TFG denies split within its ranks

There is no split within Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) over the deployment of foreign peacekeeping troops and relocation to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a senior member of the TFG said on Tuesday.

"There may be misunderstandings and differences of opinion, but I am not aware of any split or two camps within the TFG," Abdirahman Dinari, spokesman for the TFG, told IRIN.

Dinari said the TFG welcomed efforts by the UN and others to facilitate dialogue, "but that should not become some sort of a reconciliation conference".

Last week the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Somalia, François Lonsény Fall, presented an "agenda for dialogue" to Somali leaders, aimed at helping them overcome the current differences on the way forward.

Fall presented the agenda to Somalia’s President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi, the Speaker of the Transitional Federal Parliament, Sharif Hassan Shaykh Aden, and other Members of Parliament, in trips he made to Mogadishu and nearby Jowhar on Monday and Wednesday.

Yusuf, Gedi and their supporters in the Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs) have recently relocated from Nairobi to the town of Jowhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu. They maintain that Mogadishu must be secured before they can relocate there.

About 100 members of the 275-strong interim parliament - led by Aden - are currently in Mogadishu attempting to restore stability to the war-scarred city.

A section of the government, including prominent faction leaders, strongly disagreed with the decision to install the administration in Jowhar. The proposed deployment of peacekeepers, particularly from Somalia's neighbours, has also deeply divided the new government.

Dinari said such differences could be resolved "within the confines of the TFIs without outside help".

"We, however, do not accept and do not recognise that there are two sides within the TFIs," he added.

Dinari said the cabinet had its "rules and procedures" and so did parliament. "If there are differences or disagreements they vote and the majority prevails; that is what democracy is all about," he said.

Dinari said members of the TFIs currently based in Mogadishu should meet their colleagues "anywhere inside Somalia where security is not a problem, to iron out whatever differences exist".

Somalia has had no functional central authority for the past 14 years, following the collapse in 1991 of the government of President Muhammad Siyad Barre. Civil war erupted in the country soon after Barre was toppled, as various factions and rival warlords fought for power.

The regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development - made up of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia - sponsored two years of talks between the various Somali clans and factions, culminating in the establishment of the TFG in October 2004.