Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Francois Lonseny Fall told more than 1,000 delegates at a peace conference there was international backing for the new initiative to restore stability to Somalia, which has been torn apart by more than 16 years of clan and religious warfare.
"We are here to show you the support we are giving to this reconciliation congress," he said.
"The UN and the international community will contribute whatever technical assistance is needed to ensure that you reach decisions for peace," Fall said, encouraging delegates to discuss all sticking points ranging from power-sharing to disamament.
"This is a rare reconciliation conference so that you must take advantage of."
Hardline Islamists and rebellious clans elders boycotted the conference, dismissing its legitimacy. They plan to organise their own talks in Eritea on September 1.
The peace talks, which opened in mid-July, have been clouded by attacks and clashes in Mogadishu pitting Islamist insurgents against government troops and their backers from Ethiopia and an African Union peacekeeping force.
Moments after Fall's arrival, a bomb exploded on the road two kilometres away from the airport, killing two civilians and wounding four others, including two policemen, police officer Abdullahi Hassan Barise said.
"The bomb went off when a police car was passing. The car was damaged and the bodies of the civilians taken from the area," witness Abdullahi Robo, told AFP.
The near-daily violence has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousand others from their homes since early this year.
A violent clan-based power struggle that erupted after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre has helped sink more than a dozen peace initiatives.
Source: AFP, Aug 07, 2007