A Week in the Horn

The seventh Horn of Africa Conference in Lund, Sweden, was held last weekend, 17th – 19th October. This year’s subject was Faith, Citizenship, Democracy and Peace in the Horn of Africa. The objective was to bring together religious and political leaders, diplomats, scholars and representatives of NGOs involved in the region to share experiences and examine how harmonious relationships built between different ethnic and religious groups could promote democracy and peace. The purpose was to enhance the capacity of stakeholders in the region with new ideas and tools. Among those participating were the Deputy Prime Minister of the Somali Transitional Federal Government, and the Secretary-General of the ARS opposition, representatives of the UN Secretary-General to Somalia, and the Special Envoy of Sweden to the Horn of Africa as well as the Ambassador of Ethiopia to Scandinavia and the Eritrean charge d’affaires. There were two days of papers and a third day devoted to three workshops on faith, ethnicity and aid. Terrorism and conflict were two of the focuses of the conference and a third major interest was the Djibouti Agreement signed in August between the TFG and the ARS, and on the possible role of the international community to bolster the window of opportunity that the agreement had opened. There was general agreement that Somali political parties should seize the possibility this offered for a move forward, and participants, though the tone varied, appealed to Somalis all over the world to become involved in the process. The Ethiopian Ambassador highlighted his government’s position on the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops. Ethiopia intervened at the invitation of the TFG and because of the extremist threat to Ethiopian national security. The threat had now been addressed but, he emphasized, any future threat would be dealt with swiftly and decisively. The Ambassador stressed that the international community’s engagement in Somalia was not commensurate with the need and he urged it to be more active. The conclusion of many participants was that this year’s conference had been less polemical than the previous year. more.http://www.mfa.gov.et/Press_Section/Week_Horn_Africa_October_24_2008.htm