JEDDAH, 15 September 2004 — The sponsors of peace talks have asserted that the warlord, Mohamed Said Morgan, has agreed to rejoin the talks, media reports said. The warlord, whose advance in the southern region of Lower Jubba last week, had raised fears of renewed violence. The mediators said that Morgan has agreed to end his forces’ move toward the port town of Kismayo after mediators settled his debts at a five-star hotel. The bill was run up in Kenya, before he left the talks last month, to become the only major warlord not in Kenya.
The head of the regional mediation team, Kenya’s Ambassador Bethwell Kiplagat, said he would send a plane to take Morgan to Kenya, if he revealed his location and found a suitable landing place. The mediators from the regional body, IGAD, had threatened sanctions against Morgan, if he remained outside the peace process.
Barre Hiiraale, the head of the Jubba Valley Alliance, which has controlled Kismayo since mid-1999 after seizing it from Morgan, was still reported to be in Somalia, organizing his troops in case of attack. Hiiraale said he was still committed to the Kenyan peace process.
The executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Ann Cooper, has urged the breakaway northern region of Somaliland to release a detained Somali journalist, reports said. The Somaliland police recently arrested Hassan Said Yusuf, the editor in chief of the independent Somali-language daily “Jamhuuriya” and its weekly English-language edition “The Republican” in Hargeysa. “Arresting a journalist over a news story is unacceptable. We call on Somaliland authorities to ensure Hassan Said Yusuf’s immediate, unconditional release, and to ensure that journalists in Somaliland are free to report on matters of public concern without fear of government reprisal,” said Cooper.
Yusuf ‘s arrest stemmed from a news article about the Somaliland government’s stance on peace talks in Kenya. Somaliland has refused to participate in the talks. According to reports, the article suggested that Somaliland’s main opposition party, Kulmiye, took a harder stance against participating in the talks than Somaliland’s government. The detention of the journalist has been condemned by local press organizations, including the Somali Journalists Network (SOJON) and the Press Freedom Violation Monitors.
Somali Business Council Chairman Sharif Ahmed has said that the new Somali government could boost business opportunities in the country, press reports said. Ahmed was referring to the Transitional Federal Parliament, which was formed in Nairobi during peace talks last month. The assembly is expected to elect a president on Sept. 22.
“Peace will be slow to take root in Somalia. If the new government can succeed in bringing peace, it will be a huge boost to business in the country. We need to put businesses into Somali hands,” said Ahmed, who chairs the Dubai-based business council.
He is also one of the shareholders in a Coca-Cola bottling plant that opened in Mogadishu in July, giving residents hope that the return of the world’s largest soft drink company after a 13-year absence was a sign of a gradual return to normality. Since the outbreak of civil war following the collapse of the government in 1991, the private sector has propped up the country’s bruised economy. Local businessmen have established telecommunications, airlines, light industries and money transfer companies.
“Right now, our biggest expense is paying for security, so if the government can provide that, everyone will happily pay taxes. Ten years ago, everybody was fighting, but now most people want peace and it’s only a small group serving their own interests who do not want peace,” he said, “If the government does not end the fighting, this whole thing will be back to zero”. Somalia’s business leaders have recently agreed to form a chamber of commerce and industry. They have pointed out that the chamber could help the new government rebuild and secure the country.
