Geneva - Switzerland's lower house of parliament voted Wednesday against sending soldiers to fight piracy off the seas of Somalia, after an ad-hoc coalition across party lines defeated the government's proposal. The 46-member upper house had accepted the plan earlier this month, saying 30 or so Alpine sailors would protect shipments of humanitarian aid from the United Nations and ships with the Swiss flag.
In the National Council, the lower house, however, a coalition of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, the Greens and some Socialists rejected the motion by 103 votes against 84 in favour, while 11 members abstained.
A similar ad-hoc grouping had tried to form in the upper house, the Council of States, but there only seven voted against the deployment while 33 said yes.
The Greens want Switzerland to provide humanitarian aid and diplomatic efforts, but not take part in an anti-piracy campaign they see as being led by the NATO alliance.
The conservatives opposed sending troops to the Somali seas altogether, saying Switzerland did not have a legal basis for intervening.
Those in favour cite the humanitarian problem of aid ships being hijacked, saying Swiss on the high seas are also at risk, and in general want the often reclusive Alpine country to take a bigger part in international missions.
The landlocked country, which has been recognized as a neutral state since 1815, has in recent years started to participate with observers in international peacekeeping missions, such as that in Kosovo, and earlier this decade joined the United Nations, which has its European headquarters in Geneva.
It is not a member of the European Union or NATO.
