Sunday, September 16, 2007
The 410-member delegation includes the premier, parliamentary speaker and the president of the U.N.-backed transitional federal government, said Abdullahi Codka, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's office.
They joined other officials and delegates from a recent Somali reconciliation conference to travel to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, he said. The officials will travel to two mosques to pray and take an oath for implementing resolutions to come out of recent peace talks.
Much of Somalia, especially the capital, is wracked by violence between the U.N.-backed government and their Ethiopian allies, and Islamic insurgents. On Thursday, a new rebel alliance dedicated to fighting the Ethiopians was formed from Islamic fighters, civil society activists, renegade parliamentarians and Somali expatriates.
The Mogadishu daily newspaper Xog Ogal reported Sunday that Saudi Arabia wanted to mediate between the government officials and the new alliance, but Codka denied the report.
"It is a baseless report. Saudi Arabia supports the peace process and the outcome of the Somali reconciliation conference. This is the reason why it invites the top delegation," he said.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords united to overthrow dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other. Thousands of Somalis have been killed in the violence this year alone, which is complicated by clan politics and the involvement of several other Horn of Africa countries.
Source: AP, Sept 16, 2007