Somalia plans reconciliation
2007-03-01 13:01
Baidoa - A Somali national reconciliation conference will start mid-April and last for two months in the violence-torn capital Mogadishu, President Abdullahi Yusuf told parliament on Thursday.
"I want to announce that the reconciliation conference will held in Mogadishu on April 16 and will continue for two months," Yusuf told parliament, sitting in the town of Baidoa, about 250km northwest of the capital Mogadishu.
"There will be 3 000 participants from outside and inside the country," Yusuf said, without giving further details.
Under international pressure, the Somali president on January 30 announced plans for a broad-based reconciliation conference to heal the Horn of Africa nation ripped apart by 16 years of anarchic bloodletting.
In recent weeks, Mogadishu has suffered the worst unrest since the interim government, backed by Ethiopian forces, drove out an Islamist movement late last year.
Somali officials have blamed former warlords and leaders of the defeated Islamists, who are in Mogadishu under clan protection, for attacks that have curtailed the government?s ability to rule.
The European Union made clear in January that it was only prepared to contribute cash to an African Union peacekeeping force for Somalia, that is shortly due to begin deploying, provided Yusuf took concrete steps towards reconciliation.