First and foremost, the leaders of Somalia and Somaliland must sit down to try to resolve their differences.

Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office Lord Malloch-Brown: First and foremost, the leaders of Somalia and Somaliland must sit down to try to resolve their differences.

Mar 06, 2009 By:
Lord Malloch-Brown:-We have had contact with the President of Somaliland, and the Foreign Secretary will meet him. Our position remains the same: first and foremost, the leaders of Somalia and Somaliland must sit down to try to resolve their differences. Beyond that, it is for Africa to take the lead in any change of status that might follow.

We certainly cannot overlook the fact that Somaliland is the one part of broader Somalia where there is, at the moment, some reasonable government and development progress. Indeed, some 60 per cent of our development assistance is applied to Somaliland because of the success that is possible there.
On Somalia, the fight against piracy is certainly critical. As noble Lords know, we are very much involved in the piracy taskforce; its command centre is here in the UK. Beyond that, we are engaged onshore in Somalia, in the work to stabilise the political situation. There is important progress at the moment and we have been encouraging that with a new President, who has now succeeded in forming a broad-based Government, who have returned to Mogadishu. While there have been ups and downs in security, the basic trend towards a more inclusive politics in Somalia seems to be on course as an outcome of the Djibouti process.

Click here for the origin from the House of Lords. It is long debate on Africa .Go to near the bottom.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2009-03-05a.871.1&s=somaliland#g904.0

http://samotalis.blogspot.com/