SOMALIA: Religious leaders urge interim gov't to end divisions

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 24 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Senior religious leaders in Somalia have called on the country's interim government to either end the divisions that have paralysed the administration or resign, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

"It is almost a year since they have been elected and up to now they have not accomplished one thing," Shaykh Nur Barud, deputy chairman and spokesman of the Ulama Council of Somalia, told IRIN. "They are all busy attacking each other over the media."

Barud said the country needed leadership to "pull it out of the mess" it was in.

The Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs) have been divided over the location of the government within Somalia following its recent relocation from Nairobi, Kenya.

President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi and their supporters in the TFIs relocated in June from Nairobi to the town of Jowhar, 90 km north of the capital, Mogadishu. They maintain that Mogadishu must be secured before they can transfer the government there.

About 100 members of the 275-strong Transitional Federal Parliament - led by Speaker Sharif Hassan Shaykh Aden - are currently in Mogadishu attempting to restore stability to the war-scarred city.

A section of the government, including several prominent faction leaders, strongly disagreed with the decision to install the administration in Jowhar. The proposed deployment of peacekeepers, particularly from Somalia's neighbours, has also deeply divided the new government.

There have been numerous attempts by the international community and the UN to mediate an end to the divisions. Earlier this month, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Somalia, François Lonsény Fall, presented an "agenda for dialogue" to Somali leaders, aimed at helping them overcome the current differences and find a way forward.

"We are ready to mediate between the two groups," Barud said. He said the council had already talked to the Mogadishu-based group and "been encouraged by the discussions so far".

"We want to send emissaries to Jowhar once the president and the prime minister are back," he added. Both Yusuf and Gedi are currently out of Somalia.

Barud warned, however, that Somali efforts alone would not solve the problem, and called on the international community to "put pressure" on both sides to end "this petty politicking".

He added: "The People have suffered enough. They need a unified and effective government. If this group [TFIs] cannot provide it, then they should step aside and let others who can lead and deliver step in."

Somalia has had no operational government for the past 14 years, following the collapse in 1991 of the government of President Muhammad Siyad Barre. Civil war erupted in the country soon after Barre was toppled, as various factions and rival faction leaders fought for power.

The regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development - made up of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia - sponsored two years of peace talks in October 2004, culminating in the establishment of the interim government in Nairobi.

[ENDS]