From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sat May 23 2009 - 16:58:09 EDT
Eritrea hits back over Somali rebel claims
Saturday, May 23, 2009
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Eritrea hit back Saturday at charges it is backing
Islamist insurgents in Somalia, blaming its chief accuser instead of
being chiefly responsible for the mess there.
The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a six-nation
east African regional body, called Wednesday on the United Nations to
impose sanctions on Asmara -- a position backed on Friday by the African
Union.
Eritrea retaliated on Saturday, saying it was IGAD that was to blame.
"This is an irresponsible resolution by an inept organisation which
bears primary responsibility for the current mayhem and crisis in
Somalia," the Eritrean foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.
Eritrea, which pulled out of IGAD in 2007, said neighbouring states had
backed Ethiopia's invasion in 2006 and thereby worsened the situation in
war-ravaged Somalia.
"What was morally more reprehensible than Ethiopia's invasion was the
'endorsement' of this flagrant breach of international law and the
charter of IGAD by several member states of this defunct organization,"
it added.
Ethiopian troops rolled into Somalia in late 2006 to buttress the
embattled government against radical Islamist insurgents.
They pulled out early this year, but witnesses reported seeing some
Ethiopian troops crossing back in recent days.
Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have been tense ever since a
devastating border war in the late 1990s in which tens of thousands of
people died.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5irxtLpJGebnXxHbyMkx47
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