Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Aweys Osman Yusuf
12 July 2007
Mogadishu — Somalia president, Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed, stressed on Thursday that the country's reconciliation congress would take place in the capital, Mogadishu, on July 15 as scheduled, revealing that the Ethiopian troops based in the country would last until Somalia is peaceful.
Mr. Yusuf, said the remarks in a news conference he held at top-hill presidential compound, Villa Somalia, in Mogadishu amid seven grenade blasts killed three civilians and wounded more than 10.
"Even if a nuclear bomb explodes in Mogadishu, the conference will happen as scheduled," he said.
The president was with the leaders of Mogadishu's major Hawiye clan, when speaking with the journalists. He said the government made clear already that it offered an amnesty to all people who used to work with the defeated Islamists.
"We have indicated that we offered an official pardon to Islamic Courts followers if they were giving up their resistance against the federal government, but this conference will not be stopped by any force," he said.
Haji Abdi Iman, the traditional leader of Hawiye, who also spoke to the press, said, "We, as Hawiye, have accepted the amnesty extended to the people who worked with the U.I.C. from the government,", urging the Somali people to support the UN backed transitional government.
Iman was among the clan leaders opposing the federal government until recently he backed out his antagonism and joined the adherents of Somalia government.
Somalia's president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed sits with the leader of Hawiye clan group that has spilt into two groups, Hagi Abdi Iman at Villa Somalia, his presidential palace after the palace came under attack overnight. The two leaders held a joint press conference inside Villa Somalia, vowing that a widely national reconciliation conference will be held undetered.
From R-L. Abdullahi Shiekh Hassan, the political spokesman of the spilt Hawiye Clan, Hagi Abdi Iman, Leader of Hawiye clan group and Somalia's interim president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed hold hands after their news conference inside Villa Somalia today. The leaders vowed that the widely expected NRC will go ahead as planned on 15 of this month.
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