Military

DATE=8/29/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=SOMALIA/POLITICS (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-318571

BYLINE=CATHY MAJTENYI

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT=

HEADLINE: Somalia's New Parliament Is Inaugurated

INTRO: Somalia's new parliament was inaugurated Sunday at a ceremony in Kenya's capital. Cathy Majtenyi reports from Nairobi.

TEXT: /// SOMALI SINGING, EST. AND FADE ///

The halls of the United Nations complex in Nairobi where the inauguration ceremony was being held rang out with the voices of members of parliament, delegates and negotiators as they sang Somalia's national anthem.

The singers, one of whom had wrapped herself in the Somali flag, then took to the stage, before the more than 50 remaining members of the nation's new parliament were sworn in.

A member of parliament for Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, Mariam Gassim, told VOA what Sunday's inauguration meant for her and her colleagues.

/// GASSIM ACT ///

"Today means for me life again. Today, it's (a) very important day for everybody in Somalia and out of Somalia. We are very, very happy to have again a parliament, and we hope that it will be recognized by all the whole world."

/// END ACT ///

Most of the 275 members of parliament were present at Sunday's ceremony, attended by dignitaries such as Kenyan Vice President Moody Awori.

The previous Sunday, more than 200 parliamentarians were sworn in, but disagreements -- primarily among the Darod ethnic clan about who should represent them -- delayed the swearing in of the rest of the group.

The parliamentarians are now expected to select a president and speaker of the house. Officials estimate this will take about a month.

The United Nations secretary-general's representative for Somalia, Winston Tubman, said the Somali peace process is now, in his words, "irreversible."

He also says the success of Somalia's "all-inclusive" government will rest in large part on how well it is received by other governments and international bodies.

/// TUBMAN ACT ///

"They should give up help to set the government up in Mogadishu, make it possible for that government, as quickly as possible, to deliver the things that governments should deliver. The ordinary Somali should be able to see from day one to the next that there is a government in charge, that it's doing the kinds of things that no one has been able to do in Somalia for a long time, and that it is recognized and treated as a government by the international community."

/// END ACT ///

The ceremony is the culmination of two years of peace talks aimed at ending more than a decade of lawlessness and anarchy in Somalia.

/// OPT REST /// Four years ago, similar peace talks held in Djibouti resulted in a new transitional national government for Somalia. But on the ground, the government was able to rule only certain areas of the country.

Some 23 factional leaders control different parts of Somalia thorough their militias. Sources close to the talks privately say, unless these factions and others are disarmed and demobilized, the new government may not be able to rule the whole country. (SIGNED)

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