The Somali peace talks have again been postponed, as some warlords and other leaders have vowed not to attend, according to a number of reports in both Kenya and Somalia.
The talks organized by the East African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), are scheduled for Oct. 15 in Eldoret in Kenya.
The talks which have already been postponed many times, were originally scheduled for Sept. 16.
According to sources close to IGAD, the most recent delay is due to logistical problems in contacting some participants. The same sources confirmed that most Somali groups will attend the talks.
Hilowe Iman Omer, a member of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), was quoted in Mogadishu’s Xog-Ogoal newspaper as saying the SRRC will not participate in the peace talks.
SRRC is opposed to the Transitional National Government (TNG) led by President Abdi Qassim Salad Hassan. The talks, however, are expected to bring together the TNG and its armed foes.
At the same time, the administration of breakaway Somaliland in the north said that it had not been invited to the peace talks. Somaliland president Dahir Riyale Kahin was quoted as saying that his administration had no business at the talks. Riyale said Somaliland had regained its independence in 1991 though the international community has not recognized it as an independent state.
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Salad Hassan has warned that Somalia could become a terrorist hide-out because the international community had failed to help the country.
"The international community did not help Somalia as it did Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Cambodia. Instead of helping the Somali people who have suffered for 10 years or more, we hear hostile propaganda especially from the West and the Americans.
When the only superpower is saying it’s going to bomb Somalia, everybody is frightened and nobody is willing to help us," Salad told the Associated Press on Sept. 9.
After Sept. 11, US officials named Somalia as a possible target in Washington’s war on terrorism. The US also put Somalia’s Al-Ittihaad Al-Islamia and Barakaat Company on the list of entities suspected to have links to Osama Bin Laden.
The president said the expected peace talks in Kenya would be successful only if the international community was serious about peace in the region.
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On Sept. 10, press reports said that the chairman of the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA), Hassan Shatigudud, had met with his former deputy, Sheikh Adan Modobe in Dolo, Ethiopia. Addis Ababa reportedly arranged the meeting aimed at ending differences between the two men before the talks in Kenya.
Militia loyal to Shatigudud drove those of Madobe out of Baidao in southwestern Somalia on July 31 after fierce factional fighting. The fighting was seen as a power struggle within the RRA.
