In a meeting with members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Jeddah, U.N. Special Representative Francois Lonseny Fall called on the OIC to accept the U.N.-backed Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Monday. Fall was invited by the OIC Contact Group on Somalia to speak with its members. He urged OIC member states that have contact with the Islamic Courts Union to encourage the Courts to accept the TFG as the official government. Late last year the Courts took over parts of the east coast of Somalia, including Mogadishu, in an effort to stop clan fighting and impose Sharia law on the primarily Muslim country. The Courts were run out by Ethiopian troops in January who were fighting on behalf of the TFG. In his address to OIC members, Fall asked those who have contacts with Court members in Yemen to speak with them and encourage them to join the national reconciliation process that is set to take place in the country after Somalia President Abdullahi Yusuf announced a National Reconciliation Congress.
