POLITICS-SOMALIA: Agreement Reached on Transitional Parliament

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Jan 30 2004 (IPS) - Somalia took an important step towards peace this week when warring leaders agreed to set up a transitional parliament to help rule the tattered nation. The Horn of Africa country has been without central government since 1991, when President Mohammed Siad Barre was deposed.

Thursday’s agreement came after leaders of over 23 factions and Somalia’s Transitional National Government (TNG) resolved differences over the number of legislators who should sit in the parliament.

In terms of the Transitional Federal Charter (TFC), which helps map out efforts to restore a functioning government in Somalia, the number was originally set at 351. These members of parliament (MP’s) were to serve a four-year term in the house. And, they were to be selected by, amongst others, the Somali leaders who signed a 2002 declaration to cease hostilities.

However, the TNG and various faction leaders were dissatisfied with this arrangement. The parliament will now have 275 MP’s who will serve for five years. Clan leaders and traditional elders are to have a major say in the selection of parliamentarians.

Once chosen, the MP’s will elect a President who, in their turn, will appoint a Prime Minister.

Talks to bring peace to Somalia have been underway in Kenya since 2002 under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGAD). This group includes Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia and Sudan. The European Union, Italy, Norway, United Kingdom, United States and the League of Arab States are also observing the talks.

Thursday’s amendments to the TFC have paved the way for a third and final round of negotiations.

"(The third round) entails the formation of the Transitional Federal Government of the Somali Republic. It is expected that within a period of one month, all the clans will have submitted the names of their nominees for the Transitional Federal Parliament," said Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Kalonzo Musyoka, at the ceremony held for the signing of the amended TFC.

Musyoka, who also chairs the IGAD ministerial facilitation committee for the Somali talks, is said to have played a significant role in the agreement.

Faction leader Mohamed Dere told IPS, "We will pursue peace and we expect the 13-year-old conflict to be solved soon, once and for all."

"Anyone who backtracks on the TFC, be it a leader or delegate, should be taken to the International Court of Justice. Somalis cannot afford to squash this opportunity that has been hard to come by," added Mohammed Qanyere, another leader.

Even as peace efforts proceed, however, the prospect of conflict between the self-declared republic of Somaliland and another self-declared autonomous area, Puntland, is looming. Leaders of both these areas have laid claim to the Sool and Sanaag regions in northern Somalia, which have previously been relatively peaceful.

Asha Ahmed Abdi, a delegate to the Somali talks, believes that United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan should intervene. "We are appealing to the UN Secretary-General to use his good office to save this already impoverished country and people from another civil war," she said.