MOGADISHU, Somalia Mar 5 (Garowe Online) - The Somali transitional federal government’s stated plan to “reconcile among clans” has been fraught with many challenges from its inception, including clan chiefs in Mogadishu who called on the government to negotiate directly with Islamic rebels.

Abdullahi Abdulle Wehliye, spokesman for an umbrella council of Hawiye clan leaders, said on Monday that the group was dissatisfied with the government’s reconciliation approach.

“The people opposed to the transitional government is not the public but it’s the Islamic Courts…they [the government] should meet with the [Islamic] Courts and reach consensus,” Wehliye said, following a meeting of Hawiye clan leaders in the capital.

The Hawiye, one of four major Somali clan-families, has dominant presence in Mogadishu and its environs, and the Islamic Courts’ top leadership was exclusively attributed to this clan group.

In Baidoa, temporary seat for the interim government, an outspoken parliamentarian criticized the reconciliation plan as one “hijacked” by certain personalities.

MP Asha Ahmed Abdalla warned that no productive outcome could be expected from the conference if the pro-Ethiopia wing of the transitional government continued to micro-manage its affairs.

“There are no Somali clans who are fighting at this time,” MP Abdalla said, while appealing for the government to include its opponents in the process and to let Somali politicians and intellectuals voice their independent concerns.

Last month, President Abdullahi Yusuf unveiled his government’s plans to host a national reconciliation conference in Mogadishu, with the stated aim of resolving clan and sub-clan rivalries accrued over the past 16 years of civil conflict.

However, government officials have been explicit in their refusal to negotiate with Islamist leaders, whom they say no longer control any territory and have links to international terror groups.

The Islamist militia ruled Mogadishu and much of south-central Somalia until December, when a joint Somali-Ethiopian military operation removed them from key towns.

But violence has been on the steady rise in Mogadishu since the government and its Ethiopian allies rolled into town.

At least 4 people were killed and 4 others wounded by unidentified gunmen in different parts of Mogadishu on Monday, underscoring the pressing need to secure the capital before the opening of the upcoming conference in mid-April.

Government officials blame Islamist rebels for violent attacks that have claimed tens of lives, including soldiers and government officials, and forced hundreds to flee their homes in recent weeks.

Ugandan soldiers, the first group of a proposed African Union peacekeeping force, are expected to land in Mogadishu and Baidoa any day. AU officials are currently in Mogadishu to oversee the arrival of the peacekeepers.

Source: Garowe Online