Support peace pact , committee urges Somalis

The Somali leaders Committee at peace talks currently underway in Kenya have dismissed a recent statement by the president of the Transitional National Government, (TNG) Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, rejecting the adoption of the interim constitution. In press statement issued on 18 September, the leaders said that Abdiqassim made the statement "in his personal capacity and do not necessarily represent that of the Somali people since his term of office has officially ended on 12 August, 2003". Abdiqassim, along with a number of faction leaders, issued a statement on 16 September saying that the peace conference had collapsed and that they were withdrawing from it. "This is the end of this conference," Abdiqassim told IRIN at the time in reference to the adoption by delegates of the Somali National Charter [interim constitution], which will form the basis for the transitional federal government in the next four years. In Thursday's statement, the leaders said that the conference had now entered its third phase with effect from 16th September, 2003, following the adoption of the charter. It called on the Somali people and the international Community to support "the historic breakthrough which the Conference at Mbagathi [Nairobi suburb] has reached". The statement concluded that "the few individuals who opposed this historic achievement [should] not to be given the opportunity to derail the talks, which the Somali people fully support". Leaders whose names appear on the statement include: Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, president of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia; Hasan Abshir Farah, former prime minister (TNG); Abdalla Deerow Isaaq, former speaker of the Transitional National Assembly; and Muhammad Omar Habeeb, head of the regional administration in Jowhar, southern Somalia, and Mogadishu-based faction leader Muhammad Qanyare. The IGAD-sponsored talks began in October 2002 in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret, but were moved to Nairobi in February this year. The talks have been dogged by wrangles over issues such as the interim charter, the number of participants in the talks and the selection of future parliamentarians.