KHARTOUM, June 22 (Reuters) – Sudan and the Arab League launched an attempt on Thursday to mediate between the interim government of Somalia and the Islamist movement which controls the Somali capital Mogadishu.
But the government delegation has kept its distance, rejecting direct talks until later and inside Somalia.
Sudan invited the Somali delegations and called an Arab League meeting to avert a new war in the Horn of Africa nation, which has not had a stable government for the past 15 years.
Tensions have risen between the government and the Islamists since the latter kicked secular warlords out of Mogadishu on June 5 and went on to seize a strategic swathe of 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.
In mid-morning the Arab League began a meeting of its Somalia committee, attended by Arab foreign ministers and the Somali government but not by members of the Islamic Courts Union.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa had a parallel meeting with the Islamists, and Sudanese officials said Bashir could still try to bring the two delegations together later on Thursday.
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 Arab League had expected both Somali delegations to come to a single big meeting but a spokesman for the interim Somali government said on Wednesday that no direct meeting between the two delegations would take place.
“The government will not meet with the Islamic courts face-to-face but will agree after their meeting with the Sudanese president on when and where to hold talks inside Somalia,” government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told Reuters.
An African diplomat who follows Somalia said direct talks seemed unlikely. “The mediator will meet each group separately. The two groups might not meet,” he said. Talks would focus on a ceasefire and power sharing, he added.
“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
