By C. Bryson Hull
NAIROBI, July 9 (Reuters) - Somalia's president must return to Mogadishu and restart talks with opponents in his cabinet if the anarchic country's peace process is to survive, an influential Somali politician and former envoy said on Saturday.
Tensions have been on the rise in the Horn of Africa country in recent weeks as a rift in the government over where it should be based has brought threats of new violence.
The deep split has left observers wondering if the current peace process will go the way of 13 similar attempts to return government to Somalia since 1991, when militias deposed dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and ushered in an era of anarchy.
"I still believe there is an opportunity to save the situation. The man who really has the say is the president," Abdullahi Addou, Somalia's former ambassador to the United States, central banker and finance minister, told Reuters in an interview.
President Abdullahi Yusuf returned to Somalia on July 1 from Kenya, where his administration had been based since its formation at peace talks last year.
The former military man announced plans to gather militiamen to train as a security force to defend his government from attacks.
That prompted powerful warlords in his cabinet to threaten attacks if he brings them to Jowhar, the provincial town where Yusuf's allies including Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi have made their temporary base.
"Why are you talking about a fight when you are at the door of peace and reconciliation?" said Addou, who is no longer in government but who still commands respect among many Somalis.
NONE PREVAIL BY FORCE
The warlords are part of a government faction that insists that anarchic Mogadishu be the capital as stipulated in an interim constitution guiding the peace process.
Yusuf and his allies say Mogadishu must first be pacified before the administration returns.
"There is no reason why President Abdullahi Yusuf should not go to Mogadishu," Addou said. "He has no enemies in Mogadishu. He would be welcomed by the millions."
A key first move is to re-open negotiations with the warlords in Mogadishu, Addou said. Talks last month in Yemen between Yusuf and Somalia's parliament speaker, who is part of the Mogadishu faction, failed.
But talk of violence could reverse the gains made toward peace, Addou said. Yusuf in a statement urged renewed reconciliation efforts this week, but almost simultaneously said he would gather the militiamen.
"If power can be acquired by the barrel of a gun, then the people who have gone would be in power," Addou said, referring to former Somali leaders who ruled by fear and violence and have since been deposed or killed. "Somali history in the past 14 years shows no one can prevail by force."
Addou, who came in second to Yusuf at a presidential election in October and urged Somalis to welcome their new leader, said that time was slipping away. "No government is functioning and that is very sad. The Somali people, the confidence is lost, because nothing is working," said Addou, who splits his time between the United States, Dubai and Somalia. "The system is not working."
Presidential spokesman Yusuf Ismail Baribari said the government was making progress faster than expected, and that the president was following a political plan decided by the cabinet and endorsed by the parliament.