Region | Somalia
Somalia's interim government and Islamists start discussion
Negotiators for Somalia's transitional government and its Islamist rivals met face to face behind closed doors yesterday for talks in the Sudanese capital on political, security and economic issues.
- AP
- Published: 00:00 September 4, 2006
Khartoum: Negotiators for Somalia's transitional government and its Islamist rivals met face to face behind closed doors yesterday for talks in the Sudanese capital on political, security and economic issues.
Somali Parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Shaikh Aden led delegates from the UN-backed Somali government at the talks with Islamic courts representatives led by Ebrahim Hassan Adow, the group's foreign affairs chief.
A copy of the agenda obtained by AP shows that the talks, expected to continue for several days, are to revolve around a June agreement to discuss political, security, social and economic issues as well as reconstruction.
Negotiators have said they hope to discuss Cabinet positions for the Islamists and seats in the transitional parliament as well as the transitional charter.
The Islamists could argue that they control a significant part of the country and on that basis should share power with Somali President Abdullahi Yousuf's transitional government.
Committed to peace
Yousuf's side has already said that they will only discuss Cabinet and other government positions on the basis of a clan-based formula used to form Somalia's transitional institutions.
Neither side made any statements before yesterday's meeting, but Aden and Adow reaffirmed on Saturday that they are committed to peace.
But Adow warned that foreign interference in Somalia would be "a recipe for the renewal of civil war", alluding to witness reports that Ethiopian troops entered three Somali towns in July and August.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since warlords overthrew dictator Mohammad Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other.
The Arab League arranged talks between the two sides in June, following the Islamic fighters' takeover of most of southern Somalia. The internationally recognised but weak transitional government could only watch as the Islamic group, which the United States alleges is harbouring wanted terrorists, swept through a significant part of Somalia.
In June, the two sides signed an agreement that called for an immediate truce and in which the Islamic courts officially recognised Yousuf's administration. Talks scheduled for July failed to take place.
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