UN Special Representative for Somalia to Visit European Capitals in Continued Quest for Peace

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Nairobi - 31 August 2005: After reviewing the situation in Somalia with leaders in Egypt and Ethiopia, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Somalia (SRSG), Francois Lonseny Fall, will travel to several European capitals next week to continue his quest for a peaceful solution to differences within the Somali Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs). He will leave Nairobi on Sunday for London, followed by visits to Stockholm, Rome and Brussels, the EC/EU headquarters.

Mr. Fall announced his plans from Addis Ababa this afternoon where he met with the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi . He met in Cairo on Sunday with the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit and later, with the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Amre Moussa. While in Ethiopia, he also met with the Chairman of the Commission of the African Union, Alpha Omar Konare. The SRSG and Mr. Konare highlighted the need for dialogue among the Somali leaders.

After meeting with Prime Minister Zenawi today, Mr. Fall said it was important to reach consensus on the location of the TFIs within Somalia as soon as possible. He said PM Zenawi agreed with him that any rifts that existed within the TFIs, could not be solved by military means. “Agreement through dialogue is the only acceptable course”, he said.

Mr. Fall is in close contact with leaders of the TFIs in the hope that he can be helpful to them in resolving their differences. Somali President, Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed and his Prime Minister, Ali Mohammed Gedi, maintain that Mogadishu is not secure and that the seat of government should be temporarily established in Jowhar and Baidoa until the Capital can be made safe. The Speaker of the Parliament, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, some cabinet members and a large number of Parliamentarians, insist that conditions are adequate for the Government to relocate to Mogadishu.

In his continuing efforts to foster dialogue, Mr. Fall met in Nairobi, Kenya with the Speaker on 17 and 24 August. He met separately with Prime Minister Gedi on 18 August and President Yusuf on 19 August. Mr. Fall met with President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), on 10 June and visited Djibouti for talks with President Ismail Omar Guelleh on 29 June. He also remains in close contact with the Kenyan authorities.

For more information please contact: UN Political Office for Somalia(Nairobi, Kenya) Tel. +254 20 762 21 31 Please visit: www.UN-Somalia.org