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Premier Refuses Negotiations With Islamist Leaders

Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
NEWS
February 13, 2007
Posted to the web February 13, 2007

By Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu
In a press conference he held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Tuesday,
Somalia's Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi has disclosed several standing
issues regarding the national reconciliation conference, and the current state
in his country.
He said the government was in control of Somalia following the forceful
eviction of Islamists, adding that perpetrators, who waged a war against
Ethiopian troops in the capital, have transferred the war to the port city of
Kismayu, 500 km south of the capital Mogadishu.
Asked when the AU peacekeepers would be deployed in Somalia, Gedi said 4,000
troops from Nigeria and Uganda would arrive in Somalia soon. He has also
revealed that a number of prisoners suspected links to Islamists deported from
Kenya to Somalia would be presented to the press.
Speaking about the national reconciliation conference due to be held in
Somalia, Gedi ruled out that Somalia's routed Islamist leaders would be allowed
to take part in the reconciliation process.
"The international organizations and donor countries have backed the
transitional government to hold a national reconciliation conference," he said.
He defined that the government would never negotiated with the Islamic Courts
leaders, whether moderates or hardliners.


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