Talks On Reconciliation, Peace Support In Somalia

Aweys, Al-Turki alive and moving around Kenya border: Meles

Dar es Salam, February 10, 2007 – Western and African diplomats held talks Friday regarding reconciliation initiatives and the sending of African peace support mission in post war Somalia.

The International Contact Group (ICG) on Somalia, is stressing the need for the quick deployment of an African peace mission into the country, to support the interim government there.

Since taking control of the capital Mogadishu over a month ago, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia has been under constant attacks from remnants of the ousted Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

The contact group is comprised of the United States of America, Europe and a number of African countries.

US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Dr. Jendayi Frazer who attended Friday's meeting in Tanzania emphasized the need to urgently support the transitional institutions in Somalia and other vulnerable groups.

"Now we need to, like a laser, focus on supporting the sovereign transitional federal government and the Somali people," Frazer is quoted in Dar-es-Salaam.

"One of the key tasks in front of us is the security of that government and those people particularly as we see an increase in violence or mortar attacks in Mogadishu.

Dr. Frazer said during the meeting that US President George W. Bush had requested $60 million for Somalia in his budget.

The deployment of a strong force of 8,000 African troops is expected. Already, Uganda, Nigeria and Burundi have pledged 4000 troops.

The African Union has provided funds for the Ugandan peacekeeping force in Somalia. The AU contributed $11.6 million ( US). Uganda will send 1,400 troops, including some armored vehicles.

Uganda has said that the troops could be in Somalia up to nine months.

Meanwhile, in Mogadishu, Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Ghedi has reshuffled his cabinet and sacked some of his ministers.

According to reports, Health Minister Abdiaziz Sheikh Yusuf, Higher Education and Culture Minister Hussein Mohamud Sheikh Hussein had been sacked after "they had failed to carry out their duties and were involved in misappropriating funds."

Mineral and Water Resources Minister Mohamud Salad Nuur was fired for failing to be sworn in after he was appointed.

The cabinet reshuffle involved 10 changes, including moving Interior Minister Hussein Mohamed Farah Aideed to the public works portfolio although he remains deputy prime minister.

His position was given to Mohamoud Mohamed Gacmodhere.

Another deputy premier Salim Aliyow Ibrow who was minister of livestock has now become minister for higher education.

"After weighing the hard times the country is facing and seeing the need to reshuffle some of the ministries, I've decided to sack others, and nominate new cabinet ministers," Gedi said in a statement.

The transitional parliament based in Baidoa also elected a new speaker, Sheik Aden Madobe to replace the former sacked speaker Sharif Hasan Sheik Aden.

In a related news, second man in the former Union of Islamic Courts, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has been allowed to travel to Yemen from Kenya where he had surrendered last month.

Ahmed, who had spent the last few weeks in a hotel in Nairobi under armed guard, had said he wanted talks with the government.

Somalia 's Interim President, Abdillahi Yusuf, however has dismissed any such notion.

"He can stay as a guest and any request for asylum will be dealt with later," a Yemeni official told the BBC after Ahmed's arrival in the country.

Other members of the Islamic Courts are also reported to be in Yemen.

Regarding the whereabouts and status of UIC supreme leader Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who in recent past had declined to make any specific comments, told the Financial Times that the one time Al-Ittihad commander and his colleague Sheikh Hassan Turki were "alive and moving in and out of Kenya on the border," according to the paper.

Meles also told the same paper that despite "bloodied papers belonging to Aden Hashi Farah Ayro- radical leader of the Shabbab military wing of the UIC- there was no indication that he had been killed during the US air strikes.

On the contrary, Meles is quoted as having said, that reported sightings of the Afghan trained militant suggest he may have survived the air strikes.

As reports are coming that over a hundred people have died of Cholera in Somalia, the UNHCR said this week that some 50,000 Somalis have come into Ethiopia as refugees. The latest number according to the UN agency is an addition to the 17,000 Somali refugees already at the Kebribeyah camp near Jijiga.

As of 1997, there were 628,000 Somali refugees in the Ethiopia, but most were repatriated back to Somalia, according to UNHCR.

By Namrud Berhane

Source: The Ethiopian Reporter

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer (L) talks to U.N. special envoy to Somalia Francois Lonseny Fall during International Contact Group on Somalia meeting in Tanzania's capital Dar es Salaam, February 9, 2007. Western and African diplomats met in Tanzania on Friday to discuss reconciliation in post-war Somalia and a plan to send peacekeepers to bolster government efforts to tame the anarchic nation.

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