Abera W. Kidan
10 February 2008
Addis Ababa — Mediation efforts by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan aimed at ending the violence in Kenya must be given the due support, Foreign Ministr Seyoum Mesfin said on Friday.
The former U.N. chief is leading efforts to end violence in the East African country.
And Seyoum is leading vsiting East African foreign ministers who threw their weight behind Annan on Friday after the Kenyan opposition accused the bloc of trying to launch separate talks to undermine him.
According to the Reuters news agency, Seyoum was speaking on behalf of his colleagues from the regional IGAD bloc.
Seyoum said said they were visiting to show solidarity with Kenyans over the bloodshed and endorse Annan's mediation efforts.
The minister said that since Annan was acting under an African Union mandate, IGAD and all nations on the continent have to submit to its authority.
"We said proliferation of initiatives have not helped anywhere and they are not either to help here in the Kenyan case," Seyoum was quoted as telling a news conference after they held talks with Kibaki, opposition officials and Annan.
IGAD's member nations have had bad experiences on the receiving end of multiple peace initiatives, Seyoum said , referring to Somalia, Sudan and the Ethiopia-Eritrea border conflict, the Reuters report indicated.
Kenya holds the rotating chairmanship of IGAD and has goodwill in the bloc for its peace efforts in Somalia and Sudan. The turmoil in Kenya has also uprooted some 300,000 people, many living in squalid conditions and fearful of returning home, which Seyoum called "unacceptable".
Meanwhile,Kenya's feuding political parties have made progress and may reach a breakthrough within days on their major sticking point over a disputed Dec. 27 election, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Friday.
"I sincerely hope that we will conclude our work on item three, the settlement of the political issues, by early next week," Annan told the BBC World.
"We are all agreed a political settlement is necessary with a little patience and a bit of luck," he added, without giving details on the progress made.
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