President slams region over Somalia

Djibouti President Ismael Omar Guelleh has condemned the "inability" of regional countries to adopt a common approach in order to bring peace to Somalia. In a strongly-worded address to the summit of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), held in the Sudanese capital Khartoum last week, he said responsibility for achieving peace in Somalia lay first and foremost with countries of the region. He also lambasted the international community for its "wait-and-see tactics", according to a text of his speech carried by the Djibouti news agency (ADI). "Somalis are tired of trying to understand the reasons behind the wait-and-see tactics and passivity of the international community," he said. "This attitude is for us, in many respects, incomprehensible...The pretext given to justify this inactivity is the inability of IGAD member countries to adopt a common approach." "But, if the international community has failed to live up to its responsibility, are we not supposed to react with the urgency that situation requires of us by formulating - unequivocally and unambiguously - a common position so as to prove to the world that we are politically determined?", he asked. Guelleh said IGAD "must express its commitment to Somalia through concrete political and diplomatic actions". These included stopping all types of assistance to the warlords, imposing a travel ban on "these perpetrators of genocide" who should be tried by an international criminal tribunal, and halting the "culture of impunity" in Somalia. He said if the warlords really believed they had "legitimate support" and a political future in Somalia, they should convert their factions into political parties and measure their support by the ballot at the end of the transitional period. Guelleh also called on IGAD's executive secretariat to provide technical support to the independent reconciliation committee. The IGAD summit, held on Thursday and Friday last week, issued a resolution on Somalia "urging the TNG [Transitional National Government] and all other parties to commit themselves to combat terrorism in all its forms". According to the Sudanese news agency SUNA, the text of the resolution also said a reconciliation conference would be held in Nairobi, Kenya, within two months. IGAD groups Djibouti, Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan.