     Anonymous | Friday, August 18, 2000 - 04:45 am
To:Dadka soomaaliyeed..
Waxaa hoos ku qoran magacyadii ninmankii tuugada ahaa ee isu soo sharaxey madaxweyne mino.
Waxaase is weydiinleh bal qoodhaa iyo xiradaa nimankaa tuugada ah oo wadanka horey u laqey mana metelaan?....ilaahow kuwaa u madada ka qabo....
Source: Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Date: 3 Aug 2000
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Somali presidential candidates make themselves known at talks by Juliette Hollier-Larousse ARTA, Djibouti, Aug 3 (AFP) - Candidates for the first Somali president in almost a decade are making themselves known at reconciliation talks here, even before their electoral college, a nascent transitional parliament, has been formed. Most of those with an overt interest in filling the vacuum created by the 1991 fall of president Mohamed Siad Barre are former ministers in his and other governments. The aim of the current peace initiative, the brainchild of Djibouti President Isamael Omar Guelleh, is to rebuild the institutions that have since disintegrated, allowing armed faction leaders to hold sway in their various fiefdoms. So far, five men have expressed their ambition openly, although about a dozen names are being whispered around the conference. According to rules agreed by the 2,400 people taking part in the talks, the transitional president is to be nominated by the parliament, where a quota system of seats has led to prolonged haggling among Somalia's major clans: the Darod, Dir, Rahanwein and ••••••. These grouping are divided and sub-divided into a complex network of sub-clans with constantly shifting alliances and enmities. One such aspirant, Abdullah Ahmed Addow, 64, from the •••••• clan, is a former finance minister and was ambassador to the United States in the early 1960s. He is a close relative of warlord Hussein Mohamed Aidid, who, like most of Somalia's armed faction leaders, has eschewed Guelleh's initiative. Addow is viewed by some as a consensus candidate, capable of fostering closer ties between rival clans. Another hopeful is Abdikassim Salat, also from a •••••• sub-clan, served as deputy prime minister and interior minister under Siad Barre. He is seen as more of a hardliner, able to keep order and benefitting from the support of the Islamic courts. Ali Khalif Galaydh, 58, from the Dulbahante, a Darod sub-clan dominant in the north, was also a minister in Siad Barre's government, and has worked as a businessman since fighting erupted in Mogadishu in 1991. He heads a Dubai-based telecom company and enjoys the support of the thriving Somali business community. Major General Omar Haji Mohamed, who leads the armed Somali National Front faction and once held the health and defence portfolios before being detained, also told AFP he would stand for the post of chief executive. As did Mahmoud Mohammed Gouled, a former air force commander of the •••••• Abgal sub-clan, jailed by Siad Barre in 1978. The chairman of the conference, Hassan Abshir Farah, 55, former mayor of Mogadishu and former interior minister in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, whose name is often mentioned as a possible candidate, told AFP that it was too soon to show his cards. Faction leader Ali Mahdi Mohammed, who was named president in a failed 1991 peace conference here then rejected on his return to Somalia, also said the question was premature. Although the official presidential campaign has yet to open, some candidates have spread word of their manifestos through the corridors of Djibouti's hotels, to diplomats and to the media. The outcome of the race will, several delegates here said, depend more on inter-clan alliances than on the particular programmes of individual candidates. Siad Barre belonged to the Darod clan, and there is a widespread feeling in Arta that the next president should come from the same clan or from the ••••••, which is dominant in central Somalia and in Mogadishu. Unless, according to many delegates, the president of the breakaway republic of Somaliland, Mohammed Egal, who is from the Dir clan, changes his mind and decides to take part in this reconciliation process. By Wednesday evening, four of the five groups given quotas of parliamentary seats had managed to hand in their nominations, leaving only the •••••• needing arbitration, according to a source close to the talks. jhl/afm/jlr AFP
By guuleed... |
