TNG pledges to attend Nairobi reconciliation talks

The Transitional National Government (TNG) in Somalia will attend the proposed Nairobi Somali reconciliation conference, to be held under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a senior TNG official told IRIN on Monday.

Abdirahman Ibbi, the TNG's Minister of Information, denied reports that the TNG was reluctant to participate in the conference. "We are ready to attend the conference whenever and wherever it is held," he said.

IGAD was originally due to hold the Somali reconciliation conference in Nairobi in April but postponed it then, and is now expected to convene it in July.

The Kenyan government has been tasked by IGAD with arranging the conference, and a technical committee, comprising Somalia's three neighbours - Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti - has been set up to prepare for the talks.

Ibbi said the TNG wanted some changes to the composition of the technical committee, to "ensure fruitful results and a successful outcome".

"The TNG would like to propose the participation of all IGAD member states in the convening of the conference," instead of just the "so-called frontline states", he said.

According to Ibbi, this arrangement would mean the conference carried "more weight and support from the international community, as well as Somalis".

"Given the mistrust by Somali parties - whether it be the factions or the TNG - of some members of the technical committee, it may not be a bad idea to involve all IGAD member states," a regional analyst told IRIN.

In the past the TNG has complained that Ethiopia is biased against it, describing it as the main obstacle to reconciliation in Somalia. Factions opposed to the TNG have accused Djibouti of supporting the TNG and interfering in the internal affairs of Somalia.

Both countries have repeatedly denied the charges.

Ibbi said the TNG saw this conference as a means of completing the Arta peace process [after a conference of political and religious leaders, elders and civil society in Arta, Djibouti, in 2000] under which the TNG was established.

"The idea floated by a member of the technical committee that we should start from scratch and ignore what was achieved in Arta, and later in Nakuru and Nairobi [where some opposition faction members joined the TNG], is a non-starter as far as we are concerned," Ibbi told IRIN.

The talks, which are to bring together the TNG and other Somali parties, are now expected to take place no later than the end of July, a Kenyan source told IRIN on Monday.

However, a diplomatic source expressed strong doubt that the talks would take place anytime soon, and said the July date for them was optimistic, given the lack of "real and serious" preparation on the part of IGAD.

According to the source, there was still a lot of planning that IGAD needed to do "if they hope to have a successful reconciliation conference".