SRRC opposes Harmonisation Committee

The Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) has strongly objected to the recent creation of a Harmonisation Committee (HC) by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development's (IGAD) Technical Committee steering the Somali peace talks being held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, according to a senior SRRC member.

The SRRC co-chairman, Ambassador Abdullahi Shaykh Isma'il, told IRIN that his group objected to the unilateral manner in which the IGAD Technical Committee had created this HC, which "is a breach of the agreed upon Conference Rules of Procedure". The establishment of the HC had been announced "without consultation and approval" of the Leaders' Committee, he said.

The role of the HC will be to coordinate the work of the peace conference's six working committees and come up with one report.

The six committees comprise: federalism and a provisional federal charter; demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration; land and property rights; economic institution-building and resource mobilisation; regional and international relations; and conflict resolution and reconciliation.

The task of harmonising differences should have been left to the Leaders' Committee, which would first debate the reports of the six committees, identify areas of difference and "then chart the way forward", Isma'il said. "It would then be up to the Leaders' Committee to appoint a sub-committee from within its ranks or appoint an outside group, with specific terms of reference to engage in the harmonisation.".

Isma'il told IRIN that the IGAD Technical Committee, should rescind its decision on "the so-called harmonisation group", otherwise the SRRC "will not consider binding any opinions or recommendations submitted by such a group".