Somalia’s interim government and rival Islamists resumed a second round of direct peace talks over the weekend in Sudan, but a major sticking point remains the issue of foreign troops.
The Islamists oppose the deployment of foreign peacekeeping troops, fearing interference from Somalia’s neighbours, particularly Ethiopia
The regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which shepherded Somalia’s peace process two years ago, is due to hold a summit on Tuesday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to discuss an Africa Union-backed peacekeeping plan.
“We are meeting with the Somalis today. It is just in preparation for the Tuesday meeting,” a Kenya foreign affairs official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
A Reuters witness saw Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju with the Islamist delegation, led by its leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, at a hotel just outside the capital.
An Islamist official had said they would lobby against the deployment of troops from the region and object to what they saw as interference from Ethiopia and Uganda.
Witnesses and analysts say Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia to support the interim government. Addis Ababa has repeatedly denied that.
Somalia’s new Foreign Affairs Minister Ismail Hurre Buba, who is in Nairobi ahead of the summit, said Kenya was meeting only the Islamists and not the government side.
“This is strictly that the Kenya government has received some members of the Islamic Courts,” Hurre told Reuters.
Kenya, which chairs IGAD, hosted Somali peace talks in which the interim government was formed in 2004. Hurre said the government had no problem with Kenya speaking to the Islamists.
“If Kenya can soften the positions of the (Islamic) Courts, why not? We would like everybody to take part in the peace process, after all, we are a government of reconciliation.”
The Islamists seized control of the capital Mogadishu from U.S.-backed warlords in June and spread their control into other parts of Somalia, becoming a potent threat to the interim government, based in the provincial town of Baidoa.
Somalia has been mired in anarchy since the 1991 ousting of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The interim government is the 14th attempt to return central rule to the nation.
Source: Reuters, Sept 3, 2006