From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Jun 01 2009 - 07:12:05 EDT
Why the U.N. should move fast to punish Eritrea
PS: Every patriot Eritrean should respond to this ridiculous article)
Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki listens to a question during an interview
with Reuters in the capital Asmara May 20, 2009.
Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki listens to a question during an interview
with Reuters in the capital Asmara May 20, 2009.
Posted Sunday, May 31 2009 at 18:07
The UN Security Council advanced farther from past huffing and chugging on
matters Somalia. It took concrete action. Hopefully, the council will
maintain the tempo and tackle one of the notorious meddlers, Eritrea.
On Tuesday, the council unanimously voted between $200 and $300 million to
support African peacekeepers in Somalia. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
should effuse satisfaction.
Britain's U.N. Ambassador John Sawers headed that way. It was unique, he
told reporters, that for the first time the Security Council has agreed to
provide logistical support and pay.
In an April report, the secretary general ignored African nations' pressure
for a U.N. peacekeeping force. He proposed support for the 4,300-strong
African force, known as ANISOM. That would include raising it to the
mandated force of 8,000. The force would also train President Sheik Sharif
Ahmed's government force.
Mr Ahmed's government is the only authority the international community, and
pointedly the Arab League, recognises. If opening wallets indicates the
value of that recognition, Mr Ahmed has plenty.
In April, a donors' conference in Brussels pledged $200 million. For now,
none of these pledges is doing much for Mr Ahmed's interim government,
formed in January.
Last month was particularly bad. An upsurge of violence killed 200 people in
Mogadishu and drove some 60,000 residents from their homes.
Mr Ahmed's opponents are formidable. They coalesce around extreme Sharia law
adherents Hisbul Islam, or Islamic Party. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys cobbled
the latter recently. The other fellow traveller is al-Shabaab militia.
Al-Shabaab is an offshoot of a militia Mr Ahmed and Mr Aweys used to
establish semblance of order in most of southern Somalia under the banner of
the Union of Islamic Courts. The past haunts.
Ethiopia, with more than encouragement from the United States - it considers
Mr Aweys an ally of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda - scuttled the union's
authority two years ago. Eritrea's President Isaias Afewerki welcomed them
to exile. That enhanced reports Eritrea was the union's leading weapons
supplier, which officials deny. There's no evidence of a halt.
Mr Ahmed eventually realised the obvious: nearly 19 years of Wild West
multiplied a thousand times could only maintain Somalia as cartographic
lines. Under the auspices of U.N., he talked to former enemies. For Somalia,
that's more than progress.
Mr Aweys' return to Mogadishu a month ago indicates Mr Afewerki's
determination to continue rabble rousing in the Horn of Africa. After all,
Eritrea lacks direct stakes in Somalia.
Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya do. Overall, the international community does
due to maritime interests in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and western
Indian Ocean.
The Islamists in Somalia have made it clear their aim goes beyond
establishing a nation governed by their version of the Sharia. It isn't by
persuasion, which is fine, but by the gun, unacceptable.
Moreover, they want that nation as the mythical Greater Somalia. Eritrea
becomes an accessory to threats to Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya's
territorial integrity. That takes the region decades back.
That Mr Afewerki would support such aim seems to indicate a sense of
frustrated grandeur. It's worthy of note that Mr Afewerki's ascendancy
included killing of thousands of supporters of the Eritrean People's
Liberation Front.
Since assuming the presidency when Somalia's disintegration started, Mr
Afewerki has orchestrated quarrels with Sudan, Djibouti, and Yemen and, of
course, Ethiopia. Reports Eritrea harbours Iran's Revolutionary Guards,
albeit exaggerated, fit in Mr Afewerki's pursuit of illusive regional
dominance.
The African Union and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on
Development have asked the U.N. to impose sanctions against Eritrea.
Additionally, the two organisations want an air and sea blockade to prevent
arms shipment to Somalia.
So far, the U.N. has only expressed concern over reports of Eritrea's
shipments. It should accept the latest proposals, fast. The international
community shouldn't continue paying for the outcomes of pursuers of
undeserved grandeur.
Mr Mbitiru is a freelance journalist (cmbitiru@hotmail.com)
