time but i welcome all of you here i will make an opening statement after i return from the votes that we will have that have started but we will hear from our our first witness as we  have with us mr graduate of howard university is a specialist in africa affairs at the foreign affairs defense and trade division of the congressional research  house foreign affairs committee subcommittee on africa on the chairmanship of mr harry johnson from florida had served as a special adviser from nine hundred ninety nine to two thousand to president clinton's special envoy for sudan and to the assistant secretary of state for african affairs dr susan rice over the past twenty years has written over two thousand major studies on africa including reports on the war on terror in africa the status of democracy conflict resolution a mandatory and disasters and studies of over thirty countries that is also co books somalia and africa and the war on terror as a professional staff member and a staffer at c r s mr wrote and assisted in drafting over a on a fact finding missions over thirty african countries on multiple occasions also we have dr j peter pham doc the fam is director of the nelson institute for international  is also senior fellow for africa policy studies at the foundation for the defense of democracies in washington d c senior fellow and project director at the national committee on american foreign policy in new editor or translator of over a dozen books about the famine the incumbent vice president of the association for the study of the middle east and africa an academic organizations chaired by professor bernard lewis and represents more than seven hundred scholars of middle east and african studies at over three hundred colleges and universities in the united states of america not the families the recipient of the two thousand and eight nelson mandela international prize for african security and development presently joined presently jointly by the royal united services institute for defense and security studies at the barn trust foundation and the foundation at this time the hearing will now officially come to order i for one have stopped counting how many innocent civilians have been killed maimed or how many people displaced from their homes unfortunately and sadly many more people will die in the coming weeks and like right in the store if a basketball is removed every day it will come to an end i said then that's a lot and strategy would come to an end we just don't know how soon three years later i still cannot tell you with certainty what the future holds for the millions of so one thing is clear the determination and commitment i saw fifteen years ago at they are in mogadishu facing the challenges and the risks every day some love family members friends so that they can help people you know no one knows for sure hundreds of thousands of somalis have died due to fighting by men or disease i have witnessed first hand the entrails suffering of the people of somalia over the decades a generation  up surrounded by violence poverty and a really a very bleak future many have been internally displaced or forced to flee their country indeed the most affected by the violence and chaos in somalia women and children many somali girls they've been raped and violated by the so called militia and even as a victim was stoned to death for reporting what happened  if the extremists waging the war against the succeed we're likely to see more of this by the so called bunch about what happened over the past six seven weeks well in early may the extremist groups backed by foreign fighters launched a major offensive against a key g in the african union peacekeeping force over the past six weeks more than three hundred people have been killed and many more wounded the primary police chief and the minister of interior who were killed last week this was in large part to create the leadership crisis more than four hundred foreign fighters reportedly from afghanistan yemen pakistan the united states canada britain kenya and several other countries have been engaged in fighting in support of the al shabaab forces more than two hundred ninety of insurgents depends on resources including armed personnel carriers mobility and a well organized and sustainable military operation the presence of the african union force has helped prevent the takeover of mogadishu thus far but the african union force does not have a chapter seven mandate requiring the force to be on the defensive rather than taking offensive measures against the surge and the african union force however had used its long range artillery against insurgents measures how we can and force the insurgents to remain outside the range of these weapons but the most serious challenge facing g forces and those of the african union is that the insurgents are highly decentralized and move in small units and open independently of one another meaning killing themselves to be leaders what's important to remember is that this leaders have begun now to turn against each other the u s government placed the on the terrorism list but that has had very little impact on the operations and support received from outside there is another leader that the international community has focused on who is also recently they provided visitor written documentation to this effect disassociating themselves with him and by the end of me most of them have left a treaty which means  when asked if he was prepared to state publicly support for the peaceful parts of patients in the current political process we responded positively however when he was asked whether he would renounce terrorism and call for an end violence against civilians we stated that since you consider the american interpretation of terrorism as an islam he cannot condemn terrorism doing so  and human rights conditions conditions in two thousand a actually be worse than previous