Somalia Islamists due in Khartoum for talks

June 20, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Officials from the Islamist alliance that seized control of large parts of Somalia are expected in Khartoum Wednesday to take part in an Arab mediation attempt, Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir said.

The official SUNA news agency quoted Beshir as saying that “Sudan, in its capacity as current chairman of the Arab League, is conducting a mediation effort between Somali leaders and the Islamic courts.”

The news agency said the delegation was expected in the Sudanese capital on Wednesday and would hold talks which are also being sponsored by Yemen and Ethiopia.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa, is due to join the meetings which will focus on “Arab efforts to get Somalia out of the current crisis and create opportunities for reconciliation,” Samir Hosni, the 22-member bloc’s pointman for the Horn of Africa, said.

It was not immediately clear if representatives of Somalia’s increasingly marginalised transitional government would also be present.

“The mediation effort is to help Somalia ward off foreign intervention, which was what led to the current situation in the first place,” Beshir was quoted as saying at a meeting of his ruling National Congress Monday.

The Horn of Africa country, which has been without effective government since veteran president Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, has witnessed its worst violence in a decade in recent weeks.

The Islamic courts militia — who advocate Sharia law — have clashed with a coalition of warlords widely believed to have received US backing and eventually seized the capital Mogadishu earlier this month.

Somalia’s transitional parliament has invited in foreign peacekeepers but the Islamists have vowed to kill any foreign troops who set foot in the war-torn country.

An attempt by UN and US peacekeepers to restore order in Somalia between 1993 and 1994 ended in failure with the death of 18 US rangers and scores of UN peacekeepers and ushered in a fresh period of chaos.

(ST)