Friday, August 31, 2007
Francois Fall spoke as the Somali peace conference was wrapping up in Mogadishu after six weeks of negotiations that failed to make headway on an accord to end chronic fighting.
It is crucial for the Somali government to be "pursuing efforts to reach out to all opposition groups, those within and outside Somalia," Fall told to the closing ceremony.
"In this regard, I once again call on both sides to demonstrate political will and courage to engage in serious negotiations."
An Islamist movement that was ousted from the country early 2007 and elders from the dominant Hawiye clan boycotted the Mogadishu conference that opened on July 15 with more than 1,000 delegates in attendance.
The Islamists and other key opposition players will be holding their own meeting in the Eritrean capital Asmara on September 1, with a focus on demanding an end to Ethiopian occupation.
Mogadishu, the epicentre of fighting, has seen a surge of guerrilla-style attacks - roadside bombs and hit-and-run tactics - targeting government officials, Ethiopian troops and African Union (AU) peacekeepers.
Western intelligence agencies have accused the Islamists of links with Al Qaeda groups and this year US forces attacked positions in Somalia believed to be havens of extremists.
Such attacks have worsened relations between the government and Islamists, whose leaders are exiled in Eritrea.
"To move the reconciliation process forward, there is an urgent need to delink the settlement of the political crisis in Somali from a legitimate concern about terrorism in the region," Fall said.
"To fight terrorism in this country is to pursue open dialogue and genuine reconciliation among all the parties in Somalia."
Years of clan bickering in Somalia exploded into a national drive that ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, setting stage for a deadly power struggle that has defied numerous peace initiatives.
A failure of a massive UN and United States peacekeeping and humanitarian effort in the early 1990s made most foreign nations reluctant to intervene again in the country of about 10 million people.
Source: AP, Aug 31, 2007