years the recent fighting in mogadishu has added more challenges to already put conditions on the ground an estimated one point one million people have been displaced and more than half a million to neighboring countries in the past several years human rights groups and somebody observers estimate that more than twenty two thousand people have been killed over the past two years most of them civilians billions humanitarian workers journalists and human rights advocates have been the primary targets of the insurgency according to amnesty international rape killing and looting have become widespread entire neighborhoods have been destroyed a number of so many journalists covering the crisis in somalia have been assassinated by insurgents and security forces over the past eighteen the united states did provide significant assistance over the years particularly in humanitarian aid in the past by six months the united states has also provided crucial support in terms of peacekeeping including peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance now i'm sure most of you have heard and read about the piracy problem i don't want to dwell on that issue since it has been overblown beyond  what is needed what's important here is i would like to highlight some of the issues that have not been covered and some of the issues that have been ignored as it relates to piracy water despite by the way the number somali pirates they're not known well there are more pirates now than previous years the pirates no seem to have a unified organization with a clear command structure many of these pirates are reportedly fishermen and former militia members the pirates primarily come from portland region of somalia and members of different clans and not necessarily come from one region some reports have suggested that the pirates are being controlled and directed by thank you for your patients still proceeding but there will be about a twenty five minute period of time and then there will be two other votes that would take about fifteen minutes ten minutes we'll break at that time after twenty five minutes and then resume ten minutes after that so that calling the hearing back to order we were my testimony was talking about the pirates who they are and how we got into this problem you know the pirates the fishermen have become pirates in large part because their way of life was  destroyed in two thousand and five the united nations environmental program released a report documenting the damages resulting from toxic waste dump on somebody and shores according to a union peace both uranium somalia is cause they're apostates that it cost two dollars and fifty cents per ton to dump toxic waste in africa compared to two hundred fifty dollars per ton to dump waste in europe so what are the policy options available to us in dealing with the political and security problems the current government in mogadishu generally see as the last defense against extremists and terrorist groups currently waging war in south central somalia effective policy options available to deal with this threats are limited the international community may consider engagement with islam insurgents and clan elders to deal with the political and security problems facing som and some leaders are determined to continue their military campaign and are not inclined to participate in any negotiations in this case it targeted measures including sanctions and other harsh measures against the most extreme elements of the al shabaab might be the way for other modern leaders to emerge that harsh measures and for political reasons however it's important that the unified regional approach must be maintained in conclusion there appears to be no easy solution or options to bring a lasting peace in somalia so bodies continue to make great sacrifices to achieve this objective there is a very telling somebody prover it goes like this the best bed that a man can sleep on is peace thank you thank you very much doctor  of thank you mr chairman in the interest of time i'd like to offer a summary of my views and with your leave that be my prepared statement be entered into the record that objection chairman ranking member smith and members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about the critical conditions currently prevailing in somalia and threatening the security and stability of the entire horn of africa permit me the liberty of observing that it is three years almost to the day since i appeared before the pre discussed of the subcommittee and its first hearing on the threat of extremism emanating from somalia and this body under your leadership mr chairman and that mr smith has maintained consistent vigilance on this important security issue while simultaneously upholding the highest standards of respect for human rights as a scholar who closely tracks developments in the sub me to add a personal note of appreciation for your leadership in keeping attention focused on issues relating to the horn of africa in general and in particular for bringing about this historic hearing which brings together in the same forum hi representatives of the transitional federal government of somalia the port lands state of somalia as well as some of somalia's international partners i regret that the foreign minister of the republic of somaliland was unable to join us to share the experience of his people in avoiding the very scourges including extremism conflict and piracy which is hearing endeavors to examine why i understand the somaliland or sensitivity about any appearance prejudicial to the hundred ninety one declaration of renewed independence and the delicate nature of the internal politics there as somaliland alone of all the territories which were once part of the somali democratic public before the collapse of the bahraini regime moves to its second democratic presidential and parliamentary elections in just three