United States Urges Return to Somali Peace Talks
03 November 2006
Says third round of talks offers most hopeful course forward
Washington -- The Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and the Transitional Federal Institutions (TFI) should return to a third round of peace talks for Somalia without conditions, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said November 2.
Responding to reporters' questions at the regular State Department press briefing, McCormack said, "We believe -- the Islamic Courts placed some conditions" on the third round of talks, which were set to begin in Khartoum, Sudan, October 30. "We don't think that those are appropriate. ... We think that they should return to the talks without condition." (See related article.)
McCormack acknowledged that an "extremely difficult situation" exists currently in Somalia. "This is a country that has been wracked by violence for two decades," he said. "It's very sad."
He said, however, "The most hopeful course forward … begins with the Transitional Federal Institutions and the Islamic Courts coming together" to discuss their differences.
"We don't believe that the Islamic Courts are a monolithic institution; there are a variety of different factions within the Islamic Courts that are vying … to control what path the Islamic Courts will take."
For that reason, he said, "we are trying to encourage a political discussion, as opposed to the kinds of … ways that disputes in Somalia have been for the past two decades resolved via use of violence. We would advocate resolving any differences through the -- through negotiations, coming together around the table." (See related article.)
U.S. CONCERNED ABOUT POSSIBLE TERRORIST LINKS, WIDER VIOLENCE
Asked about various factions inside the Islamic Courts Union, McCormack said the United States has "concerns about the presence of terrorist elements in Somalia that have links to terrorist elements outside of Somalia. … That's a great concern for us," he added.
Expanding on that point, McCormack said: "There's a variety of different stripes of individuals who have different views on the use of violence and the mixture of violence in politics in Somalia. I can't get into a long discussion trying to talk about where everybody fits in that particular spectrum. But … for us, the greatest concern is those terrorist elements that have links to outside terrorist groups."
Additionally, McCormack expressed concern that the current situation in Somalia "might lend itself to wider violence in the region." He said the United States is "doing everything that we can to see that that does not happen. We would call upon Somalia's neighbors to play a positive role in Somalia and not use the situation in Somalia as a way to further destabilize the situation there."
The peace talks were called in an attempt to reduce tensions between Somalia's Islamists -- represented by the Islamic Courts Union -- and its Transitional Federal Institutions -- which includes the country's transitional government in Baidoa.
The ICU currently controls most of southern and central Somalia. The country's transitional government is based in Baidoa, a city located northwest of the central coastal city of Mogadishu. The third-round talks were set to begin October 30 but were reported to have collapsed November 1 before they got under way.
The Khartoum-based talks were set to be mediated by the Arab League and Kenya, which currently holds the presidency of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a group of seven East African nations that brokered the formation of the government in 2004.
Somalia has been without a fully functioning central government since 1991 when the government of Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown. (See related article.)
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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