Interim gov't sets conditions for return to talks

Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG) has formulated a reply to an official invitation from the Kenyan government to return to the Nairobi peace talks, in which it sets out its conditions, according to a senior TNG official. The official told IRIN on Wednesday that the reply "will be presented to the Kenyan government no later than this afternoon". The Kenyan ambassador to Somalia, Muhammad Abdi Affey, delivered the invitation to the TNG president, Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, last week. One of the TNG's conditions is that future parliamentarians must be selected by traditional elders in consultation with political leaders "to give legitimacy to the process", the TNG official said. Other conditions are that Somalis must be given "overall control of the talks, with the international community playing a facilitating role only". "As it is now, the conference is being run by foreigners for foreigners, and the Somalis are spectators," the official said. "If anything meaningful is to come out of it, Somalis must have complete ownership in all aspects of the conference." He said another issue "of utmost importance to the TNG and the Somali people" was the participation in the conference of representatives from the "northern regions" - a reference to the self-declared republic of Somaliland. The TNG also wanted a committee of legal and constitutional experts to be set up "to come up with a workable charter". "What is being discussed now will never work in Somalia, and therefore must be drastically revised or discarded altogether," the official added. "Once these issues and others raised by the TNG are adequately addressed, the TNG will return to talks and work towards a successful conclusion," he stated. A local journalist in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, told IRIN that the TNG was "basically reiterating positions it has stated in the past". Abdiqassim walked out of the talks in July, saying they were leading to the "dismemberment" of Somalia. The talks on Somalia, sponsored by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), began in October 2002 in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret, but were moved to Mbagathi on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, in February this year.