months i nonetheless hope that the representatives of the republic of somaliland will provide the subcommittee with information on its contribution to security and peace in the sub region this hearing convenes at a moment when somalia is going through yet another grave crisis the latest in a two decade long cycle of state collapse political failure and sadly human suffering the various factions of al shabaab there are sort of allies including this was a lot helped by outside states and other actors have proven themselves more resilient than many international observers have been willing to admit having in recent months consolidated their control of the area in the southern suburbs of the capital to the border with kenya the militants launched an offensive at the beginning of may with  apparent objective of been circling the capital to its north as well in just the last week the already bad security situation has deteriorated further as militants following on earlier incursions brought their offensive into mogadishu amid fierce fighting now is not the time to assign blame however if we are to go forward we have to acknowledge the realities on the ground notwithstanding the hopes that accompany the installation of shaikh shari as the t f t president at the end of january and i say installation because i would not call the extra legal machinations in djibouti an election unless we want to hold up the mockery of the g s own charter by the parliamentarians as an example of constitutional governance for the sub region the results have been disappointing that he of g is not a government in any common sense definition of the term i entirely dependent on foreign troops in the african union mission in somalia to protect that small enclave in mogadishu but otherwise it maintains no territory it administers no law and even within its restricted zone it has shown no functional capacity to govern much less provide minimal services to its citizens even if shaikh chaudry manages to reconcile the t f geezer original secular framework with its more recent albeit build a fire and adoption of sharia the transitional government faces an almost insurmountable deficit of capacity accountability and credibility this grim recital of just some of the shortcomings is not a good word to it is rather what the point i'm trying to make is that even in what many view as the best case scenario coming out of the current crisis the g o g will somehow manage to rally enough support among somali plans and communities to push back the current offensive and win itself sometimes the transitional regime is not very well positioned to win a long war against the insurgency by wooing some of the insurgents and by defeating or at least marginalizing the others much less to emerge as the foundation for whatever political settlement somalis eventually agree upon the worst case scenario of course is that al shabaab and its allies defeat the t f t entirely assume control of the capital as well as the bulk of south central and southern somalia which they already loosely control if this were to happen it would be a geopolitical disaster with repercussions rippling well try to capitalize at least propaganda wise on the events to ethiopia would be tempted to return and force to the united states which would likely ramp up counterterrorism operations will not treat it as such however it should be noted that even if the insurgents do not defeat the t f t outright in many respects they have already achieved a status as a represent a significant threat to somalis and others whatever the origins and intent of the militants currently facing the t f t they have clearly been radicalized even without taking mogadishu al shabaab and its allies have already succeeded in carving out  fifteenth underwent training at an a show bob controlled southern somalia camp before returning to his native country and carrying out the deadly attack intelligence officials believe the same to be the case with the suicide bomber who three days later hit a convoy carrying the south korean ambassador and investigators looking on that earlier attack us even without toppling the t f t shabab has already achieved a major objective by securing a territorial base from which like minded militants and terrorists can carry out attacks elsewhere especially against targets in the arabian peninsula as well as participating in the current violence against somalia as if this were not disturbing enough for the united states even more unsettling is the fact that a number of young somali americans have left their homes in the united states and gone to shabab controlled areas of somalia presumably for training one of these men a naturalized u s citizen from minneapolis minnesota became the first ever american suicide bomber when he blew himself up in an attack in somaliland last october attack which left dozens of civilians dead one hopeful indicator however i miss this gloomy landscape has been the it illogical motivations of al shabaab and aligned extremist movements do not permit them to proceed at a slower speed in their march through somali territory and society instead a certain internal dynamic compels them to keep pushing even when it might be in their long term interest to act with greater circumspection militarily the temptation to overreach is visible in the relentless advance  cause one might argue would be better served by consolidating their rule in areas they already control turning to the issue of piracy the attacks by somali pirates on merchant shipping in the waters off the coast of somalia have added an additional challenge to an already complicated regional security picture the marauders have hardly been cowed by the international naval presence involving warships from the united states the united kingdom france russia china india japan turkey and several other countries which assembled earlier this year in an unprecedented