November 19, 2002	Tuesday	Ramazan 13, 1423

ELDORET (Kenya): Vicious tackles, noisy tantrums and giant egos — Mowlid Maan saw his fair share of foul play in 10 years as an international soccer referee.

Now a politician, Maan must guard against unsporting behaviour of a very different kind in this Kenyan town, where mediators are hosting peace talks between Somali warlords responsible for years of bloodshed in their broken country.

The country collapsed in 1991 with the overthrow of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, disintegrating into fiefdoms run by rival militias that have thrived amid the chaos of war.

Diplomats say the outcome of the conference, now a month old, will one way or another affect the stability of the Horn of Africa, hit by a devastating 1998-2000 war between Ethiopia and Eritrea and now threatened anew by regional food shortages.

GOOD OMENS: There are several good omens at the conference unfolding in the drab hotels of Eldoret, a sleepy agricultural town.

The most notable is that so many leaders turned up, making it the most comprehensive assembly of clans for years following a decade of less inclusive peace talks that all failed.

A glance around a hotel lobby reveals a who’s who of faction leaders, including Muse Sudi Yalahow, Mogadishu’s top warlord, and Mohamed Abshir Farah, prime minister in a shaky administration called the Transitional National Government (TNG).

Leaders from a breakaway region known as Puntland are also here, as are diplomats from half a dozen African states supporting the process. The talks have the blessing of the Arab League, African Union, European Union and the United States.

The most prominent non-Somalis are observers from Ethiopia, the dominant military power in the Horn.

BAD OMENS: But obstacles to peace are numerous.

There is uncertainty over whether Western countries will continue to foot the bill for the four months it may take to seal an accord. Others worry that host Kenya will lose interest, preoccupied by its own general election on December 27.

The crunch talks — the final power-sharing negotiations in which leaders carve out government posts — are yet to come. For now clans are bickering about their representation on technical committees that will write the fine print of a new constitution.—Reuters