Nairobi, 12 June 2008

Asalaam Aleikum

At the outset, I would like to thank you all for your patriotic support for the Somali peace agreement which was initialed in Djibouti on 9 June 2008. I received many phone calls and emails expressing backing for the agreement and the consensus that was reached between the Parties.

There is still much work to be done. Your country would sincerely appreciate your help in persuading the international community that they will now need to provide full practical support as promised. This is especially true if we are to ensure that the Parties keep to their promises particularly for setting up an international stabilization force and ensuring humanitarian access. The Parties themselves called for the international community to provide adequate resources for the Agreement.

We will be working hard to organize the Joint Security Committee and the High Level Committee as well as the conference on political cooperation, Justice and Reconciliation and the one on Reconstruction and Development outlined in the Agreement. These are crucial for the success of the peace efforts.

There are high hopes that this will be the beginning of Somalia regaining its sovereignty, independence and pride.

As many of you will recall, in the past it was Somalia that was instrumental in helping reconciliation between Bangladesh and Pakistan after the 1971 war with Sheikh Mujibur Rehman being brought to Lahore in the Somali Foreign Minister’s plane to attend the Organization of Islamic Conference summit in Pakistan. It also helped to broker peace between Tanzania and Uganda. We would like to see Somalia regain its role as a responsible, respected nation that can act as peace maker.

We have had a long dark night which has lasted 18 years. We must now all do our best to put this nightmare behind us and look forward to a new beginning.

Yours Faithfully

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah