Rival Somali regions swap prisoners of war

NAIROBI - Rival Somali enclaves have swapped 36 prisoners captured during a short short war last year, in a sign that reconciliation efforts are making progress, mediators said on Tuesday.

Fighting erupted in a disputed border region in October 2004 between Puntland and the rival enclave of Somaliland, which accused Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, a former Puntland leader, of attacking it. At least 100 people were killed.

On Monday Somaliland freed 12 Puntland captives and Puntland released 24 Somaliland prisoners at a ceremony at Ari-Adeys village in the Sool area on the border, said the War-torn Societies Project (WSP), a conflict mediation organisation.

Rival captives hugged each other as they were exchanged.

"This event is a significant confidence-building gesture by both administrations," said Philippe Lazzarini, an official at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

A WSP statement said: "Both sides expressed willingness to build on the goodwill manifested by this successful collaboration, which is already contributing directly to reduction of tensions in the area."

The swap follows six months of negotiations between the regions' governments, which are unrecognised internationally.

WSP has worked for years to build reconciliation in Somalia, a country of up to 10 million that descended into anarchy in 1991 following the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Yusuf, elected Somali president in October 2004 at national reconciliation talks, has pledged to work peacefully with Somaliland as he tries to restore order to the country.

Somaliland, an enclave on the Gulf of Aden, declared independence from Somalia in 1991 and has since enjoyed relative peace. But it has fought sporadic clashes with Puntland for years over the ownership of several border areas claimed by Puntland's leaders as their own on the basis of ethnicity.

Somaliland, a region of 3.5 to 4.5 million, won independence from Britain in 1960 and quickly joined neighbouring ex-Italian Somalia to form a united republic.

But an uprising against Siad Barre in the 1980s was followed by years of devastation as he turned his forces against the northwestern enclave.

WSP and other peace groups are trying to build grassroots reconciliation in several areas in Somalia in a project funded by the European Commission, Britain, the United States, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.

- REUTERS