Somalis to Inaugurate Post-War Parliament Wednesday

Nairobi, Kenya, 08/01 - Somalia would inaugurate its post-war Parliament next Wednesday, according to IGAD (the Inter- governmental Authority on Development) which is mediating the Somali peace talks.

Kenyan Environment Minister, Kalonzo Musyoka, who chairs the IGAD Ministerial Committee on the peace talks, said here Friday that the postponement from 30 July to 2 August was necessary to allow Somali clans to finalise the clan-based distribution of parliamentary seats.

The five main Somali clans have been involved in inter-clan feuds over the distribution of seats as proposed by the Somali Transitional Charter, signed here last September.

The Charter provides for a 275-member Parliament to steer the country through the six-year transitional period but three of the five clans have been involved in wrangles over the power-sharing formula, accusing IGAD of bias.

The Dir, Darood and the Fifth Clans have stalled the selection of the MPs, which is the third and final phase of the peace process, claiming the slots given to their clans are "unsatisfactory and intolerable."

"We have found it disheartening to our people to accept the slots allocated to us as it lacks legal, customary, social, population and geographical foundations and contravenes the essence of social justice," charged Awad Ashara, spokesman for the Dir Clan. The IGAD Facilitating Committee, a top decision-making organ of IGAD members Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Uganda, formed an arbitration committee to broker the power- sharing impasse before 31 July, a deadline for installing the first-post war government.

Musyoka told a press conference that IGAD expected the clans to resolve their grievances before the 2 August deadline and ensure that the complete list of the 275 MPs is handed to the facilitators.

"We are collecting the lists of the selected MPs and we hope we would have the complete list by the set date," IGAD Chief Mediator, Bethwel Kiplagat told PANA in a telephone interview.

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