Transitional parliament to be inaugurated on 30 July - mediators

Somalia's proposed transitional federal parliament will be inaugurated on 30 July in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, mediators announced, saying that all clans must complete the process of nominating their representatives by Tuesday.

The foreign ministers of member states of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGAD), who met in Nairobi on Thursday and Friday, called for transparency in the process of distributing seats and selecting members of the proposed Somali Transitional Federal Assembly.

Each of Somalia's four major clans has been allocated 61 seats in the proposed parliament, while an alliance of minority clans will have 31 MPs. A speaker and two deputy speakers to be elected from among the parliamentarians will preside over the election of the president.

Two clans, the Hawiye and the Digil-Mirifle, have already presented "distribution lists" to the IGAD Facilitation Committee that is mediating in the Somali peace process. These
lists show how the seats they have been allocated will be distributed among their sub-clans.

"For those clans that shall not have presented their distribution lists by Tuesday, 2O July 2004, the Arbitration Committee will have to be requested to conclude the list on their behalf," the foreign ministers said in a joint communique issued on Friday after their meeting.

"The peace process should come to its logical conclusion in the next two weeks, during which the members of parliament shall have been selected," the ministers added.

The mediators had urged the delegates to honour a 31 July 2004 deadline set by IGAD for the end of Phase III, the last stage of the peace talks. They urged IGAD member states and the international community to continue funding the peace process.

IGAD groups Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda. Somalia is also a member, but is not fully represented in the organisation because it lacks a functioning government.
Somalia has been without an effective government since the toppling in 1991 of the regime of Muhammad Siyad Barre.

The IGAD-sponsored Somali National Reconciliation Conference began in October 2002 in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret, and was moved to Nairobi in February 2003.

Last week, the UN Security Council condemned those who, it said, were obstructing the peace process, and warned that anyone persisting on the path of confrontation and conflict would be held accountable.

In a statement read out on 14 July by its president for July, Ambassador Mihnea Ioan Motoc of Romania, the Council welcomed steps by the African Union to prepare for the deployment of military monitors to Somalia, and called on the Somali leaders to cooperate with that initiative.

On 8 July, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had urged Somali delegates attending the reconciliation conference to resolve their differences and create an all-inclusive government. "I appeal to you to rise above your differences, and do all you can to bring your people an era of security, peace and hope," Annan told the delegates when he addressed them in Nairobi.

"The AU, the League of Arab States, the European Union and the UN are all supporting your efforts," Annan told the delegates. "But ultimately, it is up to the people of Somalia, and in particular its leaders, who must exhibit a profound sense of responsibility and statesmanship," he said.

"It is you who must make the compromises that will lead to a government with credibility throughout Somalia. The burden of finding a peaceful solution to this needlessly prolonged conflict falls primarily on Somali shoulders," Annan added.