Reservations voiced about reconciliation conference

Mogadishu-based faction leaders are having serious doubts about participating in the Somali reconciliation conference due to be held next month, one of them told IRIN on Tuesday.

The conference, sponsored by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), is scheduled to open in Eldoret, western Kenya, on 16 September.

Muhammad Qanyare Afrah, one of the most important faction leaders in Mogadishu, speaking on-behalf of his counterparts Usman Hasan Ali Ato, Umar Mahmud Finish, and Mawlid Ma'ane, said they had "serious reservations" about the way the conveners were preparing for the conference, including the fact that the faction leaders had not been consulted.

"The mediators have failed to tell us what exactly we are going to talk about once we are there," Qanyare said. "We don't know about the criteria for participation or the number of participants."

He said care needed to be taken to ensure participational balance in terms of clan and faction. There were clans who had representatives in the Transitional National Government (TNG), factions and in regional administrations, he noted. "You may end up having a conference at which one clan is represented by 10 individuals wearing different hats, while another clan will be represented by one person", Qanyare told IRIN.

There must be agreement on participation before any conference takes place, "if the conveners are serious about having a successful conference", he said.

"Secondly, we need to talk about what outcome we want to get from this conference. There is so much secrecy surrounding the conference. I have yet to meet a Somali who knows anything about it. Please tells us what you are cooking up for us, since we are the ones who eventually have to eat it", said Qanyare.

Qanyare said his group wanted the outcome of the Arta conference (held in Djibouti in 2000 and at which the Transitional National Government was established) to be the basis for negotiations and "to correct the mistakes made there," but does not agree with the notion of starting from scratch. "Let's use what we have and change what needs to be changed," he said.

Those who knew the history of Somali conferences knew that to try and start a new one "is a recipe for failure, and that is the last thing Somalis want or need", he stressed.

Meanwhile, Isma'il Warsame, the chief of cabinet of Col Abdullahi Yusuf, leader of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia, told IRIN on Tuesday that Puntland was "worried that the conference is being rushed. There should be thorough preparations if it is to succeed."

IGAD should also send more missions and spend more time in the country to explain about the conference, Warsame added, and it should involve all civil society groups. Another concern was the criteria for participation. "We don't know who will be invited and what criteria will be applied in this context," he said.