Somali delegates arrive in Sudan but refuse to start talks
Oct 31, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Delegates from warring Somali factions have arrived in Sudan’s capital for peace talks, but remain holed up in their hotel rooms refusing to negotiate, Sudan’s official news agency reported Tuesday.
Sudanese and Arab League officials were quoted as saying they spent all morning and afternoon trying to persuade the two parties to come out of their hotel rooms and meet in a conference room at the Friendship Hall, a five-minute walk away. Neither Somali delegate agreed, the officials said.
“The delegation of the Islamic Courts is still insisting that Ethiopian forces pull out of Somalia before they sit down with the government delegation for talks,” Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Al Sadeq was quoted as saying.
Sudan, which currently heads the 22-nation Arab League, has taken the lead in promoting peace talks in Somalia.
It would have been the first Somali peace talks in eight weeks. They were delayed Monday when the government delegation failed to show up in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, a government official said. The delegation arrive late Monday night, the news agency said.
The Islamic Courts, which controls the Somali capital of Mogadishu and most of the south of the country, had been reported as saying they would boycott this week’s peace talks in Khartoum because of the Ethiopian troops in Somalia.
Ethiopia has said several hundred of its “military trainers” are in Somalia, providing expertise to the interim government. U.N. officials in the country say thousands of Ethiopian soldiers are defending Baidoa, the only town controlled by the government.
Somali peace talks began in Khartoum in June when the two sides agreed on a formula for mutual recognition. A second session was held in the city on Sept. 2-3 when the two sides signed an agreement to form a unified national army.
But there has been no sign of reconciliation on the ground in Somalia, where the Islamic Courts seek to impose an Islamic state and the internationally recognized government lacks the force to assert its authority beyond Baidoa.
Somalia hasn’t had an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.
The interim government was formed in 2004 with U.N. help in the hope of restoring order after years of bloodshed.
(AP)