Somali leaders set to meet
2006-01-30 12:57
Nairobi - The leaders of Somalia's deeply split transitional government have agreed on a venue for parliament to meet for the first time in the lawless nation after weeks of haggling and intense international pressure, lawmakers close to both sides said on Monday.
During weekend meetings in Nairobi, the heads of the two factions - President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on one side and parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan on the other - agreed to hold the first session in the south-central town of Baidoa, they said.
"The three leaders have agreed to hold the parliament meeting in Baidoa," an MP close to Yusuf told AFP.
A lawmaker close to Gedi confirmed that Baidoa, about 250km west of Mogadishu, would be the venue but said that the meeting would not take place before a 30-day deadline the two sides set in a January 5 Yemen-mediated agreement to resolve their differences.
"The meeting will have to be put back for logistical reasons," the second MP told AFP. "The date will be announced by the leaders."
The MPs said the deal was a compromise between Yusuf and Gedi, who want the seat of government to be in the town of Jowhar due to insecurity in Mogadishu, and their rivals, including powerful Mogadishu warlords, who insist the administration be based in the capital.
Both lawmakers spoke on condition of anonymity as a formal announcement of was expected to be made at a news conference in the Kenyan capital later Monday.
Observers in Nairobi said the first session would likely be held in early March after facilities for the meeting are installed in Baidoa, which, like much of the rest of war-shattered Somalia, currently lacks the infrastructure to host the 275-member legislature and observers.
The dispute has left the Somali parliament unable to meet since it left exile last year in Kenya where it was created along with the government in 2004.
The weekend agreement is the first concrete achievement to come from the so-called "Aden Declaration" signed in the Yemeni port city in which both sides vowed to end the squabbling that had crippled the government and raised fears of new and wider conflict in the anarchic nation.