From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sat May 23 2009 - 05:57:41 EDT
Eritrea rejects UN accusations
23/05/2009 11:02 - (SA)
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New York - Eritrea on Friday rejected UN Security Council accusations that
it supplied weapons to Islamist opponents of Somalia's Western-backed
transitional government and questioned the government's authority.
In a letter to the council president, Eritrea's UN Ambassador Araya Desta
said he wanted "to put on the record my government's strong opposition to,
and categorical rejection of, the unsubstantiated accusations".
The council, in a presidential statement adopted on May 15, condemned the
recent upsurge in fighting in Somalia led by extremists bent on toppling the
government and gave strong support to the country's new leaders.
It expressed concern at reports that neighboring Eritrea has supplied arms
to opponents of the government in violation of a UN arms embargo and called
on the UN committee monitoring the sanctions to investigate.
Desta said his government is "appalled by the unwarranted decision of the
Security Council to accuse a member state on the basis of `reports' whose
origins, underlying motivation and veracity have neither been acknowledged
nor ascertained".
Transitional governments 'don't survive'
Desta also disputed the Security Council's statement that the current
transitional government "is the legitimate, internationally recognized
government of Somalia".
"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," he said. "The illicit provision of arms
associated with, and justified under, these acts have further added fuel to
the simmering conflicts."
Somalis deserve the right to form their own government through
peace-building and national reconciliation without outside interference, he
said.
The United States has also accused Eritrea of "fanning the flames of
violence" in Somalia and "facilitating support" for Islamic extremists
carrying out attacks in the capital, Mogadishu. It demanded that Eritrea
immediately end support for the extremists trying to topple the transitional
government.
Desta noted that on several previous occasions, Eritrea has also been
accused of sending troops or weapons to "this or that Somali faction". Too
often, he said, the accusations were timed with "illegal acts of
interference and invasion of Somalia by certain powers and their regional
allies".
Another weak UN-backed transitional government called in troops from
Ethiopia, Eritrea's archenemy, in December 2006 to oust the Council of
Islamic Courts, the umbrella Islamic group that controlled Mogadishu and
southern Somalia for six months that year. But the Ethiopian army was viewed
by many Somalis as abusive and heavy-handed and it pulled out in January.
Desta claimed the Ethiopian presence led to "two years of chaos and mayhem,"
the uprooting of over 500 000 Somalis and tens of thousands of civilian
deaths. He said the Islamic Courts was "wrongly labeled as `the epicenter of
terrorism"'.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since the ouster of a longtime
dictator in 1991 and is split by fighting among clan warlords and an
Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians and sent hundreds
of thousands fleeing for their lives. Nearly half its population of 7
million is dependent on aid, and piracy has become rampant.
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