Al-Sharq al-Awsat: Somalia withdraws from reconciliation conference in protest of Ethiopia, IGAD
Somalia-Ethiopia, Politics, 3/13/2003

In a sudden and surprising deterioration of the negotiations aiming at achieving national reconciliation and restoring back the already missed security and stability since 1991 in Somalia, the Somali provisional government has officially decided to withdraw from the reconciliation conference which is hosted by Kenya since the mid of October 2002 under the auspices of IGAD states organization.

In a statement to the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat, the Somali deputy Prime minister Farah Muhammad said "the government ordered to withdraw members of its official delegation in Nairobi's talks to return back to Makadishu and to pull out from these talks, in protest of the flagrant bias shown by the government of Ethiopia in the service of war lords who stand against legitimacy in Somalia." He added that the government is to organize separate talks with its pro groups and districts enjoying self rule. But he did not specify the time nor the place of these negotiations.

The Somali official criticized the mediators in IGAD, including Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti because of their bias against the Somali provisional government.

The sudden withdrawal decision came despite the strong rift inside the lines of members of the provisional government on how to run the difficult negotiations which is sponsored by IGAD, despite the fact that the minister of commerce Abdul Rahman Nur is leading strong faction inside the government to refuse any call for boycotting the negotiations which many believe is the last opportunity to achieve the peace which has been missing in Somalia since the collapse of the rule of the Somali President Muhammad Seyad Beri 12 years ago.

Well-informed Somali sources told al-Sharq al-Awsat that this decision was taken during the joint emergency meeting which was held by the government and the provisional parliament in order to discuss the tense situation on the Somali- Ethiopian borders because of the growing volume of the Ethiopian military forces in the two past days.

Somali sources spoke of reports coming from the long land borders separating Somalia and Ethiopia on thousands of fully equipped Ethiopian soldiers since several days near the Somali side of the borders.

The Somali President Abdul Qasem Salat Hassan who is currently in an official visit to Libya, made urgent telephone call with members of his government on how to deal with any likely Ethiopian military attack against his country.

The provisional government which assumed authority provisionally in 2000 fears that as the world is preoccupied by following up the developments of the Iraqi crisis, the Ethiopian government will carry out a sudden attack inside the Somali territories with the aim to topple Hassan's rule and install an opposition government including the opposition and war lords instead.

Previous Stories:
  AL committee on Somalia meets   (2/20/2003)
  Somalia: fighting erupted in Bedawa   (1/30/2003)
  Arab Ministerial committee on Somalia   (1/15/2003)
  Ethiopia denies interference in Somalia   (5/23/2002)
  Somalia accuses Ethiopia of smuggling weapons into its territories   (5/20/2002)
  Somalis executed in Ethiopia over acts of violence   (4/13/2002)

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