Mediate Talks Between Rayale And A. Yusuf
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Hargeisa, June 5, 2004 (SL Times) – According to the UAE’s influential daily newspaper, Al-Khaleej, direct talks will be held in the middle of this month between Somaliland’s President Dahir Rayale Kahin and Puntland’s Col Abdillahi Yusuf.
News about the talks was broken in a story datelined Mogadishu and published by yesterday’s Al-Khaleej edition (Friday).
According to Al-Khaleej, the talks will be the fruit of a joint mediation effort carried out by the two governments of Djibouti and Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Embassy in Djibouti has been chosen as venue for the negotiations, the newspaper reported.
The often conflicting stands taken by Djibouti and Ethiopia with regard to the Somali peace process has in the past marred relations between the two sides. However the two countries have recently adopted a common approach for dealing with the Kenya-hosted peace conference on Somalia.
It is not yet clear whether Somaliland’s participation in the Mbagathi peace process for Somalia will be raised during the Ethiopian-Djibouti sponsored talks to be held between President Rayale and Col. Yusuf or whether the discussions will be only confined to easing tensions between Somaliland and Puntland, the paper said.
Colonel Abdillahi Yusuf visited Djibouti last month for the first time since the 13th Somali peace conference that was held in Arta, Djibouti, in 2000. Relations between the Puntland warlord and Djibouti soured in the aftermath of the Arta conference. Abdillahi Yusuf sought rapprochement in relations with president Ghelle apparently to seek the Djibouti’s support for his ambition to become Somalia’s president. Relations between Somaliland and Djibouti have significantly improved during the last 2 years.
While on a visit to Las-Anod in Dec 2003, Somaliland President Dahir Rayale Kahin barely escaped an assassination attempt. The Puntland authorities in the name of the Interior Minister, Ahmed Habsade, took credit for the failed attempt. The incident solicited no response from the Somaliland government.
Tension between Somaliland and its eastern neighbor has again flared following the forced annexation of Las-Anod area by Abdillahi Yusuf’s armed militia. Somaliland has so far refrained from taking military action against the militarily inferior forces from Puntland that invaded and still occupy Las-Anod.
Neither the governments in the region or the international community at large have taken any steps to pressure the Puntland warlord into withdrawing his militiamen from Las-Anod.
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