Somali warlord to join talks
2004-09-26 14:22
Nairobi - A warlord who was the last major holdout in peace talks aimed at ending Somalia's 13-year war has stopped fighting in southern Somalia and asked to be part of the talks, a senior Kenyan government official said on Sunday.
Mohamed Siad Hersi, better known as General Morgan, crossed into neighbouring Kenya's eastern Garissa district on Saturday and asked Kenyan authorities to allow him to rejoin peace talks in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, said Joseph Nyagah, Kenya's assistant regional co-operation minister.
Morgan walked out of the talks in March over a dispute regarding a transitional charter for Somalia.
"We ... are obviously happy that he's finally seen the need to be part and parcel of the inevitable, that there is going to be peace in Somalia," Nyagah told The Associated Press.
The seven-nation regional organisation mediating the talks, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, had threatened to slap heavy sanctions against Morgan for attempting to derail the peace efforts.
Nyagah said Morgan is staying in a Nairobi hotel. "We're at the moment trying to find out how we can incorporate him in the peace process as various people want it to be as inclusive as possible," he said.
Strategic port
On September 16, gunmen loyal to Morgan began fighting rival militias for control of the strategic Indian Ocean port of Kismayo, about 500km south of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. Kismayo is controlled by the Juba Valley Alliance of clan-based faction leaders and some Somali businessmen.
Dozens of militiamen from both sides were killed in the fighting.
Talks that began in October 2002 in Kenya to end Somalia's civil war are close to forming what will be Somalia's first effective central government since war broke out in 1991.
A transitional federal parliament, whose members include Somalia's main warlords and is supported by the country's influential traditional leaders, was formed last month and a speaker elected on September 15. The parliament has a five-year term.
Members of parliament are scheduled to elect a president on October 10. Once elected, the president will nominate a prime minister who will form a government.
Somalia has had no effective central government since opposition leaders ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other, transforming this nation of seven million into a patchwork of battling fiefdoms ruled by heavily armed militias.
- AP