Somali participants at the Kenyan peace talks have declined to move from Eldoret to Nairobi, the East African Standard newspaper reported yesterday. Earlier reports said that the talks were expected to move from Eldoret to Nairobi to allow the Kenyan government and international community to closely monitor the progress. The paper noted that the Somalis believe that moving the talks would require unnecessary adjustments. The participants, however, said there was a probability that Kenyan Somalis in Nairobi might disrupt the talks, who will sneak in the talks.

A police officer said four Somali delegates were arrested on Tuesday in a fight at the talks. The trouble sprang from differences over plans to move the talks to Nairobi by early next month. Witnesses said a nonmilitary activist sparked the row by supporting the transfer of the talks. The organizers, however, view the role of nonmilitary participants as crucial to the peace settlement.

***

The northern region of breakaway Somaliland’s minister of water and mineral resources, Mahmud Abdi Farah, on Tuesday criticized recent remarks made by Somali faction leaders in Kenya. Speaking at a news conference in Hargeisa, he said the remarks from leaders meeting in Eldoret were the result of ignorance and a lack of understanding. The minister said the people of Somaliland had made their decision, had held free and fair elections and had put in place a constitution which allowed them to govern themselves. He said the remarks would not affect the unity of Somaliland in any way.

***

The authorities in the region of Puntland have lifted the ban on two BBC reporters, media reports said yesterday. The Somali reporters, Ahmad Muhammad Kismayo and Muhammad Khalif Gir, were banned from reporting from the region last year. They were accused of not being objective in their reporting. Abdishakur Mire Adan, the Puntland deputy information minister, told the UN media that Internal Affairs Minister Ahmad Abdi Habsade had made the announcement in a letter to the BBC. Ismail Warsame, the chief of the Cabinet, said that he hoped the two reporters would report events objectively and without bias in future. "Puntland is still waiting for the BBC to send officially accredited reporters to the region."

— 30 January 2003