JEDDAH, 25 June 2003 — Somalia’s Transitional National Government President, Abdi Qassim Salad Hassan, has appealed to Kenya to reopen airspace between the two countries, closed on Sunday amid renewed concern about terrorism, the Daily Nation said on Monday.
He said the closing of Kenyan airspace to airplanes from Somalia will only add to the suffering of its citizens and undermine the present peace talks in Kenya. Kenya banned flights to and from Somalia because of an unspecified terror threat. The president, however, denied there was any such danger.
The president said he hoped the ban would be lifted in two or three days. “Kenya is a friend and a brotherly neighbor to Somalia and I’m sure the decision to ban all flights to Somalia is a temporary security measure which I hope will be lifted in a day or two,” he added.
Salad downplayed the threat of terrorism in Somalia, insisting that little evidence existed of terrorist cells in his country. He said no Somali had been directly implicated in terrorism, adding that his citizens opposed terrorism in all its forms.
He claimed that he suspected that terrorist training camps were in the southwestern region of Gedo, controlled by militia friendly to the Ethiopian government. But, he insisted that the terrorists no longer operated in the region.
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UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged all Somali groups to refrain from hostilities and acts likely to increase tension in the final stage of their present peace talks in Kenya. He said in a report published late last week that the divisions among Somali faction leaders remain, even as the reconciliation process gears up for its final phase of negotiating the formation of an all-inclusive government.
He said that some leaders had kept away from the peace talks, alleging insufficient representation.
“The final results will be only as good as the substantive agreement reached by the Somalis themselves on the structures of future governance and their commitment to abide by the obligations they have accepted,” Anan stressed, adding that the international community can only assist the Somali efforts to end years of conflict and deprivation.
