While the city of Baidoa was decided as venue for convening a key meeting of he Transitional Federal Parliament of Somalia (TFP), the president of the Somali Republic AbdullahYusuf Ahmed and speaker of the TFP Sherif Hassan Sheikh Aden announced here today postponement of the parliament meeting until 26 February.
The two leaders who have held their press conference today in the Kenyan capital said postponement of the parliament convening date was “for enabling all to complete required arrangements for the meeting and to ensure its success.” The Somali Prime Minister Ali Muhammed Ghedi did not announce his stance towards the agreement and returned to Somalia as he boycotted the press conference even before it had begun. However, the Somali president Abdullah Yusuf called on the international community for help for the return of the prime minister to the agreements as he was an effective party in the talks that resulted in the Aden Declaration.
Prime Minister Ghedi had earlier lashed out at the speaker of the parliament for his strong refusal to deployment of neighborly countries forces. The speaker Sherif was also refusing the temporarily shifting of the Somali capital to the city of Jawhar in northern Somalia where president Yusuf lives as a temporary headquarters until other political leaders living Mogadishu have finished militias control of it. The Aden Declaration, which had been welcomed by the international community, had announced all the parties’ agreement on holding the parliament key meeting in any city inside Somalia.
In today’s press conference speaker of the parliament appealed to the international community, and the neighborly countries in particular, for not hindering results of the latest efforts which he described as good. This will be the first time the members of parliament to convene on the Somali soil. All previous meetings were held outside Somalia and the last one was held in the Kenyan capital eight months before and ended with the famous battle with chairs and furniture. The two Somali leaders also expressed their thanks and gratitude for Yemen and Kenya for their efforts to establish peace and restoration of stability. Today statement has confirmed news about a primary agreement coinciding with announcement of Aden Declaration on 5 January, on shifting the government headquarters to Baidoa first and then to Mogadishu.
The talks that had been held in Aden were chaired by President Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed, who lives outside the Somali capital Mogadishu, and speaker of the parliament Sahrif Hassan Sheikh Aden, who is allied with the militias that control Mogadishu.
The Somali president had previously refused to move to Mogadishu for security reasons because it is under control of militias hostile to him and made the city of Jawhar, 90 k away from the capital, as a seat for his government.
The Somali Prime Minister Ali Muhammed Ghedi had last November been exposed to attempted assassination on his way to Mogadishu in his second visit to it from Jawhar, the seat of the interim government.
The Aden Declaration which contained five provisions stipulated that parties of the conflict should put aside their differences and work for the unification of the country. In most important of its provisions, the declaration included the agreement on “necessity of active coordination based on total respect of the principles and norms of the Transitional Federal Charter in accordance with normal state constitutional practices of permanent mutual consultations, so as not to allow any violation to the powers that the charters has attributed to each of the Transitional Federal Institutions of the country.” The declaration had also revealed overcoming the difference over shifting the interim government to the capital Mogadishu. The declaration also announced agreement that “the Transitional Federal Parliament should be convened within 30 days inside the country, with effect from today; to hold is official session in any place that may be agreed upon.”
Differences between the government and parliament, with existence of armed militias in the capital, have caused exceeding the 19 of last July as a final date fixed by the Somali government and parliament for the removal of all military barriers set up by former warlords who have now become members of the government and parliament following their formation in October 2004.