effort to prevent a repeat of last year's wave of more than one hundred attacks on commercial ships the gulf of aden and nearby waters the pirates have simply shifted their operations to areas which they know are not patrol with strikes taking place on the high seas of the western indian ocean and elsewhere as witnessed by the seizure two weeks ago of a german own cargo ship sixty nautical miles south of oman while the dozen or two dozen or so cruisers and other about souls with from various countries make for great political theater and may have even proven useful in escort duty along merrily defying the langs there are simply not enough of them to make a real dent in operations against the pirates and even if there were enough warships to conduct adequate counter piracy operations it is doubtful that the commitment  sustainable over a long term and what is needed is a pragmatic solution that deals with the economic political and security challenges caused by the expanded activities of somali pirates what is costs can be contained within acceptable limits his long term operation is sustainable by those with the most immediate stake in its success regional and local actors as well as merchant vessels which watch strands of the dangerous waters so in addition to beefing up security on and fo merchant vessels the only sustainable option currently available for dealing with this scourge is dealing with the problem on land i have repeatedly argued that the problem of lawlessness at sea will only be  definitively resolved when the international community summons up the political will to it adequately addressed the underlying pathology of de facto statelessness on shore one of the ways to do this of course to achieve maximum local support is building up coast guard capabilities that are viewed not purely as an anti piracy measure but rather in bad those efforts within the local economies of the districts providing benefits to communities as a way of weaning them away from their dependence on criminal enterprise mr chairman united states policy toward somalia has veered from neglect in the late one nine hundred ninety s with to an emphasis on kinetic counterterrorism operations in the aftermath of nine eleven and especially after the ethiopian intervention flushed out some of the terrorists long sought by american security officials even if justifiable in individual cases the use of hard power has bred resentment and radical forces to wrap themselves op in the man well of nationalism undermining our broader strategic objective of countering radicalization to say nothing of humanitarian norms more recently even as the situation has gone from bad to worse presenting the entire horn of africa with a security crisis of the first order spreading instability across a fragile sub region and raising the specter that transnational terrorist movements will fin exploit opportunities offer the approach of the international community and apparently the policy of the united states has become ensnared in what is essentially a circular logic for want of better ideas the international community has opted to buy into  seductive but vicious cycle of its own manufacture whereby it must stay the course and continued to vote scarce political and material resources well almost exclusively to shoring up the t f c because it has already invested too much time and resources into it to do otherwise if the failure so far no fewer than fourteen internationally sponsored attempts at establishing a national government indicate anything it is the futility of the notion that outsiders can impose a regime on somalia even it was staffed with presumably moderate somalis of our liking instead in the context of the decentralized reality among the somali the concerned international community in general and the united states in particular need to invest the time and resources to seek out local partners who can first of all work with us in creating a modicum of stability societal economic and ultimately governmental this would not be an easy task since the conflict of recent years has taken its toll on civil society nonetheless local groups do exist if i may cite one example saeed the extraordinary non governmental organization founded and directed by somali women engage in conflict transformation women's empower education health care emergency relief employment schemes development amid the current crisis for example this n g o s providing eighty thousand two thousand calorie meals a day to residents of mogadishu i would add just that broad consensus is emerging among experts who practice somalia for some time that any workable solution must embrace a bottom up or building block approach rather than the hitherto top down strategy given the ripple effects of continuing disorder in the somali lands in addition to helping the functional parts of the t f c it makes no sense for the international community not to work with affective authorities in the republic of somaliland point land state the province of gedo and other areas as well as to seek to engage traditional leaders and civil society actors these figures enjoy both legitimacy with the populace and have actual as opposed to notional security and development agendas which complement our own goal of preventing chaos from reigning with respect to intervening in somalia while i salute the courage and determination of the ugandan people's defense force peacekeepers in homage to him along with their poor indian colleagues and i'm fully cognizant of concerns of somalia's immediate neighbors like ethiopia kenya i would argue that the legitimate security interests of the countries in the region can best be met not by their becoming embroiled in a conflict where their support of the t of g has become itself a rallying point for the insurgents rather i would argue that african resources might be best put to work containing the spread of instability from