Members of Somalia's new transitional parliament were sworn in Sunday, a key step toward establishing its first national government since 1991. But a dispute within one of the country's main clans over its delegates threatened to scuttle the peace process, mediators said.
| Comes as a surprise, doesn't it? |
The new parliament is the product of nearly two years of talks in Kenya among clan leaders, religious leaders and warlords. While foreign officials at the ceremony hailed the parliament's creation, they pressed for a speedy resolution to one key hurdle - a dispute within the Darod clan over who will choose the clan's lawmakers.
"We're appointin' the lawmakers!"
"No, you ain't! We're appointin' the lawmakers!"
"Go fer yer guns, Mahmoud!" |
A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in New York that Annan "would like to stress that this is the beginning of long-awaited reconciliation."
| The spokesman declined to comment, however, on whether the new parliament could control anything more than ten feet away from the front door. |
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