Publication

This report examines the peace process in Somalia and its crisis of statelessness. It discusses the Transitional Federal Parliament's choice for interim president, Colonel Abdillahi Yusuf Ahmed and states that to many Somalis, his election represents not a step toward peace but continuation of the war by other means. The paper holds that the status of the peace process is grim but not altogether hopeless. The president and his partners need to use their political advantage to form a genuine government of national unity, rather than attempt to impose their own agenda on the transition. The probable alternative is resumption of Somali's conflict.