Ahmed plans reconciliation talks

2007-01-30 10:34

Addis Ababa - Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed is to host a national reconciliation conference in a bid to turn the page on 16 years of bloodshed in his country, says European Union commissioner Louis Michel.

Yusuf, who took up power in Mogadishu a month ago, told Michel of his intentions to stage the gathering in the next few weeks during a breakfast meeting at the ongoing African Union summit in Addis Ababa.

Michel, the commissioner for development, said: "I am impressed by his decision to call a conference of reconciliation. It (the conference) could happen in two or three weeks."

Yusuf, who appeared alongside Michel after the meeting, declined to comment on the conference and cancelled a press briefing that he was scheduled to hold immediately afterwards.

'We agreed to work together'

His only comment after the Michel meeting was that "we fully understood each other and we agreed to work together".

The EU had made clear earlier this month that it was only prepared to contribute 15 million euros to an AU peacekeeping force due to be deployed to Somalia as long as Yusuf's interim administration took concrete steps towards reconciliation.

Michel said Yusuf had met the EU's precondition by deciding to convene the reconciliation conference. He said: "In my opinion, all the conditions are fulfilled" for the EU to now release the funds for the AU force.

The interim administration, which was formed in 2004, had been confined to a provincial backwater until late last month after Ethiopia intervened on its behalf and helped oust a coalition of Islamist hardliners from Mogadishu.

'A very broad reconciliation'

The United States, United Nations and AU had all urged the interim government to reach out to rival factions in Somalia, including moderate Islamists.

Before the Islamists took power in Mogadishu last June, rival warlords had been slugging it out among themselves for the last 15 years and reduced large parts of the city to rubble.

Michel said that Yusuf had indicated a desire for "a very broad reconciliation" and the conference would include "the religious authorities who are ready to leave violence".

In a speech on Monday to mark the opening of the two-day summit, AU commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare said the interim government should reach out to the Islamists "except those who are fighting and killing for holy war".

Since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, more than 14 internationally-backed initiatives had failed to restore a lasting and effective government in Somalia.

Yusuf's government, formed in Kenya in 2004 after more than two years of peace talks, was yet to exert control across the nation of about 10 million people.

- AFP