Consensus emerging on federal charter, says talks mediator

The Kenyan mediator to the Somali peace talks says a consensus is emerging on the controversial issue of a federal charter.

Ambassador Bethwel Kiplagat said the conference would soon receive a set of recommendations to pave the way for setting up new transitional institutions in Somalia.

"The main document will be the charter," Kiplagat told IRIN. He said there was a "convergence of opinion" towards the charter, noting there was basic agreement on a federal system of government.

"Secondly, there will be a parliament created here in Nairobi, and this will be based on the 4.5 formula, the clan formula," he added. "So we are now working on the details."

Organisers of the peace talks in Kenya say the second phase of the conference will conclude soon, after a plenary session discusses the recommendations of six technical committees dealing with the core issues of the conflict - including federalism, disarmament, conflict resolution, economic reconstruction and land rights.

The technical committee on federalism could not agree on a single set of recommendations and submitted two separate reports - one for a unitary state and the other for a federal state. But Kiplagat said a consensus proposal was emerging, based on the middle ground.

"The approach is more of a pragmatic approach," he said. "We have to work with the structures that are there ... For example, I do not envisage having within the first three to six months - even if we go for a federal interim charter - to have regional parliaments created all over the place. What will happen is that those autonomous, self-regulating regions which have already got parliaments will continue."

"We have to use them, work with them, and then increase those regional bodies if need be, but this is also for debate," he stated.

Some observers, NGOs and civil society participants are lobbying for amendments to the reports of the six technical committees, on issues such as disarmament, women's representation and human rights. Kiplagat said there would be scope to amend the proposals during the plenary sessions.

The charter is only for the interim," he pointed out. "That might be for two years or three years. And then we will have elections under a new charter, and that's where you can put in a lot of those things."