By Aweys Yusuf
Friday, September 07, 2007
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi will meet Abukar Omar Adan, a top financial backer of the ousted Islamic Courts movement, on Friday in Djibouti to encourage its fighters to accept a government amnesty.
The move came a day after a fugitive leader of the hardline movement made his first public appearance, after months on the run, at a conference of Somali opposition figures in Eritrea.
"The talks have been organized by Djibouti officials and are anticipated to unite Islamists who are going to take advantage of the government's amnesty," Gedi's spokesman Musse Kulow said.
Gedi's interim government is struggling to impose its authority on the Horn of Africa nation, which has been in chaos since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
The appearance of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who some believe is behind an anti-government insurgency in Mogadishu, at the meeting in Asmara came a week after Gedi's administration ended its own reconciliation conference in the Somali capital.
Kulow said the prime minister's talks in Djibouti with Adan, a 72-year-old Somali businessman, would be friendly.
"It is a family negotiation because Adan hails from the same sub-clan as Gedi," Kulow told Reuters. "After the talks, it is expected ... (he) will return to Mogadishu with him."
Adan surrendered to the authorities in neighboring Kenya after Somali interim government troops backed by the Ethiopian military routed the Islamists from Mogadishu over the New Year.
He admitted being in Kenya illegally, but in February an immigration case against him was dropped without explanation.
At the conference in Eritrea, another Islamist leader -- Sheikh Sharif Ahmed -- called on the United States to engage with the Somali opposition, and rejected charges of terrorism against the Courts that he said had been fabricated by Ethiopia.
Mark Schroeder, Africa analyst with U.S.-based intelligence consultancy Stratfor, said there seemed little common ground.
"Neither side in the Somali conflict ... is willing to compromise at this point," Schroeder said in a statement.
Source: Reuters, Sept 07, 2007