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KHARTOUM: A Somali minister said on Wednesday war in his country appeared likely and talks between the government and Islamists were postponed with mediators urging the Horn of Africa nation's rivals to exercise restraint.
After both sides failed to meet face-to-face in three days of Arab League-sponsored discussions in Sudan, the Islamists called for a delay and an international fact-finding mission to be sent to the chaotic country to resolve “fundamental issues”.
Mediators including the Arab League, European Union and African Union said in a statement that more consultation was needed and urged both parties to exercise full restraint.
The international community was committed “to continue assisting (them) in sustaining their talks in Khartoum as soon as possible upon consultation with all the parties”, it said.
“The parties are urged to exercise full restraint and commit themselves to previous agreements,” including ceasing military and media campaigns and respecting principles of peaceful coexistence and non-interference in others' internal affairs.
The government's foreign minister, Ismail Hurre Buba, had earlier denounced the Islamists as no longer partners for peace.
“I think it's more likely than not … that is a miscalculation that maybe the Islamists are making,” he told Reuters in London when asked whether war was likely.
“These are people who want the area to explode,” he added, referring to the Islamists. “I'm sure that the Somali people will join together to end this kind of madness.”
The head of the Arab League delegation, Samir Hosni, said a new timetable for talks would be announced in “a week or two”.
The third round of discussions in Khartoum had been seen as the best chance of averting more conflict in Somalia.
But the efforts of a posse of diplomats from the Arab League, Europe, the United Nations and the east African regional body IGAD made little or no headway.
“WAR SITUATION”
The Islamists had arrived saying there would be no talks at all unless Ethiopian troops they say are in Somalia to prop up the fragile, Western-backed government were withdrawn.
The head of the Islamist team, Ibrahim Hussein Adow, praised the postponement and denied his side was planning any attack.
“There was a gap between the parties and substantial issues, so it was necessary to adjourn,” he told reporters. “We are not preparing nor planning for any confrontation. We want peace.”
His government counterpart said he would comment on Thursday, but one government delegate, member of parliament Ahmed Omar Gagale, told Reuters: “It is an opportunity lost.”
The Islamist's Adow had earlier called for the talks to be delayed “because Ethiopia has declared war and invaded Somalia … We are in a war situation and Ethiopia has initiated this”.
The government and Mogadishu-based Islamists are vying for control of the nation, sunken in anarchy since the 1991 toppling of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
The Islamists sprang from a union of Islamic sharia courts and came to prominence after defeating U.S.-backed warlords in Mogadishu in June.
The government of President Abdullahi Yusuf, a former warlord and colonel in the Somali army whom diplomats say may favour a military solution, insists it has the international recognition and legal right to rule the country of 10 million.
But its power on the ground pales to the Islamists, whose disciplined fighters have taken much of south and central Somalia and imposed strict sharia law.
Security experts believe Addis Ababa has sent about 5,000 soldiers to help Somalia's government. Ethiopia insists it has only several hundred armed military trainers in Somalia.
Analysts say a war between the militarily superior Islamists and the government could draw in Ethiopia and its archrival Eritrea, inflaming long-held regional grudges.
(Additional reporting by Peter Graff in London and Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu)
