The picture is not from this event but, rather, from the previous
event, but I do not have a photo or video from this speech yet, so this
will have to suffice.
Remarks at a UN Secretary General Summit on Somalia
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
United Nations
New York City
September 26, 2012
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Thank you very much, Under Secretary General. And let me join in
congratulating both the new President and the new Prime Minister. We
very much appreciated the President’s statement outlining your
government’s six objectives, and we stand ready to assist you in
fulfilling them. I also want to thank former President Sheikh Sharif for
a smooth and peaceful transition, the first in decades for the Somali
people.
Let me make three areas of emphasis that deserve our
attention quickly. First, we have to continue improving security. The
United States has strongly supported AMISOM and the Somali national
forces, and we will work closely with the new government as it takes
more of a leading role. We will maintain our support for the security
sector and focus on sustainable and comprehensive reform. As more areas
are liberated from al-Shabaab, the government will need to establish
police forces and courts. And we view the Joint Security Committee as a
promising mechanism for coordinating efforts between the Somali
Government and international partners.
Second, stabilization
efforts must continue across the country. Although there has been
encouraging progress so far under the National Stabilization Plan, more
than 2 million people in Somalia still need lifesaving humanitarian
assistance. Many more face hunger and malnutrition and can’t get basic
services, such as clean water and adequate electricity. And the former
combatants, who are defecting from al-Shabaab will need to be
reintegrated into local communities.
In addition, we have to
continue to keep focus on the refugee population. Kenya has been
extremely generous in sponsoring hundreds of thousands of Somali
refugees, and we have to continue to work overtime to relocate those
refugees back in their homes.
So meeting these challenges will
require the government to work with local communities as well as the
international efforts to really focus, especially on southern and
central Somalia, and that will give us a chance to try to provide enough
stability for the government to get about its business.
And
finally, with respect to the government, transparency and accountability
must be required. We urge the new government to appoint a cabinet of
people who will work to promote the interests of the Somali people and
respond to their needs and maintain the confidence of international
donors so future collaboration can continue.
So we look to the government to build transparent and accountable institutions.
Now,
what’s been accomplished in Somalia – and I remember being in this room
and other rooms over the last four UNGAs and hearing a lot of despair
about whether or not there could be a positive outcome. But what has
been accomplished has exceeded what many thought was possible. And it’s
taken a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifice, first and foremost from
the people of Somalia. But many of the international representatives
around this table have also been extraordinarily generous and committed.
So
now we have to help in the next phase for the people of Somalia, and we
look forward, on behalf of the United States, to doing everything we
can to make it a success.
