Mogadishu-based leaders reject parliament

Mogadishu-based faction leaders have rejected the Djibouti-hosted Somali peace process, apart from Ali Mahdi Mohamed, who has a seat on the newly-convened assembly. Musa Sudi Yalahow, who controls parts of southwest Mogadishu, said he did not accept the Djibouti talks and dismissed the new assembly. “A parliament of an independent country is not set up in a neighbouring country” he told AFP on Monday. He accused Djibouti of undermining the independence of Somalia. Faction leader Hussein Mohamed Aideed told AFP in Mogadishu he would not allow any of those elected in Djibouti to come to Somalia to establish a government. “We shall exercise maximum readiness to avoid infiltration by sympathisers of the Djibouti conference, whose aim is to destabilise Somalia.” Aideed said he would send his militiamen to sea ports and air ports to prevent delegates from returning, AFP reported.
Diplomatic sources told IRIN that while there was strong international support for the Djibouti process, there was concern that faction leaders would turn once again to violence following the power-sharing talks.

A northwest Mogadishu faction leader, Mohamed Kanyare Afrah, told IRIN that he had consistently rejected the process from its conception, because the convenors of the conference had “ignored” faction leaders. “We have not been elected by ballot, but we have been elected by consent,” he said. He accused the Djibouti president, who initiated the process, of “insulting” the faction leaders and “imposing” his ideas. “I put my ideas in writing at the beginning of the process, but received no response,” Kanyare told IRIN. He admitted that Somalia “had no good leadership” but said it was important for a reconciliation process to be inclusive. “We will fight the new government because they are imposing it on us”, he said.

Foreign ministry officials in the self-declared state of Somaliland, northwest Somalia, refused to comment on the new political set-up elected in Djibouti, AFP reported. The administration has distanced itself from the process, saying it is not part of Somalia.