By Daniel Ooko
The UN top envoy for Somalia on Sunday lauded the convening of a two-day workshop to address the critical challenges of justice and reconciliation in Somalia.
In a statement issued in Nairobi, UN Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdalla said he was pleased to see that impunity is being debated in the war-torn nation for the first time.
"Impunity is a condemnable scourge in any society so I am pleased to see that for the first time, impunity in Somalia is being debated," Ould-Abdalla said. "Impunity has been addressed in many post-conflict countries such as Burundi, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Time has come to address impunity and crimes committed by Somalis since the beginning of the civil war."
"I am very happy that Somalis and representatives of the international community have convened to focus on this crucial issue, " the envoy added.
The UN envoy announced that after a two-day meeting of the working group on Justice and Reconciliation, the two parties to the Djibouti Agreement, the Transitional Federal Government and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, have stated their commitment to working closely together to address vigorously the problem of impunity.
"I urge all parties and the international community, to support the cooperation between Somalis to bring an end to impunity," Ould-Abdalla said.
The UN envoy said it was agreed to establish a workshop group to facilitate a process of broader consultation leading to the formation of appropriate mechanism to address impunity. They agreed in particularly to examine the possibility of establishing a Commission of Inquiry and an international court, the statement said.
These Somali talks take place at time when piracy -- a result of violence and impunity in Somalia -- continues to threaten the safety of international maritime activities off the coast of the Horn of Africa nation with negative economic and environmental impacts.
Source: Xinhua
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