Somalis Pressured to Form Government

Agence France-Presse
July 16, 2004

NAIROBI, July 16 (AFP) - Eastern African government ministers on Friday heaped pressure on Somali delegates to form a government by the end of July, despite the withdrawal of a key clan from long-running talks.

Ministers from the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the seven-nation group mediating the talks, told delegates in a joint communique to "honour and be fully committed" to reaching their pledge of forming an administration by July 31.

Delegates from the Dir -- one of Somali's four major clans -- on Tuesday withdrew from the convoluted process, accusing IGAD mediators of sabotaging their decision making efforts.

The ministers gave the clan up to Monday to resolve their differences and abide by mediator's decisions in the talks in Kenya, which kicked off in October 2002.

Aware of a raft of failed attempts to reach peace in the past, the ministers told Somalis to "bear the main responsibility of of achieving their comprehensive peace agreement."

There has been no national governing authority in Somalia since 1991, when dicatator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted.

Then followed 13 years of factional bloodletting that turned Somalia into the archetypal "failed state" and prompted botched military and humanitarian intervention by the United Nations and the United States in the early 1990s.

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