Somalia Government to Relocate in Two Weeks

January 19, 2005

Alberto Leny'
Nairobi

Somalia's transitional government begins its relocation to Mogadishu in two weeks time, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi announced yesterday.

Addressing an international news conference at the Grand Regency Hotel yesterday, Gedi said the Council of Ministers of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia met last weekend to start preparations for the relocation programme.

President Abdilahi Yusuf is fully backing the ministers' council on the relocation programme.

The prime minister acknowledged the build-up of international pressure a Somali government and parliament should be re-located, but appealed for financial and security assistance to ensure its success.

According to Gedi when he announced an elaborate programme for the move yesterday, from February 1, within three months the whole of the Somalia government and parliament should have relocated back home to Mogadishu.

"We don't want to be a government in exile, neither do we want to be the government for Kenya and Kenyans, who have really assisted us secure peace during the many years of the Somali national tragedy," he assured.

The Somali ministers, during their first formal meeting since the Somalia Parliament approved Gedi's new cabinet, resolved to establish three teams to implement the decision of the council on the relocation to Somalia.

"The first team of over 30 members of the council will go to Mogadishu. I shall lead this team. The mission to Mogadishu will field and deploy committees to the central regions and lower Shabelle and adjacent regions south of Mogadishu.

"Other teams will be deployed to Baidoa, Belet Weyne, Galkayo, Garowe and Kismayu," said Gedi as he downplayed security fears of the government's return to the war-torn country and militia-controlled Mogadishu.

"The capital is where the government must operate from. The security of the capital has to be guaranteed to create the environment for the government to operate from all sides of Mogadishu,"

He said security for the teams relocating to Somalia shall be provided by international (led by the United Nations and the African Union) peacekeepers and national Somalia forces, the state police, the militia and the Somali people.

He also extended an olive branch to the Islamic scholars who have been demonstrating and have declared their opposition to any forces accompanying the new government back to Mogadishu.

The scholars, who propagate fundamental Islamic principles, are also believed to be in control of militia forces and have complained that they were locked out of the peace process that led to the formation of the transitional government and parliament.

"The peace process started two years ago and now is not the time to address it. The Islamic scholars are part of the Somali people and we are asking them to co-operate with the new government for the sake of national reconciliation and reconstruction," urged Gedi.

The prime minister said his team has already established contact and appealed to all political forces, Islamic militia leaders and all the other militia to work with the government and to act responsibly, adding:

" We want them to assemble all militias at one place so that they can be rehabilitated so that normalcy can return to Mogadishu. The relocation will involve the whole government, MPs, Parliament to all parts of the country and the capital Mogadishu."

He said the government was not targeting any specific group on the question of security, disarmament and rehabilitation into the national army and development programmes, but all of the Somali people.

Representatives of the international community will accompany the groups returning to Somalia, said Gedi, "since they our partners in the restoration of normalcy to Somalia."

On Monday the council of ministers met with the IGAD member states and the international community under the auspices of the Coordination and Monitoring Committee (CMC) chaired jointly by Somali government and the UN representative Ambassador Winston Tubman, the UN's special representative to Somalia.

Somalia's Minister for Information, Mr Abdullahi Mohammed Gama, is CMC co-chair. So far there is a trust fund with $3.6 million while UNDP has pledged $6 million and Norway $2 million.

"But this is not the totality of what is on the table. This does not reflect the totality of the funding that will definitely be provided," assured Tubman.

Gedi said the meeting - called to mobilise financial support for the new government - received a very positive response on the issue of relocation and agreed on the mechanism of working together and the cooperation between the international community and the Somalia government.

"Relocation entails expenditure. We should be assisted and our appeal to the CMC was welcomed. Three committees will be meeting with the CMC to work out the specific details of the relocation programme," he announced as he released a three-mission relocation plan.

The first team he will be leading is tasked with organising logistics and preparing plans for the installation of the government in Mogadishu and establishing a nucleus in high impact regions and areas of the country.

The second team has been assigned to plan the relocation of MPs and delegates and participants to the Somalia National Reconciliation Conference from Nairobi to Somalia.

The third team is in Nairobi and will be assessing the obstacles to the relocation as well as prepare agenda, strategies, priorities and an action plan for the installation of the government in Somalia.

It will also serve as the mechanism for dialogue and discussion with the international community.

Gedi said the notion that the international community was reluctantly saying that the Somali were not eager to re-establish institutions and go back home were dispelled during the CMC meeting.

The CMC consists of the United Nations, the African Union, the League of Arab States, the European Union, the US, UK, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, China, Russia, foundations and organisations.

Gedi appealed for a more vigorous and sustainable support from the international community for the Somalia government's efforts and endeavours in the reconstruction and development of the country.

"The UN presence should be upgraded and a UN under-secretary for Somalia appointed rather than just a monitoring office. We will be raising this issue with the UN Secretary-General," said the prime minister.

He pledged that the government would abide by all the international conventions. He also told the international community to increase the assistance to Somali victims of the tsunami disaster.

"The assistance so far has not been to the level of our expectations and the CMC meeting agreed to redouble efforts to match the situation on the ground. Delegations to the coast of Somalia have concluded that there was more damage to the area than previously thought."

He launched a "solemn appeal" to Somali MPs and fellow countrymen to support the transitional government achieve our goals and " make our nation viable."

"We are just like a newly-born baby. We are just crawling and need support to enable us stand on our feet, just like a baby needs the care of the mother," Gedi implored.