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Talks intended to end chaos
16/09/2003 15:38 - (SA)
Kenya - Peace talks intended to end more than a decade of violence and chaos in Somalia entered their final stage on Tuesday after delegates adopted a transitional charter, mediators said.
The negotiations had been stalled for weeks because of disputes over what type of federal government best suited the troubled Horn of Africa nation, which has not had an effective central government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
But late on Monday, the more than 360 Somalis attending the talks in Nairobi adopted the charter, agreeing that the system will include district, regional and state administrations.
Kenyan diplomat Bethuel Kiplagat, the talk's chief mediator, hailed the adoption of the charter as a "major breakthrough."
Somali faction leaders and traditional leaders now have one week to select members for a 351-seat transitional parliament, based on the country's complex clan system. Legislators will then elect a speaker and president, who will name a prime minister.
It is unclear how long that process will take, and at least four faction leaders did not take part in the process that led to the adoption of the charter, a Western diplomat involved in the talks said.
The diplomat, who did not want to be further identified, said that while the talks were progressing, there were still difficulties in ensuring that representatives from all Somalia's numerous clan-based factions take part in the transitional administration.
Somalia descended into chaos after the faction leaders who ousted Siad Barre turned on each other, reducing the country to a patchwork of fiefdoms ruled by heavily armed clan-based factions.
A transitional government was elected at a peace conference in neighbouring Djibouti in August 2000. But it has little influence outside Mogadishu, the capital, because many faction leaders did not take part in that peace process. It has also been unable to disarm the thousands of clan-based gunmen and outright bandits who roam the country.
Kiplagat said in a statement on Tuesday that the international community "will be called upon to provide a peacekeeping force after the (new) government is formed."
The country has been largely ignored following the pullout of US and UN forces in 1995, after a humanitarian mission - whose mandate became increasingly aggressive and political - ended in disaster after Somali fighters killed dozens of UN and US troops.
But there is now increasing interest in Somalia since US officials cited the Muslim nation of 7 million people as a possible haven for terrorists in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United Sates.
The latest series of talks - there have been more than a dozen previous attempts - began last October.
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