By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – The interim government of Somalia and the Islamist movement which took control of the capital Mogadishu this month will have direct high-level talks in Sudan on Thursday, the Arab League said.
Mohamed Ali Ibrahim, the head of the Islamist delegation, said the meeting would take place on Thursday in the presence of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who launched a joint mediation effort on Thursday with the Arab League.
Ibrahim, representing the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) which kicked warlords out of Mogadishu on June 5, said his side wanted to negotiate directly with the government.
But the government has kept its distance from the Islamists and its officials did not speak to reporters. On Wednesday a spokesman said direct talks could take place later in Somalia.
Sudan invited the two delegations to Khartoum and called an Arab League meeting to avert a new war in Somalia, which has not had a strong central government for the past 15 years.
The talks will focus on a ceasefire and power sharing, said an African diplomat who follows Somalia closely.
Tensions have risen between the government and the Islamists since the latter advanced out of Mogadishu and seized a strategic swathe of southern Somalia.
The government has infuriated the Islamists by calling for international peacekeepers and saying that Muslim fundamentalists from around the world helped the Islamic Courts Union secure its victory in Mogadishu.
PROGRESS ON AGENDA
Moussa said the two sides had made progress toward a common agenda which includes arms, the future of warlords, cooperation and reconstruction. Peacekeeping could also be on the agenda.
“This is the beginning of a long process. Today and from now on we are just starting,” he added.
President Abdullahi Yusuf, whose weak interim government is based in the provincial town of Baidoa, is attending the talks. ICU chairman Sheikh Sharif Ahmed did not come in person but sent a 10-man delegation, Sudanese officials said.
The victory of the Islamist movement was a setback for the United States, which fed money to warlords who courted U.S. backing by saying they were fighting terrorism.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told reporters in Nairobi late on Wednesday that Washington wanted all Somalis to deny safe haven to what she called foreign terrorists operating in Somalia.
“It is very clear that there are foreign terrorists in Somalia … We need to work with all elements. They need to come together within a dialogue so that they can create a policy in which terrorists cannot have a safe haven,” she said.
Moussa said the United States now understood that financing warlords was a bad idea. “I believe that all of us including the United States are very much aware that any money given to warlords takes Somalia back to square one,” he said.
He said he did not know how long the talks would last or what the next step would be. But Moussa does not plan to stay in the Sudanese capital throughout Friday, he added.
The African diplomat said he was skeptical about the talks. “The Islamic courts have not sent their big guns. Those who were sent cannot make a final decision. I don’t think the talks will have any impact on the ground,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Nairobi bureau)
Source: Reuters, June 22, 2006
