SOMALIA: Parliament to hold next session in Mogadishu

[Jumatatu]

NAIROBI, 12 May 2005 (IRIN) - The Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP) of Somalia will hold its next session in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, the speaker told IRIN on Thursday.

 

"The parliament will meet in the capital on 17 May," Sharif Hassan Shaykh Aden, the TFP speaker, said.

 

The move follows a controversial parliamentary session held by a group of MPs in the absence of the speaker on Wednesday in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

 

The session debated two contentious motions: the proposed deployment of peacekeeping troops from neighboring countries, and the temporary relocation of the government to the towns of Jowhar and Baidao, in south and south-central Somalia, respectively.

 

Wednesday's motions were tabled by MPs who support the deployment of troops from Somalia's immediate neighbors - Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti – as part of any peacekeeping force.

 

Government spokesman Abdirahaman Dinari told IRIN on Thursday that the nearly 150 MPs present overwhelmingly voted in favor of the two motions. "The parliament has made a decision, and it is binding," he said.

 

Aden, however, called the vote "null and void" under the interim constitution. "It was an illegally convened session," he said. "I am, as the speaker, the only one charged with setting the date for sessions of the parliament. It is therefore an illegal meeting and nothing passed by it is binding on parliament."

 

The government had asked the speaker to set a date to debate the motions. "I have set a 17 of May," Aden said. "That date still stands."

 

He added: "I don't understand why they want to rush. These motions are very sensitive and require very serious reflection. They involve the deployment of foreign forces. We need to make sure that we have everyone on board before we make such a decision. We can not afford to make a mistake on this."

 

Dinari, however, disputed that the speaker was the only one who could set a date for parliamentary business. "The president has the power, within the law, to call an emergency session of parliament, and that is what he did. The speaker was approached, and he refused."

 

The contentious issue of peacekeepers from neighboring countries has been discussed previously by the TFP, and has led to disagreements. On 18 March, three MPs were injured in a scuffle between opponents and supporters of the motion.

 

In February, the African Union (AU) authorised the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the facilitator of Somalia's peace process, to send a peace mission to Somalia. IGAD's members are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

 

The mission's purpose was to help the transitional Somali government gain a foothold in the country before its relocation from Kenya. The government has remained in Nairobi since it was established in October, citing security concerns in Mogadishu.

 

Prominent Somali faction leaders and members of the public, however, have opposed the plan - in particular the suggestion to include troops from neighboring countries.

 

The US and the International Crisis Group (ICG) have also expressed concern over the inclusion of troops from countries neighboring Somalia without the approval of the Somali people.

 

Commenting on the situation, the ICG director for the Horn of Africa division, Matt Bryden, said that the vote was "a serious setback for the Somali peace process". He added: "It widens the divisions within the TFI [Transitional Federal Institutions] and greatly increases the likelihood of conflict."

 

Bryden warned that any troops deployed under such circumstances would be perceived as "supporting one faction against the other and risk becoming party to the conflict".

 

"It is a good time for IGAD and the AU to bring everyone back to the negotiating table and not take sides," Bryden told IRIN.

 

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian government has denied accusations made on Tuesday by a group of Somali MPs in Nairobi that it had troops inside Somalia.

 

"These are baseless and unfounded allegations against Ethiopia," Zemedhun Teckle, government spokesman, said. "We are working for a stable Somali central government."

 

In a public statement read by Somali MP Abdullahi Haji Ali, the group had claimed that Ethiopia was providing weapons to militia groups allied to it, in violation of a UN arms embargo.

 

[ENDS]

 

Source: IRIN, May 12, 2005

[Jumatatu]

Somali peace process flounders as rift deepens

Thu May 12, 2005 2:32 PM GMT+02:00

By William Maclean

 

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali peace efforts drifted towards acrimonious collapse on Thursday when the government's leaders split openly over where to base it, a vital security issue for a region long buffeted by the country's militia chaos.

 

A row over where to install President Abdullahi Yusuf's government has exposed deepening power struggles among the warlords in his troubled administration, which has worked from Kenya since it was formed there at peace talks last year.

 

Parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan said he would leave Kenya on Saturday and instal a rival assembly in Mogadishu, a move diplomats said would institutionalise the rift in Yusuf's cabinet of heavily-armed warlords and politicians.

