Siraj Wahab & Samir Al-Saadi, Arab News
Monday, September 17, 2007
 King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan with Somali leaders at the signing of the Somali peace agreement in Jeddah on Sunday. (AN photo by Marwan Al-Johani)  |
The signing ceremony took place at the Conference Palace here and the signatories included President Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed, Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi and Parliament Speaker Adam Mohamed Nur.
“I am very happy to welcome you in your second country, Saudi Arabia, and we congratulate you for reaching a historic and honorable agreement that will save Somalia from its tragedy,” the king told the assembled guests and delegates from Somalia.
The king reminded the Somali leaders of the importance of implementing the accord. “All articles of the agreement and its rules should be strictly followed and serious efforts made to implement them. I am confident that you are capable of making this agreement work.”
The agreement was signed at the concluding session of the Somali reconciliation conference, which was held at the Conference Palace in the presence of Crown Prince Sultan and other senior Saudi officials. The reconciliation conference in Mogadishu was held to end infighting among Somali factions that has wracked the East African country ever since the ouster of President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The Islamist-led opposition, which held its own conference in Eritrea last week, boycotted the conference.
In his speech at last night’s ceremony, President Ahmed thanked the Kingdom for its efforts to lift Somalia out of its present situation. He underscored the deep-rooted relations between Saudi Arabia and Somalia and thanked African countries for providing support against opposition groups, whom he described as dissidents. He said about 3,000 people had taken part in the Mogadishu conference.
“No to war, yes to peace. No to bloodshed and yes to reconciliation,” said the Somali president amid thunderous applause from the 400 tribesmen and tribeswomen representing different clans.
Although from the same country, every single participant displayed the disparate colors of the nation by donning a unique attire. Some had colorful caps, others had colorful turbans and the women wore colorful abayas.
The conference hall was filled with Somali delegates, who punctuated the speeches of the Somalia president and the prime minister with their unique clapping style.
As soon as King Abdullah entered the hall all the delegates were on their feet with their hands raised in accolade. The king responded in his trademark style and the signing ceremony began.
The Somalis said that Saudi Arabia is a very important country to them because of the Kingdom’s help at difficult times. The president, premier and the speaker showered fulsome praise on the king for taking a leading role in bringing the Somalis together.
The president said: “We need Arab and African peacekeeping forces in our country under the aegis of the United Nations. Peace in Somalia is paramount because a lot of security issues in other countries of the region are directly linked with security in Somalia.”
Premier Gedi said: “We have seen enough bloodshed. We are still in this swamp and we want to get out of this miserable situation, and the coming together of all the tribes is indicative of their yearning for peace.
“His (the king’s) heart beats for the Muslim Ummah, and because Somalia is a Muslim country and Saudi Arabia is linked to Somalia by the thread of religion, the king has great interest in seeing peace reign in our country. He’s a man of peace and we came at his call to listen to his advice, and to his instructions and directives. He’s the leader of the Muslim world and his word is law to us,” the premier said.
Later in a statement, Saudi Arabia urged the Somali groups to abide by the agreement and support the assurances given by the Somali president on replacing foreign forces with Arab and African forces under the supervision of the United Nations.
Source: Arab News, Sept 17, 2007