---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 06:22:07 -0700
From: David Mozer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: wa-afr <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [wa-afr] FW: SOMALIA: Peace conference passes new charter
[2000717]
-----Original Message-----
From: IRIN Africa English Service
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of IRIN
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2000 5:01 AM
To: IRIN - English Service
Subject: SOMALIA: Peace conference passes new charter [2000717]
SOMALIA: Peace conference passes new charter
DJIBOUTI, 16 July (IRIN) - The Djibouti-hosted Somali National Peace
Conference adopted a Transitional National Charter at the weekend,
conference sources told IRIN on Monday.
They said the charter was adopted on Saturday by an overwhelming majority
of participants at the conference. It provides for a three-year
transitional government, based on a federal system, with a transitional
national assembly (TNA) elected on the basis of clan. It also provides for
the establishment of a transitional judiciary system, validating the 1960
Somali constitution and "other laws not in contradiction with the
charter", a source said.
After the new charter was read to the conference by Mohamed Warsame
Kinico, speaker for the Drafting Committee, and passed around 5:00 p.m.,
people sang the national anthem and celebrated. "The mood was very
excited, and optimistic", an observer told IRIN.
The charter stipulates that once the three-year transitional period is
over, the elected TNA "shall transfer itself into a constitutional
assembly after twelve months". Other provisions in the new charter include
moves to restore security, the collection of illegal arms, and the storing
of confiscated arms, as well as the rehabilitation of the faction
militias. After establishing the transitional government, factions will
cease to function and laws will be drawn up governing the formation and
operation of political parties. It also includes clauses on land
redistribution and the establishment of a human rights commission.
But the sources said there had been so far no decision on where the new
transitional government will be based. In the charter, Mogadishu remains
the capital of the Somalia, but Baidoa may be used for the first six
months in order to "prepare" Mogadishu, which was devastated during a
decade of civil war and still suffers insecurity - for the arrival of the
new authority.
More than 2,500 delegates are participating at the conference in Arta, 30
km south of the capital, Djibouti. Although scheduled to conclude with the
election of a president and prime minister by 15 July, the conference has
only just broken political deadlock to agree on the method of election for
the TNA.
Despite reports that Mogadishu-based faction leader, Hussein Mohamed
Aideed, had arrived on Friday, officials said one of his top aides,
Hussein Siad Farah, also known as "Qor Gab", was in Djibouti at the
weekend to pave the way for his arrival. Sources in Djibouti told IRIN
that the Djibouti government arranging air transport for Aideed.
[ENDS]
[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail:
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2000
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