Leaders try to protect Somalia

2002-01-11 23:14

Khartoum - East African leaders called on Friday for "another chance" to avoid a US military strike on Somalia and committed the region to the international campaign against terrorism.

Leaders of the seven member states of the Nairobi-based Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) adopted a resolution on Somalia "urging the TNG (transitional national government) and all other parties (in Somalia) to commit themselves to combat terrorism in all its forms".

They also called at the end of a two-day summit on "the international community to join Igad for establishing peace in Somalia", which risks becoming the next target of the US-led war on terrorism.

US officials have alleged Somalia is home to people or organisations linked to al-Qaeda and that members of the group held responsible for the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington could try to seek refuge in Somalia.

Asked for 'another chance'

Asked if Igad leaders had taken any measures to prevent military action in Somalia, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said they had asked unnamed "concerned powers" for "another chance" to avert a strike.

"We had previously contacted the concerned powers and reached agreement with them to wait for the outcome of this summit meeting," Ismail told journalists.

"Now we have asked those powers to give Igad another chance," said Ismail, without specifying whether he had received a reply.

The summit resolved to convene a "reconciliation conference on Somalia within two months".

Somalia last had a fully recognised national government in 1991, when the regime of president Mohammed Siad Bare collapsed. For 10 years warlords and their men battled it out as ordinary Somalis struggled to eke out a living.

In 2000, the TNG was set up in Mogadishu and now has seats on several key international forums, including the United Nations.

However, the TNG still only controls parts of the capital and enjoys influence in just a few areas further afield. It is also not recognised by the United States.

'Condemn terrorist attacks

The seven leaders of Igad adopted a second resolution to "condemn the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and renew condemnation of the terrorist attacks in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in August 1998 and other terrorist attacks in the region".

They affirmed their commitment to last year's "Security Council resolutions 1373 and 1377 (2001) and other relevant resolutions ... concerning measures to eliminate international terrorism, which they unreservedly decided to implement and apply in full".

In an opening address to the summit, Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir said on Thursday that east Africa must "remove the image of being associated with terrorism".

The region is against terrorism and has even suffered from the scourge which "has inflicted human sufferings to our people", Beshir said citing the 1998 bombings at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

In the wake of those attacks that killed mainly Africans, US forces blasted a pharmaceutical firm in Khartoum allegedly linked to terrorist groups and involved in chemical weapons production. Sudan denied the charges.

Attending the summit were leaders of Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Eritrea and Djibouti, as well as the transitional government of Somalia.

Igad leaders approved anti-terrorism proposals from Sudan in a closed-door meeting on Thursday, according to Ismail.

"The summit has approved the proposal presented by Sudan on terrorism after making some amendments and remarks provided that discussion on the proposal be resumed in the next Igad summit in Kampala," he said.

Ismail did not elaborate.

In ministerial meetings ahead of the summit, the foreign minister called for an international conference to define terrorism and to combat the phenomenon "within international legitimacy". - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA