Somali faction leaders have again threatened to quit the present peace talks in Kenya if mediators invited rival leaders, press reports said yesterday. Last week, Kenya announced that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni will open new talks for all Somali faction leaders on Jan. 9 to try to recuperate the countryâs peace process. An East African body, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), has been sponsoring the current Somali talks since October last year. âIGAD and the international community donât have the right to overrule the process. They donât have the right to decide for Somalis. It is Somalis who will decide this process,â said Mowlid Maane Mahmoud, a faction leader and spokesman for a group of leaders currently at the talks. Mahmoud has threatened to quit the whole peace process if IGAD invited more faction leaders to attend the upcoming reconciliation talks, adding that they wanted only the 24 faction leaders that had signed a cease-fire accord on Oct. 27, 2002 and president of Transitional National Government Abdi Qassim Salad to attend the gathering.
| "We don't want them! We don't associate with their like!" |
IGAD wants about 42 leaders including more warlords, university professors and professionals to attend the discussions. The âretreatâ, as it is billed, has been delayed on numerous occasions in recent weeks due to disagreements among Somali warlords about who should attend. At the same time, an official of the regional administration of the northeastern region of Puntland, Awad Ahmad Ashara, said that there was no need for a retreat. âThe retreat would not promote the peace process but would lead to its collapse. I believe it is a ploy to destroy the peace process and then blame the Somalis for the failure,â he said. |