Resume dialogue, Annan urges leaders

Friction among Somalia's leaders is preventing the country’s federal institutions from functioning effectively, and if divisions among the leaders intensify, the fragile structures could be undermined, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned in his latest report to the UN Security Council.

"There has been no progress in ameliorating the contention between leaders of the transitional federal institutions on four broad issues: the relocation of the transitional federal institutions, a national security and stabilization plan, national reconciliation and the peace support mission envisaged by the African Union/Intergovernmental Authority on Development," Annan said in the 11 October report.

He said tensions between President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi, who are based in Jowhar, and Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Shaykh Aden and ministers and MPs based in the capital, Mogadishu, had exacerbated recently.

"Unless the differences within the transitional federal institutions are addressed, the current political impasse could grow into deeper divisions and undermine the very institutions that the people of Somalia so ardently desire and the international community and the United Nations are willing to support," Annan said.

He expressed concern that the political tensions between leaders of the transitional federal institutions had given rise to "military preparations on their part," and called on the Somali leaders and countries of the region not to be part of an exacerbation in political and military tensions.

Annan noted that while his special representative for Somalia, François Lonseny Fall, had made every effort to convince Yusuf, Gedi and Aden to reach agreements through dialogue, the leaders had thus far reneged on a face-to-face meeting.

He called on the international community to support Fall's attempts to bring about an inclusive dialogue among the war-scarred nation's leaders.