Washington Urges Somalis to Advance Peace Process

The United States has urged all Somalia’s clan-based political factions to advance the peace process in a meaningful way, media reports said on Wednesday. Deputy US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli has called in a statement for Somali parties to find a middle course in the peace process. He was apparently referring to the present Somali peace talks in Kenya, but did not mention them.

“The US urges all parties to continue advancing the reconciliation process in a real and meaningful way. US further urges all participants to ensure those critical activities in the process, especially the selection of members of Parliament, be carried out in a transparent manner,” said Ereli, adding that Washington was encouraged that at least some agreement had been reached, noting that they had demonstrated an ability to work through their differences and achieve workable compromises.

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Kenya’s former President Daniel arap Moi has said that regional suspicions of Somalia’s expansionist dreams had hampered the country’s peace efforts. According to the Daily Nation, he said that at independence, Somalia was claiming parts of Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia and initiating armed conflict to try and realize this dream.

The retired president, who was speaking at the American Defense University in Washington, spoke about his political experience on East African region during his 24-year presidential term.

Moi, who stepped down in December 2002, had inaugurated the ongoing Somali peace talks in his country. “Its neighbors fear that a reunited and prosperous nation might resurrect Somalia’s territorial claims,” he said, warning that unstable countries without organized and functioning systems might be fertile grounds for terrorism.

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Transitional National Government leader, Abdi Qassim Salad, has accused the chairman of the Somali talks Bethuel Kiplagat of defying the international community’s proposal to adjourn the talks for two weeks, media reports said on Wednesday. He said that international community proposed to the organizers to postpone the talks until the leaders of the political factions, who walked out of the talks last week, return to the peace talks.

— 26 September 2003