JEDDAH, 18 July 2003 — Somali elders are due to be flown today from different cities in central and southern Somalia to participate the present peace talks in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, an organizer of the talks said.
The elders are expected to select the members of the forthcoming federal Parliament. On June 5, Somali faction leaders and the Transitional National Government agreed to establish a 351-federal Parliament, which would appoint a new president, who in turn would appoint a prime minister.
James Kiboi, a political and diplomatic liaison officer of the Somali peace talks, said in statement e-mailed to Arab News that two flights will be leaving Nairobi today to Mogadishu, Kismayu, Baidoa and Galkacayo in central and southern Somalia to pick up Somali elders.
The signatories at the talks agreed that the selection of the parliamentarians should be based on clans.
The clan elders are expected to select their quota of the proposed federal parliament in order to secure the greatest legitimacy as well as public support to the final outcome.
The East African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development sponsors the Somali talks, which have been continuing for the past eight months in an effort to establish a broad-based government. About 361 delegates representing the TNG and armed factions and civil society groups are currently attending.
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The Hadrawi Peace March, named after the poet who recently returned from Europe, where he has lived since the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia in 1991, marched through the most violent parts in the war-torn city of Mogadishu.
The march was organized by human rights and civil society groups. It was reported that Hadrawi had returned to his homeland to try to persuade Somalis to forgive each other and live in peace together in the country. He composed a poem expressing the difficulties that Somalis are facing outside their country and how the problems of Somalia have started. Somalis are mostly nomads with oral traditions based on their way of life.
They admire poetry, and respect their poets and artists. It is expected that the peace march will visit southern and northern regions of the country soon.
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A four-year-old Somali boy is being prepared to return home after recovering from life-saving bowel surgery in Melbourne, Australia Broadcast Corporation said on Wednesday. Omar Muse Mohamed, 4, was brought to Australia in December 2002 by the Australian-based charity Children First Foundation.
Doctors said the boy was suffering from a rare bowel condition. Paddy Dewan, a pediatric surgeon, said Omar’s bowel was held outside his body in a plastic bag, saying that without surgery Omar would have died in a few weeks.
“When he got here he was anemic and malnourished and his colostomy, the bowel coming up to the skin to divert the fecal stream, was hanging almost to his knees. Omar has recovered well from his operation and will soon return to Somalia,” Dewan said.
