Upon concluding an extensive tour of the Horn of Africa, the UN’s Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Mr. B. Lynn Pascoe, recently told a press conference in Addis Ababa that, “What many long time observers are telling me is that this is the best opportunity for peace that Somalia has had in the past 16 years.” At the same time Ethiopia’s President, Meles Zenawi, is calling on the United Nations to step up its support for AMISOM, the AU peacekeeping force, and to consider the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Somalia.