Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf agreed on Tuesday to call a broad conference of clan and religious leaders, triggering the release of European Union funding for an African peacekeeping force in Somalia.
European Union aid chief Louis Michel told journalists after meeting Yusuf at an African summit in Addis Ababa that the conference would be held within weeks.
He said the EU would now release $19-million to fund the peacekeeping force.
The aid had been conditional on the interim government being inclusive in the aftermath of a war in which Ethiopian military power enabled the government to crush Islamists who had threatened to overthrow it.
”I was very impressed by his decision to call for a national-reconciliation conference,” Michel told reporters.
”I felt a sincere will from President Yusuf to bring together all the parties in Somalia, of course the moderates, those who want a good and right future for the country and the people.”
”In my opinion, the conditions are fulfilled. He has committed himself with this.”
Washington, Europe and Ethiopia have put pressure on the government to avoid revenge and triumphalism, and engage in dialogue with all parties in Somalia, especially moderate Islamists and powerful clans.
They fear that if the government does not make peace with all the clans in Somalia’s complex political and social structure, including those who supported the Islamists, the country will slide back into anarchy and violence.
Michel said he had been invited to the conference, which the EU would back financially.
Clans
Yusuf told a press conference with Michel: ”We understood each other and we agreed to work together. Anyone who wants peace is our citizen and we are ready to cooperate.”
He said African peacekeeping troops would be deployed in Somalia soon.
Ethiopia is anxious to withdraw its forces within weeks. Only 4 000 troops have been pledged to the peacekeeping force so far, only half of the projected force.
Officials are lobbying presidents at the summit for more troops despite reluctance to commit soldiers to one of the world’s most dangerous countries, where violence is endemic.
Michel said reconciliation would include ”clans, members of the diaspora, respected eminent persons, political parties, including the religious authorities who are ready to leave [behind] violence, terror and these kinds of awful things”.
”Of course we know this is not easy, this will remain fragile for a long time,” Michel said. ”The international community has to remain close to them to help them, to back them, to support them also financially.”
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said on Monday Somalia’s former colonial ruler was ready to host a peace conference on reconstruction. It was not immediately clear if this would be the same meeting.
The Yusuf government was set up in 2004 in a 14th attempt to restore central rule to Somalia since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre’s ouster in 1991. — Reuters