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UN Chief Calls On Somali Leaders to Seek Reconciliation VOA News 28 Feb 2002 04:42 UTC 
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on Somalia's feuding leaders to rise above their differences and end the 11-year old conflict.
Mr. Annan made the call in a report to the Security Council Wednesday.
Despite lack of major progress in achieving peace in Somalia, Mr. Annan said he shares what he called the "cautious optimism" of regional leaders that a way can be found toward national reconciliation in the Horn of Africa country.
However, he said this will require political will on the part of the Somali political leaders and the encouragement of Somalia's immediate neighbors and of the international community.
Mr. Annan also said that only Somalia's leaders can decide to end the suffering of their people and only they can decide to negotiate an end to the conflict.
Mr. Annan said East African leaders had taken a significant step at their summit in Khartoum last month by acknowledging that consensus among Somalia's neighbors is essential in the search for a more broad-based transitional arrangement for the country.
Somalia has been without a central government since the overthrow in 1991 of President Mohammed Siad Barre. The recently-formed Transitional National Government controls little of the country outside the capital, Mogadishu.
Some information for this report provided by AP.
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