somalia and preventing additional foreign fighters and supplies from fueling the conflict in the country i readily acknowledge that the approach such as the one i'm sketching out may strike many as minimal loss however i'm convinced and even more so today that is the course most likely to buy somalis themselves the space within which to make their own determination about their future while the same time allowing the rest of the world especially the countries of the horn of africa to achieve their security objectives not only does such a strategy offer the most realistic hope of salvaging a modicum of regional will i will leave i will recess this time though i believe that i can be back within ten to fifteen minutes we we have a three  minute three minutes left on the current which should take about seven or eight minutes and then and that media follows i really expect to be back within ten twelve minutes or so will stand recess somalis support the insurgents which was i would i would kind of conclude in mogadishu and so i just wonder if you like the family  election in somalia after twenty years of no government but from what i understand there was an attempt to select a transitional federal government that  represented the society of somalia and the clans and the subclans and regions so if you could just in a nutshell once again reiterate your advisable we've seen where that has led already in the past and i don't think that we want to a reprieve of that what i do suggest however is that we work with affective authorities within somalia itself the functional parts of the transitional federal government the state of what lands authorities the republic of somaliland and other areas where we might identify those who resist the extremists and are capable enough active that we work with them that we don't simply channel all of our systems through one channel and we work with the effective authorities and then allow the somalis themselves the time to turn on the extremists the extremists i think as my colleague would agree do not represent somali society or the traditional islam practiced in somalia so with time and containment in a way the extremists carry the seeds of their own internal contradictions self destruction from within we just need to keep that from spreading beyond and the most effective ways to work with those who are most effective outsiders whose primary purpose is to destroy to obstruct and to establish a base for the terrorist groups what specific measures can be taken for one i think the  both in mogadishu and put in line and in somaliland could come together form a coalition to contain this threat the international community can provide assistance targeted assistance in terms of logistic support transportation and at times it might be necessary also to target in order to take out some of the leaders who would never change their position but the military option is not the only option we also well let me thank both of you we would probably have many more questions however because of the interruption with the boat i would just like to thank both of you for your expert testimony and with that i will i will conclude the the formal meeting and we will then who have traveled here for a long time because we may run into another set of votes and i think that would not work well since we've been to do so many folks with that thank you very much and testify at a formal hearing therefore we technically will call this a briefing the title of today's hearing somalia prospects for a lasting peace and a unified response  extremism and terrorism does a great deal about the challenges and difficulties of people all somalia face today the primary objective of this briefing is to hear from somalis themselves about the fate of their country we also have witnesses who through not somalia have been engaged full time in efforts to bring about a just peace in somalia again we thank all the distinguished witnesses for their participation today and their dedication we invite the rep we invited the representatives from the three regions of somalia the transitional federal government put land government and the somaliland government prior to the hearing i spoke to the president and foreign minister of the transitional federal government and to mogadishu the point land president and the foreign minister of somaliland they all accept that and in fact the president put my hand has been in washington for the past five days the foreign minister of the transistor the federal government was supposed to come but he had to go back to to deal with the ongoing crisis that we have all heard about today the transitional federal government is represented by the deputy ambassador to the united nations the somaliland foreign minister except that are in but patient but last week the government requested that if the subcommittee could not have a separate panel for the foreign minister they would not attend the reason the somaliland representative did not want to be a part of the panel with the president to put latin and the transitional federal government representative when form the somaliland government that their request was unacceptable certainly defeats the main purpose of the hearing which is about the people  as to what region they live and they are somalis and we wanted to see what we could do to assist and try to get the united states government try to get the e u try to get the you and other bodies to once again seriously engage in ways to help the people of somalia the somali people the children particularly in the women try to develop  employment if somaliland cannot sit with fellow somalis to explore ways to bring peace to somalia and at this very critical juncture in our history i wonder what this says about their commitment to all somalis as it is now widely known in a broad travel to mogadishu to get a firsthand account of  country what i saw a mug and issue