Somali state officials vow to "rectify mistakes"

Senior officials of Ethiopia's Somali state have admitted making "some errors", but have now pledged to improve their performance, the pro-government Walta Information Centre reported. Speaking jointly at the federal prime minister's office in connection with a Somali forum held in Addis Ababa, Muhammad Dirir, the minister of mines, Abdirashid Dulane, the president of the Somali state, and Dr Abdulmajid Husayn, the chairman of the forum, said they had agreed to embark on better strategies aimed at "eliminating the corruption, nepotism, narrow nationalism and ethnicity, which are rampant in the state". "We have failed in a number of cases. We have failed to keep pace with our brothers and sisters in the country. Yes, we have failed to organise the people and make them benefit from development activities," Walta quoted them as saying. According to Walta, the officials admitted to "running after our personal and group egos", while at the same time "aggravating clan conflicts". They also admitted ignoring and marginalising clan leaders and women, Walta said. The officials said that whereas devolution of power had been reinstated in Ethiopia, they had failed to hold elections for woredas and kebeles [districts and subdistricts] in the state. "We understand that we have abused the people's legitimate rights to fulfil our individual and group interests," they said. The officials called for the prosecution of all those who had misappropriated state and public property, and urged the Somali people to join them in rectifying these mistakes, Walta reported. It said they vowed to make up for their mistakes "by speeding up development in the shortest time possible". These pledges are the outcome of an eight-month evaluation of the Somali state ruling party, the Somali People's Democratic Party (SPDP), and come as part of the federal government's "Renewal Process", whereby national and regional parties are asked to evaluate and criticise themselves, local sources told IRIN on Thursday. The sources said the government called the SPDP leaders to the capital to "knock their heads together". "It would be nice for them [party leaders] to return and start governing," the sources added. They said the SPDP is reportedly split into two factions which is why the evaluation took so long.