From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Jul 19 2008 - 18:45:23 EDT
Somali opposition endorses truce with government: spokesman
4 hours ago
DJIBOUTI (AFP) — Somalia's opposition coalition on Saturday endorsed
a truce with the country's transitional government amid efforts to end
17 years of bloodshed, a representative said.
Suleiman Olad
Roble, spokesman for the Eritrea-based Alliance for the Re-liberation
of Somalia (ARS), told AFP that a 106-strong majority of the 191 ARS
central committee members "fully endorse the agreement."
"It is a great victory for the leadership of the alliance and for those who signed the agreement," he added.
"The alliance is ready to fully implement its part of the deal and calls on the other parties to do so."
The
chief of the ARS, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and Somali Prime Minister
Nur Hassan Hussein signed agreements at United Nations-sponsored talks
in Djibouti on June 9 that included a three-month truce, which should
have come into force on July 9.
However, Ahmed told AFP earlier
on Saturday that the alliance wanted the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces
from the Horn of Africa nation and a deployment of UN forces before
implementing the Djibouti agreement.
Hardline Islamists who had
rejected the peace deal -- led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, an
influential cleric designated as a terrorist by Washington -- had yet
to comment on Saturday's endorsement, which was part of talks that run
until Thursday in Djibouti.
A desert nation of up to 10 million
people, Somalia has been wracked by violence since the 1991 ouster of
dictator Mohamed Siad Barre led to a bloody power struggle that has
defied numerous bids to restore normalcy.
Ethiopian forces came
to the rescue of an embattled Somali government in late 2006 to oust an
Islamist movement that controlled much of southern and central Somalia.
However,
these troops have been the subject of almost daily attacks, with the
violence also targeting aid workers in recent months.
Gunmen on
Thursday killed three civilians, two of whom were assisting displaced
people in camps near Mogadishu, while inter-clan fighting over access
to land, pasture and water is similarly rife and deadly.
Twelve
aid workers have been killed so far this year in Somalia, with an acute
food crisis complicated by ruthless piracy on the sea-routes where 90
percent of food aid comes in.
World Food Programme country
director for Somalia Peter Goossens told a news conference in London
that Somalia "is at a dire crossroads," with 3.5 million people
expected to need food assistance by December.
French, Danish and
Dutch naval escorts had proved invaluable over the last eight months,
he said, but the UN agency had received no commitments for further
escorts beyond June.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iB0Z18TlN-ahEYGcsw1AcruAAhew
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