THE UN: The international community has a clear responsibility to assist in the restoration of peace and stability in Somalia, Ireland has told the UN Security Council.
The council was discussing a report by the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, which suggested the security situation was still not sufficiently stable to allow a UN peace-building operation to be deployed.
In Somalia, the writ of the Transitional National Government does not run far beyond Mogadishu and, even within the capital its control is not unchallenged.
"Somaliland" or the former British territory, and "Puntland" are effectively autonomous areas. The south of the country is in the hands of warlords.
Ireland, more than half-way through its two-year term on the security council, has taken a special interest in Somalia.
Welcoming a proposal by the secretary general to establish a Group of Friends of Somalia in New York and Nairobi, Ambassador Gerard Corr, who is deputy head of Ireland's UN Mission in New York, said: "We are particularly encouraged that there is now agreement on a unified regional approach which offers beginnings of new hope for Somalia."
"The report of the Secretary General points to a perilous humanitarian situation in the country. UN humanitarian and development agencies continue to carry out important, life-saving work in the face of often serious obstacles.
Responding to a common dismissal of Somalia, the ambassador said: "There is no such thing as a 'failed' society. There may be failed state institutions, there may be weakness of governance, but society and the needs of people transcend legalistic definitions."