Pressure for progress at peace talks

Organisers and sponsors of the peace conference for Somalia in Eldoret, Kenya, have stepped up pressure on participants to make concrete progress this week. The talks, which started on 15 October, are deadlocked over the distribution of seats to the conference plenary session, and on setting up six technical committees. The regional body, Intergovernmental Authority on Drought (IGAD), which is organising the conference, told a meeting of the Somali leaders' committee on Friday that they should immediately propose participants for the crucial committee stage of the talks. It said discussions on the selection of 400 overall participants would take place at the same time as meetings of the committees. Six technical committees are to produce recommendations on core issues identified by the conference, including federalism, disarmament, and land rights. However, the committee phase has been held up by wrangling over the allocation of the plenary seats. On Tuesday, IGAD proposed a new formula based on clans, to try to break the deadlock. Also on Friday, a high level European Union envoy told participants in the peace conference that they must make progress to ensure continuing donor support. Jacobus Richelle, EU Director-General for Development, said he told the leaders' committee they must reach conclusions in the next week on setting up technical committees and on the controversial issue of overall numbers to the conference. “Unfortunately they have been running around in circles for some weeks,” Richelle told journalists in Eldoret. “So we came here with a clear message: please proceed, it’s time for compromise and please do it in the next week.” Richelle was attending the opening of a resource centre in Eldoret, to support civil society involvement in the peace conference. He told members of civil society that their involvement was crucial. “I hope that activities from NGOs will contribute to pushing the leaders forward,” he said. “Leaders are supposed to lead, but sometimes they need a push. “