Saying A Totalitarian Government Was Preferable ‎To Anarchy, Yemen’s President Saleh Pays Tribute ‎To Siyad Barre For Safeguarding Somali Unity

Aden , Yemen , January 7, 2006 (SL Times) – Yemeni president Ali Abdulla Saleh Thursday told leaders of the current two factions of the so-called Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, Abdillahi Yusuf and Sharif Hassan that a totalitarian government was preferably acceptable given the vacuum and anarchy prevailing now in Somalia .

Mr. Saleh’s remarks came as he hosted talks between the TFG’s president Abdillahi Yusuf and parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan in Aden , Yemen , that culminated in the signing of an agreement between the two factional leaders to bring an end to their differences. The agreement was signed on January 5, 2006 in the presence of president Saleh with both sides signifying their intention to work together in the future and agreeing to convene a meeting for the parliament within 30 days.

However the agreement made no reference to where the parliament will meet. It also didn’t include the relocation of the TFG to Mogadishu , as stipulated by the TFG’s national charter.

However Yemeni officials close to the talks have indicated that the two leaders deliberately avoided mentioning the venue of the seat of the government so as not to provoke the TFG’s powerful Mogadishu faction.

At the signing ceremony, President Abdulla Saleh paid tribute to Somalia ’s former dictator Siyad Barre for “at least preserving Somali unity and keeping Somalia as a state intact.”

Mr. Saleh advised his Somali guests that they should work for the re-unification of Somalia and its re-emergence as a strong state.