that was very encouraging despite the enormous difficulties that many somalis face every day somali women are still very active in trying to help the human rights activists journalists as a matter of fact many many journalists and logan vishu humanitarian workers are doing their best in face of the impossible some concern friends said why did i take such a risk to go to a place like mo conditio people say there's not been an american there in fifteen years they say that it is a place that you should not attend but i responded to the question that my life more important than the children in the streets of mogadishu my trip all marked by in the press for the mortar attack to help bring attention to the conditions of the ground the so called attack was an attempt to mar my otherwise very positive and very encouraging trip must be clear to all that the crisis we face in somalia today has devastating intimate implications for the rest of the region the last defense against this cancer is that the g and the african union forces must somehow come together to preserve  current government and to try to strengthen it what we are witnessing is not a liberation struggle or resistance against a brutal regime the terrorists waging this war have one objective in mind to make somalia the swa valley of africa with the foreign jihadists next to them often leading these terrorists are brutalizing innocent civilians this is why we have called this hearing somalis from all three regions must come together to counter this challenge the international community must also help the obama administration has done a great deal to assist the ts ji and also to contain the threat and i'm encouraged by this the government of land has sent an estimated one thousand troops to assist in the fighting against the terrorists in the south central somalia this is commendable i hope this hearing these to greater cooperation between the three regions as we gathered today many somalis continue to be displaced maine and killed the dream and aspirations of somalis millions of somalis are on hold were crushed over a year ago i visited the somali refugee camp in kenya called the camp i met thousands of refugees some of whom were born in the camp when asked the number of young somalis what they want it badly that they currently didn't have they responded education in somali young people in education and unbelievable this is the same response i received when i went to the camps in chad where the door for eons where somalis like people everywhere want and deserve the opportunity to educate their children and have hope for a better life we can do more to help towards this i have encouraged president obama and secretary clinton to engage further in a positive way in somalia as we have seen far and they have taken that advice i will now turn our ranking member is not present so we will move into introducing our distinguished panel dr serves as the minister of defense for the republic of uganda position he has held since two thousand and six from two thousand and one through two thousand and six mr keogh was the national political commissioner and minister without portfolio mr served as a minister of parliament from one nine hundred ninety six to two thousand and one and was minister of internal affairs from one nine hundred ninety four to nine hundred ninety six mr  bell mohammad mr mohammad is deputy permanent minister of the somalia in the united nations he has been a somali diplomat at the united nations since two thousand and one mr mohamm of the security council affairs in charge of international peace and security and head of the political affairs department he has been head of central assembly affairs in charge of economic social and humanitarian affairs mr mohammad has extensive experience in multilateral diplomacy of intergovernmental organizations such as united nations the africa using in the league of arab  nonaligned movement and the european union and other western organizations prior to diplomatic career mr mohammad served in the non governmental organizations involved in african diaspora he process including somali national reconciliation conference in djibouti kenya ethiopia and egypt with the help mohammad has a bachelor of art in economics and a master's of arts in economics from the cotton university in ottawa canada mamma will be reading a statement of his excellency mohammad omar omar mr omar is the foreign minister of the republic of somalia who visited me two weeks three weeks ago in my office here in washington and it was intending to be here today but because of the situation the moment issue he was unable to come but we're glad that mr special representative for west africa he has served with the united nations in a number of capacities including the secretary general's special representative for burundi and special coordinator for new and renewable sources of energy and energy issues he also served as minister of foreign affairs and embassador to the united states also served as an executive director of the global coalition for africa a washington based organization intergovernmental organization has obtained a bachelor's degree in economics and of the plummet in graduate studies from the somalia he was a regional manager for africa with intelligence systems based in annapolis maryland he has studied in france attending university of policies that works for all in the summer of two thousand and four he served as a political intern with the permanent observer mission of the african union at the united nations with that we will turn to our first guest mr president thank you very much we needed to talk less and optimal what we have some contact with other african the state indicates that even if the are not ready to deploy troops on the ground in mogadishu they would be willing to train some of the people who are brought into the countries from this hearing the president of