Somalian warlords boycott peace talks
NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- Some of Somalia's most powerful warlords boycotted the planned start of reconciliation talks in Kenya on Friday, throwing the latest attempt to revive stalled peace efforts into disarray, delegates said.
The boycott drew an angry response from some participants who accused the warlords of blocking attempts to reconcile a country of more than seven million where war and drought have killed hundreds of thousands of people in the past decade.
"Enough is enough, this is the time to stop these warlords," said one delegate, Asha Ahmed Abdalla. "The people who are dying are the poor children in Somalia. This is reconciliation, we have to forget and forgive," she told Reuters.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who had jetted in to lend his weight to attempts to revitalise the peace effort, tried to persuade faction leaders to press on with the launch.
The planned 10-day gathering was supposed to prepare the ground for the naming of a new 351-member parliament that would choose a president for the Horn of Africa country, which has been mired in chaos since the central government fell in 1991.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki was left waiting to speak at the launch of the latest meeting of the peace process, which has made much less headway than separate peace talks also hosted by Kenya between Sudan's government and southern rebels.
The four warlords who failed to attend included Muse Sudi Yalahow and Osman Ali Atto, two of the capital Mogadishu's most powerful militia leaders who quit the talks last September saying they wanted to set up a rival conference in Somalia.
Two other prominent leaders who failed to turn up were Barre Hiralle, head of the Juba Valley Alliance based in the southern port of Kismayo, and Mohamed Hadsade, of the Rahanwayn Resistance Army militia of southern Somalia, delegates said.
The faction leaders sent representatives to the talks, where Kenyan hosts said the international community was growing increasingly impatient with the lack of progress.
"The way to deal with the Somalia situation now is to keep on reminding them that the world cannot sit and wait forever and continue to witness the destruction of Somalia," Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka told reporters.
A different dispute over who should be allowed to attend the talks threatened to further undermine the peace effort.
Some faction leaders say only 24 leaders who signed a ceasefire deal in October 2002 should be included, objecting to plans by mediators to expand the number of delegates at the latest talks to 42 in an attempt to broaden representation.
In a more positive sign for mediators, Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, the head of a defunct interim government whose mandate expired last year, did attend. The gathering was held at a hotel in Nairobi but was due to be moved to the port city of Mombasa.
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