Monday, April 11, 2011

Somalia’s Government Says It Opposes United Nations-Backed Talks in Kenya : SOMALIA: GOVT – UN ORGANIZED MEETING IS CONSPIRACY AGAINST COUNTRY

Somalia’s Government Says It Opposes United Nations-Backed Talks in Kenya

Somalia’s government said itopposes a planned United Nations-backed meeting in neighboring Kenya that will discuss the country’s political situation.
Two days of discussions that begin tomorrow in Nairobi, theKenyan capital, are being held to “reconcile” differencesbetween members of Somalia’s transitional government and itspartners, according to the UN Political Office for Somalia.
“We believe that this meeting is an obstacle to the Somaligovernment’s efforts and developments” to stabilize Somalia,Abdirahman Omar Osman, a spokesman for the government, said byphone today from Mogadishu, the capital. “Every consultative orreconciliation meeting should be held in Somalia, not foreignstates.”
Somalia’s transitional federal government last monthextended its mandate by one year to August 2012 to ensure it hastime to finish off a war with Islamic insurgents and set up astable system of governance, Agence France-Presse said on April1, citing Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.
The U.S. and UN have called for Somalia’s transitionalgovernment to step aside as originally planned this August. Thereplacement administration should focus on making the countrymore self-sufficient, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State JamesSteinberg said on Feb. 3. The country will miss an August targetto enact a new constitution that would have paved the way forelections, Augustine Mahiga, the UN’s representative forSomalia, said in January.

‘Congenial Atmosphere’

The talks are taking place in Nairobi to create a“congenial atmosphere” and for logistical reasons because of theinsecurity in Mogadishu and lack of accommodation, Mahiga saidin an interview today in Nairobi.
Somalia has been mired in civil war for two decades andhasn’t had a functioning central government since the 1991ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The current government,backed in Mogadishu by about 9,000 African Union troops, isbattling Islamic militants for control of the city, as well assouthern and central Somalia.
To contact the reporter on this story:Hamsa Omar in Mogadishu via Nairobi at Sarah McGregor in Nairobi 
Mr Abdishakur Sheikh Hassan, the TFG’s minister for Internal Affairs and National Security
Mogadishu (tf.sf)— Somalia's minister of interior and home security on Monday proclaimed that the United Nations sponsored meeting on Somalia that will tomorrow be held in neighboring Kenya is conspiracy against the transitional government and its people.Speaking at ceremony welcoming the newly named Somali police chief, Ibrahim Isaq Yarow, the deputy minister of interior and home security said the aim of Nairobi meeting is to dismantle and divide all Somalis.He said Somali people have already got tired and exhausted from civil war and conflict and added that it is not needed to create new conflict at this time.Mr. Yarow also indicated because of that Somali government has decided not to attend what the UN said to be Somalia consultative meeting.

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