JEDDAH, 12 December 2003 — The foreign ministers of seven East African countries of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development have urged Somali faction leaders to attend a 10-day meeting starting on Dec. 18 in Kenya, a statement said Wednesday. It said the “retreat” was intended to provide Somali leaders with an opportunity to mend their differences and to promote the peace process. The ministers warned that any invited leader who does not attend would be deemed to have no interest in the reconciliation process. The statement, which was issued by ministers after a meeting in Nairobi, said that the retreat will be launched in Mombasa by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who is also the IGAD chairman.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano are expected to attend. “The ministers stressed that any invited leader who will not show up at the leaders retreat shall be deemed not to be interested in the reconciliation process and will be treated as such. The IGAD Assembly will fully endorse the results of the retreat. Phase three of the present Somali peace talks will start immediately after retreat,” it said. Somali peace talks in Kenya started in October 2002, sponsored by IGAD. The talks have been hampered by disputes among participants over issues such as an interim charter and the selection of the future parliamentarians.
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The regional traffic police chief in the northern region of Somaliland, Col. Mahmoud Abdi Jama, has been shot dead. Media reports said on Wednesday he was shot twice in front of his house by unknown gunmen who followed him home, and was rushed to a nearby hospital but died shortly afterward.
Somaliland’s Information Ministry official said the motive for the latest murder was not yet clear. “It is unlikely that this and the earlier incidents are connected. It is too early to speculate on who might have killed the officer and why. We have to wait for the police to arrest suspects before we can comment,” the official told the UN news agency, adding that some 20 people are in police custody for the earlier killings, which were blamed on elements working to destabilize the region.
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Somali participants at the ongoing Somali peace talks in Kenya representing the divided Transitional National Government led by president Abdi Qassim Salad have dismissed the appointment of a new prime minister, said a statement signed by the TNG delegates on Tuesday. “These so-called elections and appointments are contrary to the Transitional National Charter adopted by the Somali National Peace Conference in Djibouti in August 2000 and are, therefore, null and void.
One hundred and thirty-two out of 245 members of the TNG Parliament, 32 ministers and military and police commanders are currently present at the conference in Nairobi.
Salad is utterly mistaken in thinking that he can stay on as president forever by attempting to extend the expired mandate of the TNG and disregarding the charter on whose basis he was elected,” it said. The TNG president appointed on Monday Mohamed Abdi Yusuf as the new TNG prime minister.
