- Title: [SW News]HARGEISA, June 16 (AFP) Djibouti meeting on Somalia peace a security
threat: Somaliland.
- From: []
- Date: [16 Jun 2000]
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Date: 16
Jun 2000
Djibouti meeting on Somalia peace a security threat:
Somaliland
HARGEISA, Somalia, June 16 (AFP) - The meeting in Djibouti on the Somali
peace process is "hostile" and aimed at "undermining" the prevailing
peace
in the self-declared Republic of Somaliland in northwest Somalia,
officials here said Thursday.
Somaliland's information minister Ali Mohamed Waran'ade told AFP that
the outcome of the Djibouti conference on Somalia would not be welcomed in
Somaliland.
Waran'ade accused Djibouti of underming the "integrity and sovereignty"
of Somaliland, which seceded from the rest of Somalia in May 1991 but has
yet to be recognised by the international community.
"Djibouti invited splinter groups to represent Somaliland and wanted to
drag us into more chaos. We can loudly say that the conference is hostile
to us, peace and independence," Waran'ade charged.
The Djibouti conference, the 13th of its kind initiated by Djibouti
President Ismail Omar Guelleh, opened its second phase on Thursday at
Arta, 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Djibouti, to elect a parliament
which will select an interim president.
But Waran'ade said that the latest Guelleh peace proposals would ignite
renewed hostilities in Somalia and vowed to defend the unilateral
declaration of Somaliland's independence.
"If the participants of the Arta meeting establish an administration
which maintains Somaliland as part of Somalia, we would then react
aggressively," Waran'ade warned.
The Somali peace meeting, which started on May 2, has attracted
considerable support from the international community and Somalia's civil
society, but has been bitterly opposed by the principal warlords in the
Horn of Africa.
Warlords Hussein Mohamed Aidid, Osman Hassan Ali Atto, Musa Sudi Yalahow
and Mohamed Qanyare Afrah -- each controlling parts of the divided
Somali capital Mogadishu -- have rejected Guelleh's plan.
The Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA) faction, which controls the Bay and
Bakol regions, and the regional state of "Puntland" in northeast Somalia
have also rejected Guelleh's initiative.
But at a speech delivered to delegates on Thursday, Guelleh urged the
meeting to come up with a government that would serve the interests of
Somalia.
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