* US Somalia peacekeeping idea hits resistance at UN
BEIJING: China will send warships to the seas off Somalia to help international efforts fight piracy there, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, in what would be the first operation of its kind for Beijing.
NATO ships began anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast in late October, but they have failed to stop the rampant hijackings, and other nations are now pitching in.
A multilateral force rescued the Chinese ship, Zhenhua 4, from Somali pirates on Wednesday. Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off Somalia has become a major headache as it pushes up insurance costs or forces ships to take alternative routes.
China is making active preparations and the related deployments to send warships to the Gulf of Aden, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news briefing, though he declined to give details.
A Chinese newspaper said China would send three ships to Somalia to prevent further attacks, but that report could not be independently confirmed.
Earlier this month, a prominent Chinese military strategist, Major General Jin Yinan, urged the government to send ships in comments reflecting debate about combating piracy in a country which has generally confined its navy to waters near home. Reuters
Idea: The UN chief and France on Wednesday cast doubt on US calls to authorise a UN peacekeeping force for Somalia quickly, saying the situation was too dangerous for blue helmets.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday for the first time that the UN should deploy peacekeepers in the unstable country in the Horn of Africa. Washington will push for a Security Council authorising resolution by the years end.
But UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, the situation is not ripe, the conditions are not favorable ... If there is no peace to keep, peacekeeping operations are not supposed to be there. Instead, Ban suggested bolstering an African Union force, known as AMISOM, that is supposed help Somalis themselves to restore security but has so far proved ineffectual. The Security Council on Tuesday authorised countries fighting piracy off the Somali coast to take action inside the country and in its airspace, with consent of the government. Frances UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, asked if Rices proposal was realistic, said, No, it is not ... We think its not feasible and its not desirable.
The situation had to be stabilised before UN peacekeepers could be deployed, Ripert said.
Council members agree they must tackle violence, chaos and humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia, Ripert said. But they disagree on how to act. Militants control most of southern Somalia, feuding clan militias hold sway elsewhere, and Ethiopian troops backing the weak government plan to pull out. A previous attempt by outside powers to help end starvation in Somalia ended badly. Eighteen US soldiers died and 73 were wounded in the Battle of Mogadishu on October 3 and 4, 1993. agencies