 

At the core of the dispute is mistrust among many warlords, especially those based in Mogadishu, of the intentions of Yusuf's main foreign sponsor Ethiopia, Somalia's historic foe.

Many among the overwhemlingly Muslim 10 million population are hostile to what they see as attempts by their big, nominally Christian-led neighbour to dictate events in the region.

 

Regional tensions rose sharply this week when a group of Somali MPs accused Ethiopia of sending troops across the border to back militias friendly to Yusuf. Ethiopia denies the charge.

 

Adan announced his move after a parliament session summoned by Yusuf voted narrowly to follow a recommendation by the president and his Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi to relocate the government to the towns of Jowhar and Baidoa by June 10.

 

Adan, who favours a move to the capital Mogadishu, did not attend the session and added that by summoning the assembly Yusuf had exceeded the powers accorded him under a transitional constitution. Adan said summoning the assembly was his job.

 

Adan and many analysts questioned whether the vote carried credible political support since more than 100 members of the 275-strong body are currently in Somalia, many of them staying away from Nairobi as a protest against Yusuf's policies.

SPLINTER GOVERNMENT

 

"I do not understand the haste and why parliament is not convened when all the MPs are there," Adan said.

 

Gedi's spokesman, Abdulrahman Dinari, condemned Adan's planned move to the volatile costal city of one million.

 

"If he goes ahead and forms a splinter government in Mogadishu, as he claims, then he should know that he will go down in history as the person who single-handedly destroyed the outcome of the peace process," he said.

 

Somalia collapsed into chaos after the overthrow of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Conflict and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people since then.

 

Members of Yusuf's cabinet and parliament have been arguing for months about several matters including where to be based once they go home, but speaker and president have rarely exposed their differences so openly or strongly as they have this week.

 

A pro-Yusuf faction wants the administration to be based temporarily in Baidoa and Jowhar, arguing Mogadishu is too dangerous. It also wants African Union (AU) peacekeepers to deploy to restore order and help establish the government, which has no revenues of its own.

 

An anti-Yusuf faction of ministers who have their powerbases in Mogadishu says the government should go straight to the traditional capital. They dislike the idea of foreign troops and adamantly oppose Ethiopia contributing troops for such a force.

 

"The peace process is in danger of dying, and sparking a war with regional implications, unless Yusuf can repair ties to the Mogadishu group," a diplomat from a European Union country said.

 

In Addis Ababa, the AU urged the international community to intervene to end the wrangling.

 

"Should the international community fail to act decisively to sustain the gains of the reconciliation process, there is risk that the efforts thus far deployed would be put to waste," AU Commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare Chairman said.

 

Source: Reuters, May 12, 2005

[Suldaanka]

Well a Col. Yey led phantom government was expected to be failure.

[Alle-ubaahne]

this time, the whole of the parliement will come to Mogadishu as the rift between Col. Abdullahi Yuusuf and Shariif Xassan is worsening.

 

The good spirit of Shariif Xassan of the parliement is still active!

[Chimera]

i was confused as hell when i read that article untill i saw the date

[Jacaylbaro]

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I got confused too

[Alle-ubaahne]

Originally posted by David_Letterman:

i was confused as hell when i read that article untill i saw the date

Are you a girl? because girls are easily confussed before they marry!

[Che -Guevara]

Not funny saaxib. I think we need to get you married off.

[RedSea]

Letterman is right, it is bit outdated.lol

 

Now can you arrange a marriage between me and whoever the bride is?lol

[Chimera]

alla-ubaahne are you questioning my manhood?

 

are..are you questioning my MANhood???

 

look at me

 

i said are you questioning my manhood??

 

if yes

 

ok!

 

if no

 

ok!

[Alle-ubaahne]

^Oh, sorry, I taught you were a girl, walaahi, because of that picture!

 

War waan ceeboobay maanta, ilaahow na baxso!

[Chimera]

what about my name??

 

''David'' lol

[Alle-ubaahne]

^^that picture was, btw, too hot to ignore the visibility f your name!

 

lol

 

change it, saaxiib, before we get another collateral damage.

[RedSea]

^lol. You right.

 

Listen, David letterman, may I ask you what compelled to have that avator?

 

just what had you pick that?

yeah what?

tell what?

tell me why?

what you were thinkin?

why o why?

lol--

[Chimera]

looooool ima change it to a more masculine avator lool