From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Fri May 22 2009 - 12:48:01 EDT
Eritrea rejects Security Council accusations of destabilizing Somalia
*www.chinaview.cn* *2009-05-23 00:22:29*
UNITED NATIONS, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The government of Eritrea
categorically rejects accusations by the United Nations Security Council
that it is supplying arms to destabilize Somalia's Transitional Government,
which is a product of "ill-advised formulas," according to a letter
addressed to the president of the Security Council made public here on
Friday.
"I wish to put on record my government's strong opposition to, and
categorical rejection of, the unsubstantiated accusations leveled against my
country," said Eritrean Ambassador to the UN Araya Desta in a May 19 letter.
"As my government has underlined on many occasions, the highly complex and
grave conflict in Somalia will not be resolved by arbitrary and ill-advised
formulas that have no basis in international law and that do not reflect the
wishes and sovereign political choices of the Somali people."
On May 18, the 15-nation Council adopted a presidential statement
expressing its "concern over reports that Eritrea has supplied arms to those
opposing the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in breach of the UN
arms embargo" and called on the Sanctions Monitoring Group to investigate.
In his letter, Desta said that Eritrea has been "falsely accused of
'sending troops or supplying weapons' to 'this or that Somali faction' on
several occasions before" and alluded that such accusations were motivated
and "conveniently timed with illegal acts of interference and invasion of
Somalia by certain powers and their regional allies."
In 2006, backed by the Security Council and the United States, Ethiopia
invaded Somalia to oust Al-Shabab -- once the armed wing of the Islamic
Courts Union, which was designated a terrorist group by the United States
and declared to be affiliated with the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Subsequently, Somalia's weak Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was
installed, led by one of the former Islamic Courts Union leaders, and a
peace agreement was signed in Khartoum, Sudan.
But from the start, the TFG was viewed with suspicion as being under the
power of neighboring Ethiopia, a country with a large Christian population.
But perhaps more importantly, the TFG has failed to bring stability to the
region, causing Somali and neighboring populations to become increasingly
disillusioned.
"'Transitional Governments' that are periodically hatched in
non-inclusive incubators outside Somalia have never survived the test of
time in the past years in spite of the huge military and financial support
extended to them by their external sponsors," said Desta in his letter,
adding that the Security Council's endorsement of Ethiopia's invasion was
"deplorable" and created "two years of chaos and mayhem."
"Over half a million Somalis were dislocated, numerous villages
pulverized in indiscriminate air attacks, and tens of thousands of civilians
killed," he said. "At the time, the broad collation of the Union of Islamic
Courts was routinely condemned, wrongly labeled as 'the epicenter of
terrorism' while the 'Transitional Government' of the day was condoned as
the sole legitimate authority."
Desta called into question the reports on which the Security Council
made its decision to accuse Eritrea of destabilizing the TFG. Their
"origins, underlying motivation and veracity have neither been acknowledged
nor ascertained," said the letter.
The international community, beleaguered by pirate attacks off the coast
of Somalia, has taken a renewed interest in the country's stability and has
reaffirmed its support for the TFG as the legitimate authority.
This, Desta said, is "an experiment" that has not proved fruitful.
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