the president of the minister of defense of uganda the united nations special representative for somalia and the pact to once again demonstrate the u s and international community's commitment and determination in stabilizing somalia as you know mr chairman the security situation in somalia has significantly deteriorated since the insurgents backed by foreign fighters immigrant in arabic in somalia is economic and political with religious dimension the conflict is economical because some individuals who have benefited from the twenty years of chaos are opposed to law and order as they would have no as they would have to hand over stolen property pay taxes or endure government restrictions these individuals although ideologically opposed to the one have been funding the insurgency just to oppose the government the conflict has also put political with various groups vying for power and the situation is further complicated by the continuum of external actors finally mr chairman the conflict this conflict to the one we're fighting right now has strong with the just i mentioned because it opposes to islamic school of thought on the one hand you have the shot the school of thought which the somalis have problems for hundreds of years and learn to harmonize with the somali traditions and a way of life on the a way of life which practices an extreme form of islam sometimes involving beheadings arm deputations for theft etc this is completely new and shocking to the majority of the somalis it is unfortunate that some would confront and then at me who has no borders i think that everybody has talked about the background of the conflict so what i'm going to just talk about is the current situation in mogadishu the fighting in mogadishu right now we could go the  national unity controlled fourteen out of sixteen districts of mogadishu as of june twenty fourth the government controls about nine districts while the insurgents control the districts and who are the districts of cat and sh to forge a unified force to put the government they have two meetings in mogadishu and enough boys and all the meetings were attended by foreign fighters the purpose of the meetings enough boy was to create an meetings that will give them the edge against government forces in the coming days chairman i think that in order to understand what we're dealing with it is important that i give you a little bit a skeleton of the forces in presence i know that they've talked about it but i want to repeat it one more time front led by mohamed ive here that we estimate that might around two hundred in mogadishu there is also evidence that shaikh always might be receiving support from external tears the group however remains or militia the highly decentralized and they use insurgency and up to recruit and to exert control over conquered territory these extremists are not strong but they have a good understanding of brand management that use hit and run tactics and highly publicized the sad stories that the international media has bought into their propaganda the core of the group is composed of about one thousand five hundred men the majority are young unemployed men easily impressed by groups operating in yemen and pakistan swat valley region mr chairman there is foreign fighters in somalia everybody has talked about it but we see that on a day to day basis the fighting these foreign fighters continue to flock to somalia and are estimated between two hundred and one thousand i know that some reports have put them at three hundred but this is not considering that these foreign fighters started coming into som since two thousand and six or even before so we put them between two hundred and one thousand as controllers and trainers to the insurgents in the capital mogadishu they have established their bases in the actually district and later on chairman the situation is so my ways not entirely bleak first the government of national unity continues to reach out to different groups and organizations to join forces to confront the insurgents in different regions for example the government led by prime minister finally the somali people are tired of the warlords and anyone bent on keep on keeping them in a state of chaos they want to help the government of national unity which still lacks the capacity to mobilize them or to convince them that this is not another failed  efforts by the international community mr chairman the government is doing its best with the limited resources that they have and the numerous challenges challenges they have inherited despite an overall strategy to counter the insurgents the government of  unity continues to suffer from a lack of capacity to coordinate efforts and most importantly a lack of funds to pay the salaries of the soldiers train and equip them the funds pledged by the donor community in brussels have yet to come except for some that vital support working hand in hand with the united nations political office for somalia and the united nations support this is the way as well as the wider international community the international community has expressed strong support for i think the u s can help us with i think most of it has been raised by the minister of defense but i'm going to repeat some of them first to date only burned and you're going to have agreed to contribute to the army and it's still only has roughly four hundred four thousand two hundred fifty of the authorized eight thousand troops on the ground in somalia more troops are needed to help us support and guarantee that the insurgents trying to overthrow the legitimate government will not succeed we need your continued efforts in encouraging potential troop contributing countries to contribute more forces our troops need more experience in order to respond to the changing realities on the ground that would benefit from the deployment of international advisers but people who are interested as we