BBC MONITORING INTERNATIONAL REPORTS: SOMALIA: PLANS UNDER WAY FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

100% match; BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom ; 16-Feb-2000 12:00:00 am ; 209 words
Text of report by Somali newspaper 'Xog-Ogaal' on 16th February

Reliable reports from important sources in Djibouti say a national Somali government is to be formed in the forthcoming national reconciliation conference on Somalia scheduled to take place in Djibouti in May 2000. The conference will elect a president and a prime minister.

The prime minister will not appoint his ministers until foreign forces are deployed in Somalia. Reports say the foreign forces will be drawn from IGAD [Inter-Governmental Authority on Development] and Arab countries. However the Ethiopian government and some other regional governments are proposing that the forces should come only from IGAD member countries.

Further reports say that the Ethiopian government had proposed that any deployment of foreign forces should be in Jubbada Hoose, Jubbada Dhexe, Shabeellaha Hoose, Shabeellaha Dhexe and Banaadir Region [Mogadishu and environs] only while Arab countries say if at all foreign forces are to be deployed in Somalia then they should be deployed in all regions of Somalia and not in selected regions.

The foreign forces, which are to be deployed in Somalia prior to the formation of a central government in Somalia, are meant to ensure that security in Somalia is maintained. After the deployment of the foreign forces the prime minister will name his cabinet and a meeting will be held in Mogadishu.

Source: 'Xog-Ogaal', Mogadishu, in Somali 16 Feb 00 p 2