A national reconciliation conference on Somalia initiated by Djibouti president, Ismael Omar Gelleh, is already in shambles few weeks before it is scheduled to take off next month as Somalia's largest and most influential clans and factional leaders expressed one after another their firm opposition to attending the gathering.

On Thursday [23rd March] the leaders of the regional administration of Puntland officially announced their rejection of the proposed conference saying President Gelleh's current initiative was essentially no different from the ill-fated 1991 Djibouti conference.

"We have no confidence in the Djibouti reconciliation plan and we urge the international community not to waste time and energy on Djibouti's attempts to hold a reconciliation conference at a time when vast territories of Somalia (taken during the armed conflict by invading non-indigenous forces) still remain under occupation."

The Puntland statement compared President Gelleh's current peace plan to an similar one initiated by his predecessor in 1991, and which the Puntland statement says was responsible for "originally triggering Somalia's protracted civil war and present turmoil."

Two weeks ago, Somaliland's President, Muhammad Ibrahim Egal, Abdullahi Yusuf and Husayn Aydid were in Tripoli, Libya, in response to an invitation by Col al-Qadhafi.

After his return to Hargeysa on 13th March from his trip to Libya, President Egal disclosed that he had refused an offer by Qadhafi to become the president of a reunited Somalia.

On Monday (20th Monday), the influential leader of RRA [Rahaweyn Resistance Army], Hasan Shaargadud, rejected the Djibouti reconciliation con-ference saying the Djiboutian president's plan was "unrealistic."

Shaargadud said: "Djibouti misunderstood the problem of Somalia and it would be impossible for my people to attend the conference with factions that occupy part of our ancestral land."

The RRA controls the south central Bay and Bakool regions...

Source: `The Republican', Hargeysa, in English 25 Mar 00

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President Ismael Omar Guelleh of Djibouti yesterday received another blow to his ambition to restore peace to Somalia when two important groups added their voice to a growing body of naysayers.

Following a conference in Addis Ababa, Somalia's allied Digil and Mirifle clan families, present in south central regions, resolved "to withdraw support of the ongoing Djibouti peace initiative," according to a fax received by AFP in Nairobi.

This decision was taken "because it is unacceptable to our community to participate and sit (at the same) table with the forceful occupiers of (our) ancestral land who killed, tortured and intimidated the innocent civilians of the community," the fax added.

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Somali warlords who have said they will boycott the April meeting include Musa Sudi Yalahow, who controls southwest Mogadishu's enclave of Madina, his arch-rival Hussein Mohamed Aidid, and Osman Hassan Ali "Atto". Muse Sudi Yalahow said,  "As the legitimate leader of southwest Mogadishu and affiliated areas, I cannot discuss peace or power-sharing with remnants of the former government and failed warlords,".