Aydid addresses press conference in Addis Ababa

Somalia will have no peace for so long as it has a government backed by Arab states, the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Committee (SRRC) said on Wednesday. The SRRC co-chairman, Husayn Aydid, said the years of conflict which had ravaged the country derived from a clash between Arabs and Africans. He was addressing a press conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Wednesday.

"The key issue is the Arab front against the African front," Aydid said. "We believe we are Africans, not Arabs. We Somalis are members of the Arab League, but as a Somali nation we are not Arab. Somalia’s future will be with African countries and Arabs will come as a second, as neighbours and through cooperation on economic and cultural levels and other levels through the institutions that a future Somali government will establish."

He went on to say it was vital to re-establish the identity of the Somali Republic as an African country. "Arabs are our neighbours in Africa. But we will never accept Somalia being an Arab nation." Aydid added that Arab money coming into the country had never been used to rebuild Somalia, but only to fuel war.

The SRRC is opposed to the Transition National Government of Somalia, whose members are closely linked with Arab countries. He also said the SRRC would be holding a meeting in the Ethiopian town of Nazret to discuss the stance to be adopted by the SRRC ahead of the suspended Nairobi peace talks.

The talks are aimed at establishing a broad-based government in Somalia to end the decade of war that has wrecked the country. The regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, the members of which include Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Djibouti and Kenya, is brokering the talks.

Aydid said the SRRC was also trying to help end the renewed fighting in Puntland between its elected president, Jama Ali Jama, and his rival, Abdullahi Yusuf. He said the SRRC expected a meeting to be held between the two leaders within the next 15 days, to be hosted by the Ethiopians. "We appeal to the Ethiopians and [other] peaceful countries to help the Puntland [achieve a] settlement through peaceful means," he told the press conference.

"The conflict that is just occurring is not a big conflict. The problem is political, it is not military." He said there had been only a few casualties, which, he asserted showed that neither side wanted to fight.

Aydid stressed that the SRRC would recognise a president in Puntland who was chosen by way of a "constitutional settlement" led by its parliament. "The civil society [in Puntland] is not divided. The leaders [will] have to choose a compromise that depends on the parliamentary and constitutional system." He said neither Abdullahi Yusuf nor Jama Ali Jama could take control of the region by force. "We believe that both of them together could represent Puntland in the forthcoming peace talks to try and build a broad-based government for Somalia," he added.

Aydid, however, pointed out that "there will be only one delegation from Puntland", recalling that Abdullahi Yusuf had previously supported Jama Ali as the Puntland representative to the talks.

He said the SRRC had not received a date for the resumption of the reconciliation conference in Nairobi, but it was likely to convene soon - no later than the end of June or beginning of July.