30 April 2001
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Ethiopia and Sudan Monday advocated an "all-inclusive" approach to national reconciliation in Somalia, which has been without a government since the ousting of the late Mohammed Siad Barre in January 1991.
"This is the stand of last month's summit in Khartoum of the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD)," Ethiopian Foreign minister Seyoum Mesfin and his Sudanese counterpart, Mustafa Osman Ismail told a joint press conference in Addis Ababa.
Mustafa said Somalia's traditional government of Abdigasim Salad Hassan was not "willing" to receive a delegation recently sent to Mogadishu to sound off proposals for bringing faction leaders to the peace process.
He made it clear that if lasting peace was to prevail in Somalia, all factions must be involved.
Ethiopian Foreign minister Seyoum Mesfin reckoned it was better to have a "bad" government in Somalia than none, noting that what was at stake for Ethiopia and other IGAD member states was security and stability in the sub-region.
"For Somalia to have a national government and genuine reconciliation, the ARTA group and other factional and regional leaders should be brought together to complete the peace process," Seyoum implored.
The Sudanese Foreign minister is in Addis Ababa for the 5th session of a joint ministerial commission on cooperation between Ethiopia and Sudan, that opened Monday.
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