Leaders talk peace

24/05/2004 21:20 - (SA)

Nairobi - After several delays and in spite of the arrest of a major warlord in Kenya last week, Somali leaders have embarked on the last phase of peace talks for the battered country.

The main clans agreed over the weekend on the shape of a future national assembly for Somalia, taking a significant step forward in the process to reach peace, said a statement issued by the Somali National Reconciliation Conference.

Foreign ministers from the regional body Igad (Inter Governmental Authority for Development), who have been pushing the talks forward, said they hope the talks will be concluded by the end of July this year.

Peace talks for Somalia have been going on in Kenya for nearly two years. It has been dogged by walkouts, arrests, fighting in Somalia and a dispute over travel documents between the host country and Puntland, a self-declared state inside Somalia.

In April, Kenya said it would not allow Somali passports for entry into Kenya. Puntland in turn said it would not accept Kenyan passports. As a result, several Somali leaders refused to join the talks in Nairobi unless the ban on travel documents was lifted.

According to local media reports, Kenya's decision to ban Somali passports arose out of security concerns after a Somali passports forging syndicate, complete with Kenyan visas, was uncovered in a Nairobi suburb.

Last week, a Kenyan court sentenced Somali warlord Hussein Aideed to one month in jail over a debt to a Kenyan businessman that he had failed to repay.

Somalia has been without a central government since former president Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. - Sapa-dpa

Edited by Anthea Jonathan