Opposition clan leader calls for talks with Somalia govt

[General Duke]

Opposition clan leader calls for talks with Somalia govt

13 Jan 13, 2008 - 8:11:38 PM

 

BAIDOA, Somalia Jan 13 (Garowe Online) - A key clan leader has called for opening talks with Somalia's new government, which was sworn into power last week by parliament.

 

Salad Barwako, political adviser to self-styled ****** Council chairman Mohamed Hassan Haad, said the clan elders' council welcomes recent statements on reconciliation by new Somali Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein.

 

 

Mohamed Hassan Haad: In hiding since Nov. 2007

"We recognize the authority of [Prime Minister] Nur Adde and we acknowledge him to be an official who has deep understanding for his duty to the Somali people," Mr. Barwako told reporters.

 

But he placed a key condition for opening talks with the interim government, saying: "We call on him [Prime Minister Nur Adde] to follow the country's constitution and to begin the reconciliation process by addressing the status of prisoners."

 

The reconciliation process is the "only route" to lasting peace in Somalia, Mr. Barwako said.

 

His statements to the press comes at a time Mogadishu clan elder Ahmed Dirie, spokesman for the ****** Council, remains in government custody since November, with conflicting reports about his exact whereabouts.

 

Recently, Somali opposition leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said Mr. Dirie "died" after he was handed over to the Ethiopian military.

 

Mr. Haad, an ally of Mr. Dirie, went into hiding for fear of his own life days after his friend was arrested by Somali police.

 

The ****** Council, which vehemently opposes the presence of Ethiopian troops, claims to represent the Somalis' ****** clan-family, the dominant community that inhabits the capital Mogadishu and its environs.

 

But Mogadishu regional officials, who belong to the ****** clan, routinely dismiss the council as unrepresentative of the people it claims.

 

Source: Garowe Online