Somali PM Gedi

BAIDOA, Somalia Mar 3 (Garowe Online) – Somalia’s interim Prime Minister officially opened a seminar in the southwestern city of Baidoa on Saturday, government officials said.

The two-day seminar initiated by Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi attracted Cabinet ministers and members of the newly-appointed National Reconciliation Committee, among other participants.

Like its predecessor seminar in Mogadishu last month, organizers said the Baidoa seminar is designed to lay the foundational groundwork for relevant issues to be addressed at the forthcoming national reconciliation conference.

In his opening statement to attendees, Prime Minister Gedi said the transitional federal government he leads will continue on the path to achieving full reconciliation since the government itself was founded on the principle of reconciliation.

“The [national] reconciliation congress which is to open in Mogadishu next month aims to reconcile Somali clans who have been in conflict for the past 16 years,” the Prime Minister said.

Premier Gedi said the reconciliation process would start at the national level but eventually trickle down to villages with the ultimate goal of resolving internal conflicts.

Confidence-building

The 5-member National Reconciliation Committee, appointed last Thursday by President Abdullahi Yusuf, is clan-based in its structure and responsible for steering the sensitive reconciliation agenda, which has increasingly been seen as a key test for the administration.

According to official documents, the NRC would function independently of the interim government to show impartiality towards non-government participants at the upcoming conference, which is slated to open April 16.

Ugandan peacekeepers are expected in Somalia

Observers say the move is the Somali government’s attempt at confidence-building, after weeks of criticism over its inability to secure Mogadishu or negotiate with Islamist rebels.

Government leaders have made it clear that Islamic Courts officials–who are blamed for the violence in Mogadishu– are not invited to the conference as a political group, but can attend as members of a particular Somali clan or sub-clan’s delegation.

The Somali government has promised to secure the capital before the opening of the conference.

Kenyan media reported today that Ugandan troops, part of a proposed African Union peacekeeping force, had arrived at the port of Mombasa and are anticipated to arrive in Somalia any day.

Source: Garowe Online