Warlords urged to join Somali talks

Following a visit of Djibouti president Ismail Omar Guelleh to Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni expressed his support for the Somali peace process taking place in Djibouti and urged all Somali warlords to rally behind the conference so that the Somali state was reconstituted. Museveni said that a Somali agreement reached in Djibouti should be supported by the region, the semi-official Uganda newspaper ‘New Vision’ reported on Thursday. Museveni is known to have previously lent support to, and to maintain influential contact with, the Mogadishu-based faction leader Hussein Aideed, who has refused to join the conference.

In Djibouti, the government is pushing the Somali peace conference to adhere to a time schedule under which it is hoped to have a new government elected by 15 July, but a source close to the conference told IRIN that it was “very unlikely” the negotiations would conclude then. There have been prolonged discussions on a new national charter, a copy of which was shown to Guelleh last weekend. It was discussed in a brief session at the conference on Monday, before the draft was distributed among the clan delegations for their proposals. The two most contentious issues was where the capital should be situated and what form regional autonomy should take, the source said. The Hawiye clan, who live in the Mogadishu area, are keen to retain the capital in Mogadishu, despite its comprehensive destruction and security risks. Other locations which have been suggested include Baidoa, where security is better and destruction is limited. The debate on regional autonomy has focused on the degree of power that local and regional authorities should have, vis-a-vis that enjoyed by central government.