MOGADISHU (Feb. 28) XINHUA - More than 70 local Non-governmental Organizations
(NGOs) and civil groups in Somalia decided Sunday
night to open a donation account for the Djibouti reconciliation conference that is aimed
to establish a Somali government for the first time in more than nine years.
The resolution followed intensive and extensive meetings of the Somali civil society
groups throughout the country and Djibouti, said Hassan Shireh Sheikh, current rotating
chairman of the Somali Peace and Human Rights Network, on Monday in his office.
He said that a Fund-Raising Task Force for the Djibouti conference has already been
established.
The Somalis will not attend the conference bare handed, they will come up with material
support, he said.
The prime target of the local organizations is to raise five million U.S. dollars to
support the conference. If their efforts fall shorter, even three million U.S. dollars
would do, Sheikh said.
Speaking about how this large sum of money would be collected, Sheikh said the
contributors would also include generous friends of Somalia
in the Arabian countries, Europe and America.
"The fund raising has already begun within each of the Somali civil society
groups,"he said.
This is the second time within this month that the Somali civil society groups are
opening accounts for fund raising. Funds and food are flowing into the former Martini
hospital, now the home of 110 Somali war veterans disabled during the fighting between Somalia and Ethiopia in 1978.
The Djibouti conference is scheduled to begin on April 20 and end on May 5.