Somali faction leaders boycott talks

As the Somali peace talks opened in Arta, Djibouti, on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Ali Abdi Farah told Radio France Internationale (RFI) that the conference would last for a week and include 250 “important representatives” of Somali society. Djibouti officials organising the conference have told international news agencies that up to 1,000 businessmen, clan elders, professional and civic leaders from across Somalia are expected to attend. The conference was delayed for 12 days when Djibouti delegates failed to persuade all faction leaders to attend. The conference has shifted its focus to “civil society” but Siad Dualeh from the organising team told Reuters “warlords willing to participate ...are welcome, but they will not be given a leading role”. Ali Mahdi Mohamed, one of the main leaders from north Mogadishu, is attending, but Hussein Aideed from southern Mogadishu, has refused. The breakaway state of Somaliland has also rejected the initiative, saying it has no role in Somalia’s problems. Somaliland’s parliament declared it was “treasonable” to attend the Djibouti conference, reported Radio Hargeisa. Leaders from the self-declared state of Puntland, in the northeast, issued a statement saying there would be no participation unless the Djibouti conference recognised the existence of Puntland. The Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), which controls Bay and Bakool regions in southern Somalia, has announced it will attend the conference, after initially refusing. In Djibouti, the foreign ministry said the formal opening had been delayed to give the government and army time to set up facilities in Arta, 35 km west of Djibouti. However controversy over the peace talks has increased tension in Somalia. In Mogadishu, Abgal clan leaders supporting the Djibouti conference have clashed with clan leaders in south Mogadishu opposing it. An upsurge in fighting in Mogadishu left eight people dead, the local FM radio Horn-Afrique reported. AP quoted a doctor at the ICRC-run Kaysane Hospital as saying 22 patients had been treated for gunshot or shrapnel wounds. Regional analysts have expressed concern that partial attendance by faction leaders could increase hostilities, and that representatives from civil society have proved in previous Somalia conferences to have insufficient influence in the war-torn country.