Somalia looks to include Islamists in reconciliation
Mail & Guardian Online, South Africa - May 20, 2007
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf will allow members of his country's ousted Islamic movement to participate in the country's upcoming reconciliation conference -- as long as they are selected by their clans and renounce violence, an Italian official said on Saturday.
Italian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Patrizia Sentinelli -- the latest Western diplomat to visit Africa to push for peace in Somalia -- called his decision an "important opening" and urged him to follow through on his promise.
She spoke in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, after meeting earlier on Saturday with Yusuf in the Somali capital, Mogadishu ...