SOMALIA: Mortars fired at Somali reconciliation conference venue, which opened despite security fears

Record ID: 349136

  • Title: SOMALIA: Mortars fired at Somali reconciliation conference venue, which opened despite security fears
  • Date: 16th July 2007
  • Summary: SOMALI PRESIDENT ABDULLAHI YUSUF ARRIVING AT VENUE
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Topics: War / Fighting,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2SB8T3A1D8SSSK7YV4O2QTOBS
  • Story Text: A major peace meeting opened in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday (July 15) despite threats from Islamic insurgents to disrupt the meeting.
    Security was stepped up across the city on Saturday (July 14) ahead of the meeting, seen as the interim government's best hope of strengthening its legitimacy in the Horn of Africa nation.
    President Abdullahi Yusuf's interim government has struggled to impose authority on the country since ousting the hardline Islamic Courts movement from the capital in late December.
    "The work towards Somalia's political and security situation is not yet completed and we have decided to put our efforts towards consulting the Somali people," said Yusuf.
    The meeting of more than 1,000 elders, former warlords and politicians, was however postponed to Thursday (July 19) while organisers waited for participants who were still expected top show up during the week.
    The Somali government hopes that by drawing Somalia's myriad clans to substantial talks it can win broad support.
    It is no easy task in a nation that has foiled 13 previous attempts to set up central rule since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's 1991 overthrow.
    This meeting is hoped to succeed, after protracted talks in neighbouring Kenya chaired by mediator Bethuel Kiplagat, ended in the election of the Somali Transitional Federal Government.
    "Certain things are not going well, and remember when I was with you in Mbagathi, I used to say when a neighbour is not very well you come and visit the neighbour, you come and talk with the neighbour, you come and console the neighbour," said Kiplagat who was at the Mogadishu meeting.
    Some residents of the impoverished, rubble-strewn city say the administration has got it wrong, and should be talking to the Islamists -- who ruled much of southern Somalia for six months last year -- instead.
    "Our expectation, that we are considerably elder leadership, this congress will pressure in a positive environment that is so necessary for a return to stability, peace and the service delivery that the people of Somalia as a whole urgently need," said AU ambassador to Somalia, Mohamed Ali Foum.
    Roadside blasts, suicide bombings and assassinations blamed on Islamist rebels and clan militiamen are an almost daily occurrence in the Somali capital.
    News on Wednesday (July 11) that the meeting would finally go ahead brought a mortar attack on the presidential palace and the conference venue itself, an old bullet-scarred police compound.
    Police said three mortar bombs were fired at a peace conference, but missed their target.
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