JEDDAH, 12 September 2003 — The president of Somalia’s Transitional National Government (TNG), Abdi Qassim Salad, and four faction leaders have held talks in Mogadishu to discuss the present Somali peace talks in Kenya. According to press reports on Wednesday, they said the meeting was aimed at salvaging the ongoing Somali talks but did not constitute parallel talks.
The participants in the meeting were: The TNG president, two of Mogadishu’s faction leaders, Muse Sudi Yalahow and Osman Hasan Ato, Barre Hiirale who controls the southern port town of Kismanyo, and Muhammad Habsade of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA) in the southeastern town of Baidoa.
All of them have walked out of the peace talks, which is currently being sponsored by the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African body. There were reports that these leaders had been preparing parallel peace talks.
One of the leaders denied that they were organizing parallel talks, saying they wanted to “bring to the fore some of the problems with the Nairobi peace talks, which forced some of us to abandon it.
“What we have begun in Mogadishu is true reconciliation. Leaders who have never spoken to each other are sitting and talking for the first time,” Ato told the UN humanitarian website. It was the first meeting between Salad and Yalahow, who had been among the most implacable opponents of the TNG.
“We want reconciliation among leaders first. Throughout the time of the talks (in Kenya), there has not been any reconciliation. Leaders who came here as enemies remain so to this day. How can such leaders work together in the same government?” said Yalahow, who controls some parts of the capital city and the neighboring region of Middle Shabelle.In a statement issued after their meeting, the participants of Mogadishu meeting called for IGAD to transfer the chairmanship of the talks in Kenya to Somalis. IGAD’s role in the talks should be that of a facilitator and to provide support when needed, they said. “Another issue of importance to the Somali people is the participation in the conference of all those who are currently not there. This includes representatives from the northern regions (the breakaway Somaliland and prominent personalities who have stayed away),” it noted, calling on IGAD to set up a committee of Somali legal and constitutional experts to be advised by international experts.
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New Zealand has been asked to immediately deport a Somali serving an eight-year term for rape and kidnapping.
A press release issued on Wednesday by the ultra-nationalist New Zealand First Party said New Zealanders were shocked to learn that the Deportation Review Tribunal has upheld an appeal by Hassan Ahmed Shaqlane against deportation.
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A cargo of fuel has reached a natural port in north Mogadishu after severe fuel shortage brought the city to a virtual standstill, media reports said on Wednesday. The price of fuel in Mogadishu has more than doubled in just two weeks. Diesel went from 30 US cents per liter to 80 US cents.
