Somali president says peace talks still on track despite violence
Somali president says peace talks still on track despite violence
by Mustafa Haji Abdinur
MOGADISHU, July 12, 2007 (AFP) - Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf vowed Thursday that a national reconciliation conference due to kick off in three days would not be derailed by the daily violence rocking Mogadishu.
"The reconciliation conference is planned for July 15 and I am telling you that it will be held as scheduled," Yusuf told reporters in the Somali capital.
"No matter how much violence escalates in Mogadishu, our will will not be broken," he said, speaking from the presidential palace hours after it was targeted by mortar fire.
The conference, the latest peace initiative in the war-torn Horn of Africa nation, has already been delayed three times due to insufficient funds and relentless insurgent attacks.
Several mortar shells landed near the presidential palace late Wednesday and one hit the nearby Fiyore area, killing one civilian and wounding two others, local resident Farah Mohamed told AFP.
Mohamed Ganey, a government security officer who was in the palace at the time, said none of the shells struck the palace buildings.
"Several mortar rounds were fired from inside town but all of them were off target. Some of them hit nearby buildings but the palace suffered no damage," he told AFP.
Three other people were killed as violence flared in several southern neighbourhoods of the Somali capital, witnesses said.
"We heard gunshots outside my gate and several minutes later I was told bodies were strewn in the street. Three young men were killed," said resident Warsame Janogale.
It was not clear what prompted the incident.
"The three were shot in the head and they appear to have been tortured before they were killed," said Ahmed Sahal, another witness.
Witnesses also said government forces exchanged gunfire with suspected Islamist rebels in the Hodan neighbourhood.
Islamist insurgents, as well as clan fighters, have staged daily guerrilla attacks against the government since being defeated earlier this year by Ethiopian-backed Somali forces.
The deposed Islamic Courts Union, which controlled swathes of central and southern Somalia for six months at the end of last year, is expected to boycott the planned peace conference, but Yusuf on Thursday renewed his promise of an amnesty.
"We are still extending an amnesty for those who fought against us, particularly the Islamic fighters, whenever they are ready to live peacefully in their community," the president said.
Yusuf, from the Darod clan, also said he had held talks with Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan, which has been largely opposed to the reconciliation conference.
Somalia has been without a functioning central authority since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre touched off a bloody power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore stability.
