Reconciliation talks begin in Somali capital

(AP) Somalia's government began a weeklong meeting Monday with elders, traditional chiefs and representatives of aid groups as part of efforts to try to reconcile Somalis after 16 years of conflict.

The capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern Somalia has borne the brunt of the country's conflict, which began in 1991, when clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other, sinking the Horn of Africa nation into chaos.

Mogadishu also saw the heaviest recent fighting when government forces _ backed by Ethiopian troops, war planes and tanks _ ousted the country's Islamic movement from its southern Somali strongholds, including the capital.

"I hope it will be the beginning of reconciliation among the people of Mogadishu, which is the mirror of all of Somalia, and I hope if a solution is found here, other areas will be peaceful," Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told the gathering in comments broadcast on local radio.

Ismail Moalim Musse, chairman of the government-appointed national reconciliation commission, told The Associated Press the participants were to discuss efforts to restore security in the capital and programs on peace and security.

Musse declined to comment on whether warlords, who have ruled Mogadishu for most of the last 16 years, were invited to the meeting. The major Mogadishu warlords have in recent weeks handed over weapons and equipment and ordered their militias to camps where they are to be trained to join the national army.

The commission was formed in 2005 but has done little work, partly because the government was until recently unable to assert its authority beyond the southern Somalia town of Baidoa.

Late Sunday, gunmen fired several rocket-propelled grenades at Mogadishu's port, but they landed in the Indian Ocean and on open ground and no one was injured, said Abdirahman Mohamed, the port's security chief.

Madina Hassan, who lives yards from the port, said the attack frightened her six children. "My children shouted and began to run in confusion. Some of them asked me to take them away from the house," Hassan said.

The 2-year-old transitional government only managed to establish itself in the capital in December. The ousted Islamic movement, which still has strong support in Mogadishu, has vowed to wage an Iraq-style insurgency, and clan rivalries also are a challenge for the government.

Ethiopia has said it cannot afford to keep its forces long in Somalia and has begun pulling out as the African Union presses ahead with preparations for a peacekeeping mission. So far, the A.U. has received only half the 8,000 peacekeepers that are needed, but could start an initial deployment soon.

Three battalions of peacekeepers from Uganda and Nigeria are ready to deploy in Somalia and will be airlifted in as soon as possible, a senior African Union official said last week.

Many Somalis are deeply distrustful of any peacekeeping mission after a disastrous U.N.-led mission in the 1990s.

The Islamic movement was credited with restoring order in areas of southern Somalia it controlled, but some Somalis chafed at its fundamentalist version of Islam and the U.S. accused it of harboring al-Qaida suspects.

Yemen's foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Kerbi, said Monday his country is prepared to grant political asylum to a top Somali Islamist leader, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed.

Somalia's transitional government was formed in 2004 with U.N. help. It has struggled to assert authority and heal clan rifts, and was confined to Baidoa until Ethiopian troops arrived to help oust the Islamic movement.

__

Associated Press writer Salad Duhul in Mogadishu, Somalia, contributed to this report.