Key Somlali Factions Close To Accord!!!

[J.J.Jama]

Key Somali Factions Close to Accord

By Haroun Hassan
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, November 27, 1997; 1:17 p.m. EST

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Key Somali faction
leaders meeting in Cairo have made progress
towards creating an interim government for
their splintered, warring nation, sources in
the Somali capital said Thursday.

An agreement was believed possible by the
weekend. While Somalia's rival leaders have
made accords in the past and failed to honor
them, several Islamic nations are pushing hard
now for the Somalis to end their six years of
deadly feuding.

The sources, who requested anonymity, said the
two main groups negotiating the deal have made
it over the main stumbling block: how to choose
the president and prime minister of what would
be a three-year government.

The faction led by Hussein Mohamed Aidid, son
of the late warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid,
appears to have made a major concession by
renouncing claims to an interim presidency and
settling for the position of prime minister.

The sources also said a conference of national
reconciliation could take place as soon as Dec.
20 in Merca, a port city 60 miles south of the
divided Somalia capital of Mogadishu.

Somalia has not had a central government since
late 1991, when President Mohamed Siad Barre
was overthrown by a coalition of clan-based
factions. The factions subsequently turned on
each other in a ferocious battle for turf and
resources.

Somalis trace their lineage through six clans;
it's not clear if there was hope that most
clans would abide by the accord now in the
works.

The two opposing groups in the talks are led by
men from the Hawiye clan, which initially was
united in opposition to Siad Barre, who was
from the Darod clan.

But Ali Mahdi Mohamed's Abgal subclan and
Mohamed Farrah Aidid's Habr-Gedir subclan split
soon afterwards, and both men laid claim to the
presidency. Factional fighting ensued as
alliances shifted among factions, clans and
subclans.

Aidid died in August 1996 fighting with a clan
splinter group. His son, a former U.S. Marine
reservist who served in the ill-fated U.S.-led
Operation Restore Hope five years ago,
succeeded him.

Ali Mahdi has emerged as the candidate of the
26 factions that make up the National Salvation
Council, also known as the Sodere group after
the town in Ethiopia were they met to discuss
national reconciliation.

Aidid refused to attend a national
reconciliation conference planned this month in
the northeastern Somali town of Bossaso because
of what he reportedly saw as too much Ethiopian
influence.

Aidid's entourage claims Ethiopia is arming
Muslim fighters who want to set up an Islamic
state in Somalia, virtually all of whose
population is Muslim.

But the sources said Egypt and the Arab League,
which is hosting the Cairo meeting, have been
pressuring Aidid to compromise since Somalia's
instability has regional ramifications.

The sources said the presence in Cairo of Aidid
camp hard-liners Mohamed Farah Jumale and
Mohamed Qanyare Afrah indicates the seriousness
of the negotiations.

The two Somali groups have apparently agreed
that the interim government could be extended
from three to five years if necessary and that
there would be regional autonomy in the future
federal Somali state. A 189-member constituent
assembly would draw up a new constitution.