said from the beginning let us focus on the people let's focus on the children not just focus on the web and let us focus on the future and see how we can come together to see if we can move that forward we will work with those who want to work with us and we will ignore any l assistance to those who refuse to take the people of somalia seriously and as a member of the chairman of this committee i will ensure that people who want to see people help will be assisted and will have all of my energy to try to do that those who want to go it alone and those who feel they need no assistance that is if they can continue to do what they're doing well they don't need anything but we will concentrate on those who are willing to make a difference in the lives of people we will know eight thousand was the number that was supposed to come from the united how many troops do you believe are necessary secondly about the man you this is an enormous opportunity probably one that we have not had in a decade though there are many many issues that we confront we know that sudan and other areas are still conflicted  initiative and certainly courage of mine because he is not someone that is afraid of as all of us are not a courage of mind to go to somalia and then to have this hearing is both historic but as well you know opportunity without description and i certainly want to thank you for your leadership and want to make a commitment i want to get in here and get something done  and i i recognize my colleague as well who is here so let me try to quickly focus on something that my distinguished u n ambassador mentioned and i will start with that the piece has been taken as a hostage and anytime we yield a bin to those who would steal the the hands of babies we are cowards so i believe that the first thing we need to do is to say that the terrorists will not win and we got into a conflict about who you call a terrorist and these are just individuals who have a disagreement terrorists are disruptive terrorist destroy history and in service that you bring and i just want to recount what i think is going to be helpful to you and if you would just as i make the a list of what i think would be helpful to to you being  independent of being saved or attempting to restore what is necessary for your growth assistance coastal stations to stop the piracy if we're serious a bout stopping the piracy we need these coastal stations is that correct with the  explain it you are interested in getting a coastal task force and equipment is needed for the coastal task force with the postal the post command center to support intel interagency coordination surveillance capabilities what a crappy aircraft improving communication so if we have these coastal stations we need to make sure that we have the equipment for them you also seriously want to restore your economy and so you need to be able to restore the fishing industry and have the resources to stop poaching would that be helpful to you the stations the equipment defined terrorist they are there what is i've gotten the list but what directly do we do to help somalia stabilize and confront directly the terror done and leave in its place what has been requested of us today and i thank you and i just want to say that i have a young lady by name of bianca people she's eight years old and i want her to be able to come to somalia and join and learn and love constituency and minneapolis st paul region very interested in what's happening in somalia in particular but in our general although he's not a member of the committee to sit in and so we're very pleased to ask the too many questions he has  the delay but we go out on recess tomorrow for a week or so and it's not uncommon that issues on the floor take precedence and you must go to vote but i really it's very clear that this issue is an issue that is important to people in this country and we were not surprised interest in somalia land and somaliland there is no question that the united states in my opinion has abandoned somalia following the images and remembrances of that period but for the last seven or eight years i've been urging the united states to reengage in somalia trying to get them to come there however as has been mentioned the government needs the support and the financing to be able to do that we know that there is an urge for  children to be educated as i mentioned before and this panel just by happenstance happened to be all  groups and they talked about their needs and they talked about the fact they talk pretty bad about some of your men but i won't i won't give i won't tell you what they told me but  e that said certain clans could not go across a certain part of official barrier and the women decided one day they were going anywhere they wanted to go and so that that the so called green line because the women decided it was time to go so we do know about their voice and that we will also a the support of women's groups in somalia and land and somaliland we will continue to follow up we will be in touch with all of you we will be supportive of what you have said and we will certainly once again express our dismay for the refusal of somaliland to participate however we will one day perhaps they will decide that they are going to be a part of a greater somalia and get on board like the rest of you are trying to get on board and we will worry about the detractors and if they want to be isolated they can be assured that i will do all i can to isolate them the evidence so at a clear that they do not need or want the support of the united states government or the united states and so we have enough to do to try to support  somalia and we will try to do what we can so once again i appreciate you all coming i will close the meeting but i were a question out of us consent for members to have five days to revise and extend their remarks without objection so water meeting stands a