By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: February 17, 2010
NAIROBI, Kenya — United Nations officials intensified their criticism of the American government on Wednesday, saying that Washington was imposing “impossible” conditions on aid deliveries for Somalia and holding up tens of millions of dollars of desperately-needed food based on unfounded accusations that it would be diverted to terrorists.

The American government has said that aid agencies receiving American money must ensure that their contractors do not divert money or aid to the Shabab, a Somali insurgent group that the American government has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

But Mark Bowden, the United Nations official in charge of humanitarian operations in Somalia, said the accusations of aid diversions to the Shabab were “ungrounded.”

“What we are seeing is a politicization of humanitarian issues,” he said, adding that when he recently went to Washington to discuss the matter with American aid officials, “the comment we met was, ‘This is beyond our pay grade.’”

When the issue first came up last year, Americans officials said they were simply following American law and trying to prevent terrorists from profiting from American aid. Whether this is actually happening in Somalia is not yet clear. One internal United Nations audit found no wrongdoing, while preliminary results from another, more independent investigation have indicated that some United Nations contractors may be diverting American-donated food to the Shabab and their allies, who then sell the sacks of grain and tins of oil to buy guns.

On Wednesday, one American official shot back, “We wouldn’t have reacted this way if the allegations were ungrounded. There is a body of evidence here.”

The American official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter but was clearly irritated by Mr. Bowden’s comments, added, “We’re going to have to talk to him.”

The fight over American aid is just one of many serious problems in Somalia right now. United Nations officials described a nation racked by drought, suicide bombings and clan tensions. Three million Somalis — nearly half the population — need emergency help, and even the African Union peacekeepers deployed to protect the population has been accused of carelessly killing civilians.

Mr. Bowden said United Nations officials had recently complained to the African Union about barrages of “indiscriminate shelling” that have killed dozens of people.

The 5,000 African Union peacekeepers in Somalia are about the only thing preventing the weak transitional government from collapsing. But the peacekeepers themselves often come under withering attack, by the Shabab and other insurgent groups. In recent weeks, the peacekeepers have responded by firing artillery shells in the direction of where the enemy fire has come from, even if that means bombarding urban neighborhoods.

“Our gunners are very accurate,” said Felix M. Kulayigye, a spokesman for the Ugandan military, whose troops make up the bulk of the peacekeepers. “If a mortar shell comes from a particular direction, that is the direction we will fire.”

He said that the allegations of indiscriminate shelling from aid groups like Doctors Without Borders were “propaganda,” and that it was wrong for United Nations officials to criticize the peacekeepers.

“These men and women are on the firing line and they have gone where the U.N. refuses to go,” Mr. Kulayigye said, referring to the fact that despite repeated requests from the Somali government, the United Nations has shied away from sending its own peacekeepers into Somalia.

Instead, the recent focus of United Nations officials has been stepping up efforts to deliver aid in anticipation of a major offensive by Somali and African Union troops, which could begin in the coming weeks or months and is intended to drive the Shabab out of Mogadishu, the capital.

But the American restrictions on aid remain one of the biggest challenges to helping Somalia’s beleaguered population, in the eyes of many United Nations officials and aid workers.

Last year, the American government provided less than half of what it did in 2008 for Somalia aid operations because United Nations agencies and private aid groups refused to sign an agreement to more closely police the distribution of aid, contending it would make deliveries nearly impossible.

That dispute is still “dragging on” Mr. Bowden said, though the American government has resumed some donations to Somalia, including $15 million of food earlier this month.

According to a draft of the new aid conditions, which was provided to The New York Times on Wednesday, the American government is demanding that aid agencies receiving American money cannot pay “fees at roadblocks, ports, warehouses, airfields or other transit points” controlled by the Shabab.

The problem is, more than half of south-central Somalia is controlled by the Shabab or its allies, who often set up roadblocks and charge money for goods to pass. In many places in Somalia the Shabab is the only local administration.

The new rules call for aid workers, including local Somalis, to report to American administrators when any aid unintentionally slips into the hands of the Shabab.

“That could make us and our people look like spies,” one aid worker said on condition of anonymity. “It’s totally unacceptable.”

SOURCE: NY TIMES.

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