IRIN Web Special: Somali National Peace Conference

Letter from the SNA Chairman, Hussein Mohamed Aideed, to Djibouti President Ismael Omar Gelleh

NAIROBI, 24 July (IRIN) - Following is the text of a letter, obtained by IRIN, from Hussein Mohamed Aideed, the Mogadishu-based faction leader of the Somali National Alliance (SNA), to Djibouti President Ismael Omar Gelleh. The letter, which was printed in local newspapers, followed the visit of a high-level Djibouti delegation to Mogadishu. The delegation, led by presidential political advisor Osman Ahmad Yousuf, had come to persuade Aideed to attend the Djibouti-hosted Somali National Peace Conference, due to conclude on 30 July with the election of a government, prime minister and president.

The text of the letter:

Your excellency, President Ismael Omar Gelleh,

On behalf of the SNA alliance, the Somali people and on my own behalf I would like to send you warm greetings. We thank you for sending us a special delegation which displayed enormous openness and goodwill during our discussions.

I do not hesitate to state that members of the delegation had appreciated our views and feelings. They held talks with SNA leaders and attended a meeting of the Alliance at the Police Academy in Mogadishu [on 20th July].

Your excellency, the delegation conveyed your warm greetings to me, other SNA leaders and the Somali people in general. First of all, it stated the purpose of their visit to Mogadishu, to take me and SNA delegation with them to the Somali conference taking place in your Arta town.

We received your delegation with open arms and enthusiasm, and after the reception we told them that, if our concerns were taken into account, we were ready to play our role in the efforts being made by our brothers in Djibouti. We asked them to look with us into matters of principle upon which we based our refusal to attend the conference. As you know, the conference has been going on for a long time and it is coming to an end soon. Therefore will it be possible:

1. To change the transitional national charter after it has already been passed by the conference?
2. Given that all delegates attending the conference are our political rivals, and considering that the conference has already agreed on a fixed number of delegates and members of parliament, where is our place in the conference?
3. The delegates are either members of the regime of Siyad Bareh, veterans of the corrupt Somali government of the 1960s, the Manifesto or Al-Ittihad, all responsible for the destruction of the country. Is it fair to allow these people to speak on behalf of the Somali people they had betrayed and are now poised to serve in the government being planned to be set up?
4. You excluded organizations which fought for justice and toppled Bareh's regime from the conference.
5. Why should the Mogadishu status be in doubt, and Baydhabo [central Somalia] chosen as a capital? Does the granting of a capital status to Baydhabo not mean renewed fighting in the country and implementation of UNOSOM-2 policies?
6. We have spelt out our position that your government has not been neutral in the Somali affairs since 1991, when a similar conference was held in Djibouti.
7. Is it possible to postpone the conference to give time to prepare to attend it?
8. Given that the Arta conference is not broad-based, can it really be called a national Somali conference, and will the people attending it in a position to implement its outcome?
9. As we were having talks with your delegation on 19th July 2000 we learned from the media that a timetable for the setting up of a Somali government in Djibouti was out, and this proved to us that the SNA will not be able to participate in the conference.

After painstaking discussions with your delegation, it finally dawned on us that:

1. The Djibouti government will not undertake changes to the contentious issues, nor will it adopt a neutral position on Somali political affairs;
2. It was beyond the power of Osman Ahmad Yousouf delegation's to address the SNA's demands;
3. The Djibouti conference was against our declared principles.

For these reasons, the outcome of the Djibouti conference will result in: renewed fighting throughout Somalia, accelerated foreign interference in the internal affairs of Somalia, and further delay in reconciliation.

These are our views of the conference. But I must admit that we held extensive discussions with your delegation on our multi-faced views. I must also make it clear to you that we have a lot of respect for the fraternal people of Djibouti and its government.

I thank you once more for sending to us the delegation, a good move but made at the wrong time. I would also like to commend you for committing your time and resources to sending the delegation to meet us. By the way, we always respect your former president, Hasan Gouled Aptidon. He is revered Somali elder.

Please accept my warm greetings to you and the fraternal people of Djibouti.

Peace, Justice, Equality and Progress.
Eng Husayn Muhammad Aydid,
Chairman of the Somali National Alliance.