SOMALIA: SRRC opposes Harmonisation Committee
NAIROBI, 2 APRIL 2003 (IRIN) - The Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) has strongly objected to the recent creation of a Harmonisation Committee (HC) by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development's (IGAD) Technical Committee steering the Somali peace talks being held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, according to a senior SRRC member.

The SRRC co-chairman, Ambassador Abdullahi Shaykh Isma'il, told IRIN that his group objected to the unilateral manner in which the IGAD Technical Committee had created this HC, which "is a breach of the agreed upon Conference Rules of Procedure". The establishment of the HC had been announced "without consultation and approval" of the Leaders' Committee, he said.

The role of the HC will be to coordinate the work of the peace conference's six working committees and come up with one report.