The first Somali Parliament since the fall of President Mohamed Siad Barre was inaugurated yesterday in Somalia, after almost a decade of civil war. Somalia has lacked a central government since Barre was ousted by opposition leaders in 1991.
     Djibouti President Ismael Omar Guelleh and UN envoy David Stephen joined Djibouti government officials and diplomats at the opening of the transitional assembly. The 245 legislators, nominated after long-standing negotiations, were to be sworn in yesterday (Agence France-Presse/Kuala Lumpur Star, 14 Aug).
     "This will put an end to violence," said Ismael Mahamoud Barreh as he waited to be sworn in as a new legislator. "There is no war in the country, there's just some banditry because of a lack of police and central authority."
     Stephen said the Somalis have come a long way to establish the assembly but said there is still more work to be done. "The magnitude of the task of rebuilding this country without a government for 10 years cannot be underestimated -- it's massive," he said. "No other country in the world has had no central authority for so long" (Associated Press/Toronto Globe and Mail, 13 Aug).
     The first major task of the Parliament, which has a three-year mandate, is to appoint a president. So far, there are 10 potential candidates for the post (AFP/Kuala Lumpur Star).
     But the transitional Parliament is not without its share of problems, since the assembly is riddled with factional disputes. Some Somali warlords have refused to support the Parliament and threatened to prevent it from taking up a permanent home in the capital of Mogadishu. One factional leader was quoted threatening to send militia to prevent the delegates from returning to Somalia.
     "We shall exercise maximum readiness to avoid infiltration by sympathizers of the Djibouti conference, whose aim is to destabilize Somalia," said Hossein Mohammed Aideed.
     Since the collapse of the Barre regime, there have been 12 failed attempts to restore Somalia's central government (BBC Online, 13 Aug).