Att: H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni,
President of the Republic of Uganda
And Chairman of IGAD

Att: H. E. Mwai Kibaki
President of the Republic of Kenya

Att: Excellencies IGAD Head of states.

Att: Chairman of IGAD Ministerial Committee.
Att: Chairman of IGAD Facilitation Committee.
Att: IGAD Secretariat, Djibouti
Att: IGAD Partners Forum (IPF).
Att: The Secretary Generals of U.N; A.U. and Arab League

Statement by Somali Leaders' Committee
Mbagathi, April 27, 2004.

We would like to bring to your Excellencies attention and other involved stakeholders that this Conference was successfully concluded on September 15, 2003 (Adoption of Transitional Federal Charter). It is, therefore our view that runners with strange agenda deliberately sowed the seeds of sedition to its current scrape. Our diligent stay in the Conference for the last 18 months clearly shows our perseverance and genuine commitment towards finding a workable solution for the plight that has befallen upon our nation.
As the Leaders' Committee of SRRC, TNG-Origin, Regional Administration and Civil Society; we have been surprised and once more deeply bothered by the statement of Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kenya, regarding the Somali National Reconciliation Conference, dated April 23, 2004.

To our dismay, this proposed roadmap does not take into account the substantive issues that plague the continuation of the Somali Peace Process. The roadmap is neither conciliatory nor a catalyst in sewing the messy affairs of this conference. It is full of contradictory statements and stratum of interdependent pledges with discretionary dates. Anomalous adventures inform it to the detriment of shoring up the distraught Peace Process. It undermines the role of the official delegates (366) who were the bedrock of this Conference from inception. At the same time the roadmap anticipates the fresh assemblage of unknown and unofficial proposed delegates (constituent politicians) to be selected by traditional elders and political leaders who are yet to come to the conference and who oppose the whole thrust of the proposal.

This clearly implies that the conference is being reassigned back to the boardroom for a new beginning as the very criteria of representation, which has been dealt with in Phase I, is now open to question. Yet, under the same breath the statement talks about the beginning of Phase III. If the criteria of representation (Phase I) is subject to revision, and the number of the delegates stipulated by the charter (Phase II) are now reducible, it clearly indicates that we do not have a final closure handy in neither of these historic achievements by the Conference. It only follows therefore, that this roadmap does not sway minds in its claim of auguring the beginning of Phase III.

It talks about financial constraint and budgetary deficit that made the reduction of the number of delegates inevitable and the arbitrary dates workable. The message is loud and clear that we are overstayed guests here as IGAD has depleted the financial resources that were available for our provisions. While we can be persuaded that money alone might be the rationale behind the ills of this Process, it is a hard sell that money can also be the single cure of this Conference.

Since the ownership of the whole process is not in our hands but driven by impositions of instructive statements, the tents of the roadmap concur with what we have been asserting all along that IGAD is in the plot of sidetracking the formation of a broad-based government in Somalia. We are under the impression that securing more funds for the process would not have been a problem had it not been the management of IGAD playing a ricochet game in facilitating the proceedings of the Conference. Even if one vouches for that argument, it is enough reason to impulsively imperil whatever has been achieved thus far.

With these concerns in mind, the way forward can be thought of within the confines of the following options:

1. Continue the peace process:

a) By first solving the differences among the various groups in the draft rules of procedure for the conference. It isn't true that all parties of the conference participated in the drafting of the rules of procedure. I.e. No signatory of this statement submitted any draft-rules of procedure to the special envoy.
b) Then move to phase three and begin the distribution of the parliamentary seats (275) to the sub-clans followed by the selection of the members of the parliament by the Leaders and The politicians originally and officially invited by IGAD and endorsed by the genuine traditional leaders. This will not affect the timetable of the roadmap.

2. If IGAD facilitation committee can't comply with the above option, it is our believe that the Peace Process can not be successfully concluded in its current venue, since the IGAD Facilitation Committee is incapable of employing their good offices for solving the sticky problems that confront the Somali Talks. We therefore have no choice but to request IGAD member states and the International community to rescue the Peace Talks and move the remaining Phase to an acceptable venue.

Yours Sincerely,

The LIST OF SOMALI LEADERS COMMITTEE

_______________________ _________________________
Hassan Abshir Farah, Abdallah Derow Issak,
TNG Prime Minister TNA Speaker of the Parliament

_____________________________
Sharif Salah Mohamed Ali
Chairman of Civil Society Groups

__________________ ____________________
Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed Eng. Hussein M. Farah Aideed
President of Puntland State Co-Chairman of SRRC

_______________________ ______________________
Abdullahi Sheik Ismail Hilowle Imam Omar
Co-Chairman of SRRC Co-Chairman of SSRC

_______________________ ______________________
Ahmed Sheikh Mohamed (Lohos) Col. Hassan Mohamed Nur
Current- Co-Chairman of SRRC Co-Chairman of SRRC
_______________________ _______________________
Abdulaziz Sheik Yusuf Mohamed Adan Wayel
Chairman SSNM/SNA/SRRC Chairman SPM/SRRC/Nakuru

_____________________ _ _______________________
Col. Hassan Abdulle Qalad Mohamud Sayid Adan
Chairman of HPA/SRRC Chairman of SNF/SRRC ____ _______________________ ________________________
Gen. Mohamed S. Hersi (Morgan) Mohamed Omar Habeb (Dhere)
Chairman of SPM/SRRC Chairman of Jowhar Admin.

________________________ ____________________
Mohamed Osman Maye Sheikh Adan Mohmed Nur
Chairman SANU/SRRC Chairman RRA/SRRC