Somali Opposition Faction to Attend Nairobi Peace Conference

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 07, 2002

Somali Opposition Faction to Attend Nairobi Peace Conference

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The Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) reconfirmed Wednesday that the SRRC will attend the upcoming national reconciliation conference to be held in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, next month under the auspices of the six-nation regional Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

At a press conference held in Addis Ababa, Hassan Aideed, current chairman of the SRRC, said the SRRC reaffirmed its commitment to participate in the meeting and decided to set up a 15-member technical committee to work out modalities for the way forward.

He also called upon all parties to take part in the conference with a view to establishing an inclusive and broad based government in Somalia.

Earlier, the SRRC leadership had rejected to be present at the conference, but Aideed said "a high-level Ethiopian delegation has briefed the SRRC extensively on the outcome of the IGAD Council of Ministers meeting held in Nairobi on February 14, 2002."

Foreign Ministers of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan, Kenya, and officials from Eritrea and Uganda agreed to set up a technical committee to prepare for a Somali reconciliation conference.

The delegation had emphasized the fact that there was no option for all the Somali parties other than participating in the proposed reconciliation conference in Nairobi to establish a broad based government and to commit themselves to fighting terrorism in their country, said Aideed.

In a related development, Hasan Abshir Farah, prime minister of Somalia's transitional national government has expressed reservations over the decision by opposition groups to attend the talks next month.

"It is a welcome development if it is genuine," said Farah, adding "I don't, however, believe it is genuine."

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