4 May 1993.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ UNITED NATIONS OPERATION IN SOMALIA I, UN Dept of Peacekeeping
  2. ^ Ibid
  3. ^ United Nations, 1992, Letter dated 92/11/24 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council.
  4. ^ United Nations, 1992, Letter dated 92/11/29 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council, page 6.
  5. ^ Ibid
  6. ^ United Nations, Security Council Council resolution 794 (1992), 24/4/92, para. 3
  7. ^ Patman, R.G., 2001, ‘Beyond ‘the Mogadishu Line’: Some Australian Lessons for Managing Intra-State Conflicts’, Small Wars and Insurgencies, Vol, 12, No. 1, p. 69
  8. ^ Walker, Martine, Huband, Mark, ‘US reluctant to disarm gunmen’, The Guardian, 15/12/92
  9. ^ UNITED NATIONS OPERATION IN SOMALIA I, UN Dept of Peacekeeping
  10. ^ Ibid


[edit] External links

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