POLITICS-SOMALIA: Mediator Denies Peace Talks on the Verge of Collapse

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Katy Salmon

NAIROBI, Mar 13 2003 (IPS) - The mediator heading peace talks aimed at ending more than a decade of anarchy in Somalia, Bethwell Kiplagat, has denied that the talks are on the verge of collapse, following reports of mounting tensions in the region.

Kiplagat met with the Prime Minister of Somalia’s Transitional National Government (TNG), Hasan Abshir Farah, Thursday – quelling fears that the TNG was about to pull out of the talks.

”I am optimistic,” Kiplagat told IPS.

”Today, the prime minister of TNG arrived back from a trip abroad where he had gone for medical treatment. He came with his whole team and they have assured me, we’ve just had very productive discussions.

”He was a bit anxious that this thing is dragging on but when I presented to him the roadmap we have worked on, I think he is quite satisfied.

”So, they are here (Kenya),” he confirmed.

On Tuesday, the acting head of the TNG’s delegation, Muhammad Abdi Yusuf, said they were pulling out of the talks because their northern neighbour Ethiopia had occupied parts of Somalia and was massing even more troops along their common border.

”Can anybody fighting us bring peace in our land?” he queried, reporting in Kenya’s Daily Nation.

Ethiopia, along with Djibouti and the conference’s host Kenya, is part of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) technical committee, which is steering the talks.

Ethiopia has denied these claims, though admits that it has in the past sent troops into Somalia to attack members of the Islamist Al-Ittihad group, which the United States believes is linked with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

In a statement reported by the UN news agency, IRIN, the Ethiopian government accused the TNG of making the allegations because it was unhappy with the progress of the talks in Kenya and of using Ethiopia as a scapegoat in an attempt to scuttle them.

It challenged the TNG to prove the allegations and invited any interested party to ”visit and verify the presence of Ethiopian troops across Ethiopia’s border inside Somalia”.

The counter-accusations between the TNG and Ethiopia this week have added to speculation that the Somali peace talks are on the verge of collapse.

For the last six months, there have been lengthy arguments over representation of the dozen plus Somali factions as well as serious financial problems finding money to pay for the talks.

Several faction leaders have given up and gone back home to Somalia.

In the last month, there have been widespread violations of a cease-fire agreement signed last October. The most serious fighting has been in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

In response, IGAD recently established a committee to monitor cease-fire violations.

Kiplagat says it will be sending a fact-finding mission to Mogadishu in the next two weeks, in what he hopes will be a precursor to the setting up of a permanent monitoring team.

”It is no use simply issuing or signing a cease-fire agreement. You have to implement it and give it teeth. And that requires the presence of monitors on the ground,” he says.

IGAD are also working on ”smart sanctions”, including banning international travel and seizing the assets of faction leaders violating the cease-fire.

However, Kiplagat warns, this would need legal backing from the United Nations.

There have been more than a dozen failed Somali reconciliation conferences since its government collapsed in 1991 with the overthrow of President Said Barre.

Last month, Kiplagat, a widely respected former diplomat, took over the chairmanship of the talks.

He moved them from the Kenyan town of Eldoret to the capital Nairobi, a move which has reduced operating costs by 60 percent.

The second phase of the talks is due to end on Mar 24 when six reconciliation committees will present their reports on issues such as a new constitution, demobilisation and disarmament and land ownership.

The reports will then be harmonised and presented to the plenary for debate and amendment.

After that, the report will be adopted in a draft form, action points be drawn up and a team chosen to implement it.

In the final phase of the talks, a provisional transitional government will be chosen to move back to Somalia ”to continue with the peace process,” says Kiplagat.

A recent report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group think-tank, ‘Blueprint Needed for Peace in Somalia’ warned that Kiplagat must not be tempted to try for a ”quick fix” by declaring an interim government first and ”leaving the details of a durable settlement to be worked out later”.

”If there is to be any hope of success, the new chairman and his team must redirect the process towards constructing a comprehensive blueprint for peace and governance,” the report said.

Kiplagat believes he is doing this.

As soon as the transitional government returns home, ordinary Somali people will be invited to give their inputs, to refine and amend the draft before it is implemented.

Kiplagat is aware that this will take time.

He says the process of peace building and conflict resolution at the local level will take at least a year.

Before disarmament can be carried out, there will have to be extensive research into the depth of the problem – the number of weapons and militia in the country and their categories, whether private militia for hire or soldiers under a political leader.

Finally, if all goes well, Somalia will prepare for democratic elections to create a new government.