Six faction leaders demand postponement of peace talks

Six faction leaders participating in the Somali peace talks in Kenya, but who are currently in Somalia, have called on the organisers to postpone the opening of the third and final phase of the talks, and accused some of Somalia's neighbours of bias. A statement signed by the six accuses Kenya and Djibouti of mismanaging the talks and of bias in favour of certain groups. The statement, which was issued on Saturday after the group met in the southeastern town of Jawhar, 90 km north of the capital, Mogadishu, accused Kenya of "unprincipled management" of the talks and of frequent changes of attitude, and Djibouti of "biased interference" in favour of the Transitional National Government (TNG) and lack of neutrality. The group also expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the international observers, whom it accused of "flagrant political interference". Salad Ali Jelle, a deputy to faction leader Muhammad Habib, a signatory to the statement, told IRIN that the group wanted all member states of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to attend the talks "to make sure that any government established will have the backing of all of our neighbours". Ethiopia, one of the so-called frontline states, has had no representation in the talks for several months. According to the statement, in order to save the talks, "it is essential" that they be moved from Kenya to a more neutral country. Salad said his group wanted the leadership of the talks to be limited "to the 24 leaders who signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement [in Eldoret in October 2002], plus [TNG President] Abdiqassim Salad Hassan". Some 40 leaders attended a recent consultative meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, during which a breakthrough agreement was signed on 29 January. The peace talks should be postponed until "the issues raised by the leaders are addressed", said Salad. He said his group would attend the plenary session expected to convene on Monday, "but we want phase three to be put off until all these issues are resolved". However, an IGAD source told IRIN that the peace talks would continue despite the absence of the six leaders, dismissing their accusations as "baseless". "These people are not serious in their commitment to the process," he asserted. He warned that there would be no other conference and that "there will be no conference shopping. This is it. They should come back join their people, contest and test their popularity." The source told IRIN that the conference plenary session which opened on Monday would endorse the 29 January agreement. "I am very confident that the plenary will endorse the agreement, and we will move to phase three," he stressed. This final phase will involve the contentious issue of power-sharing. Signatories to the statement are the Jawhar-based faction leader, Muhammad Habib; Shaykh Adan Madobe of the Rahanwein Resistance Army; Gen Muhammad Sa'id Hirsi Morgan; Abdullahi Shaykh Isma'il; Mahmud Sayyid Adan of the Somali National Front; and Abdiqadir Abdi Hasan. The six belong to the Somali Reconciliation and Reconstruction Council (SRRC), a grouping southern factions opposed to the TNG.