The leaders of political movements of South/Southwest Regions of Somalia held a close door Meeting

The leaders of political movements of South and Southwest Regions of Somalia held a close door Meeting in El-Barde.

El-Barde Jan 22, 2001 (BP)-The leaders of political movements of South and Southwest Regions of Somalia held a close door Meeting in El-Barde in Bakol Region to discuss pressing political and security issues in their Region The political movements include: RRA, SPM, SNF and SSNM. A Puntland delegation led by State President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed also attended the Meeting.

The Agenda of the Meeting includes:

A-Local regional peace-making and reconciliation among the communities of the six regions Bay, Bakol, Lower Shabelle, Gedo, Middle and Lower Juba;

B- Establishment of self-governing regional state (s);

C-Security issues arising out of the forceful occupatin by non-native militias and the new threats of destabilization by the Arta faction in Mogadishu;

D-All inclusive national reconciliation based on the principles of building Blocks approach and Federal System of Government in Somalia.In their opening statement, the leaders condemned the armed aggression, naked destabilization acts and provocations of the Arta faction in all regions of the country and the wider sub-region.

The leaders expressed their alarm at the United Nations Secretariat's open partiality for the Arta faction in its aggression and destabilization conduct.The leaders welcome the the ongoing meeting of Political leaders in Mogdishu and their steadfast opposition to the unrepresentative Arta Faction and calls for an early all-inclusive reconciliation conference to Discuss realistic and practical steps to restore inter-community trust, National unity and a central federal government.

The speakers further expressed dismay at the misguided
and biased Support by Arab countries, particularly Yemen ,Sudan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The leaders remainded the UN, and these Arab States That their continuing unbalanced political and financial support for the Arta faction will re-ignite the civil war in Somalia.

The Meeting called on the international community and,
particularly IGAD and the frontline States, to forestall a renewed conflict of greater proportions in Somalia and to reinvigorate their effort in peace and the reconcilliation process.

The leader seize this opportunity to express their gratitude and appreciation for the governments and peoples of Ethiopia and Kenya for their positive and necessary role in Somali reconciliation and for
their generous hospitality for hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees in their respective countries.


Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur
Chairman of the El-Barde Meeting &
Acting Chairman of RRA