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NAIROBI (AFP) - Kenya's Foreign Minister, Bonaya Godana, Friday hailed the election of a president in lawless neighboring Somalia and urged faction leaders opposed to the peace process there to cooperate with the new leadership. "Somalia may have put the worst behind it. We urge those still outside [the reconciliation process] to come on board," Godana told a news conference here. He said Kenya was "exerting pressure" on the warlords opposed to last week's election of Abdoulkassim Salat Hassan as Somalia's first president since 1991. Salat was elected by a parliament formed in Arta, Djibouti, earlier this month as part of a process brokered by Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh and aimed at restoring law and order in Somalia. "Guelleh's initiative is IGAD's [the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development] and we would have wished that it had the concurrence of all parties," said Godana. IGAD had mandated Djibouti to seek a solution to Somalia's political imbroglio. The country has lacked a central government since the 1991 overthrow of Mohamed Siad Barre, and has been ruled by clan-based factions since then. Godana said that "the single most important factor" in the success of the Djibouti-sponsored peace process for Somalia was that the Somali people had become "war-fatigued". He said Guelleh "harnessed the yearning for peace" to convene the reconciliation conference which elected Salat. Several principal Somali warlords have declared their opposition to the Djibouti peace initiative, as have the leaders of the breakaway republic of Somaliland and the regional state of Puntland. Godana said Kenya subscribed to the "universal recognition of Somalia's territorial integrity". Whether Somaliland and Puntland join the peace process will depend on the style of leadership of the new leadership in Somalia, he added. |
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