Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh
Ahmed, left, attends the new parliament's swearing-in ceremony with UN
special representative Augustine Mahiga.
A dusty seaside car park with black folding chairs was the makeshift setting on Monday for the first parliament to sit in Somalia for more than two decades.
About
250 MPs wearing new ID tags and, in some cases, the scent of cologne
were sworn in by the chief justice on worn copies of the Qur'an in front
of Somalia's national flag of a white star on sky blue background.
It
was a day that many hope will mark a new chapter after the civil war
and bloodshed that followed the collapse of central government in 1991.
But sceptics warn that the process is already tainted and prone to
unravel.
The inauguration was held at the main airport, one of the
most heavily secured areas of the capital, Mogadishu, watched over by
African Union peacekeepers in armoured Casspir personnel carriers.
Just
over a year after the militant Islamist group al-Shabaab was driven out
of the city, suicide bombings and assassinations remain a constant
threat.
Although ordinary citizens could not vote, there was
campaigning in Mogadishu, with election posters hanging on buildings and
from cars, a scene scarcely imaginable when it was a war zone.
By
the end of the day, Somalia had achieved a parliament, still some way
short of the final target of 275 members.
There should also have been a
new president and speaker but, in a transition process that has taken a
year longer than the original 2011 deadline, the international community
has had to lower expectations.
The Guardian la Uingereza
No comments:
Post a Comment