14 Somali Factions Sign Cease-Fire Agreement

Leaders of Somalia’s warring factions signed a cease-fire agreement Friday, but prospects for a conference to rebuild the country’s shattered government remained cloudy.

The 14 factions, in the largest such gathering since their country disintegrated two years ago, could not agree on who should attend the conference, tentatively scheduled for March 15 in Addis Ababa. The factions referred that dispute to a committee.

The cease-fire, signed by all 14 groups, calls for militias’ heavy arms to be placed under control of the U.S.-led military force now in Somalia. This is to be completed by early March, but Western diplomats, U.N. officials and Somalis expressed strong doubts that Somali gunmen will surrender the weapons that give them power.

The cease-fire, to take effect immediately, also calls for militias to withdraw to camps.

With telecommunications crippled in Somalia, it was unclear how quickly the leaders here could relay word of the agreement to their forces. Also unclear was how the cease-fire would affect the many gunmen who are not part of any militia, or who operate under only the loosest of controls.

Mohammed Farah Aidid, whose objections about who should be invited to the national reconciliation talks in March held up adoption of the final statement, said the talks here were “the most difficult in Somalia’s history.”

Aidid wanted special status at the scheduled talks, reflecting his role in helping to topple President Mohamed Siad Barre in January, 1991.

The overthrow of Siad Barre was the watershed in Somalia’s history. The country plunged from poverty to anarchy when the rebels who toppled him turned on each other in clan warfare.

The Addis Ababa talks, organized by the United Nations and opened by Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, split the 14 factions between three groups loyal to Aidid and 11 aligned with archrival Ali Mahdi Mohamed.

Ethiopian officials, anxious to see some kind of law and order restored to their eastern neighbor, helped mediate among the Somali factions. President Meles Zenawi intervened several times to save the session from collapse.