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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Jul 11 2011 - 07:32:52 EDT
UN likely to tighten sanctions on Eritrea over support to Al Shabaab
By MUGUMO MUNENE mmunene@ke.nationmedia.com and PETER LEFTIE
pmutibo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, July 9 2011 at 17:14
Eritrea’s alleged involvement with Al Shabaab will be the subject of a UN
Security Council meeting on Friday at which the powerful body will determine
whether to slap further sanctions on the Horn of Africa nation.
It has been a rough diplomatic fortnight for the Horn of Africa country that
has been in the news for the wrong reasons: Eritrea stands accused by its
neighbours of supporting and funding the ragtag Al Shabaab extremist outfit.
At the Security Council meeting in New York, it is expected that the latest
report from the UN agency that monitors Eritrea and Somalia will be made
public.
Last week, President Kibaki broke with his style and, on behalf of the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad), fired a diplomatic salvo
against Eritrea.
“The Executive Council has drawn our attention to the growing
destabilisation activities in the region associated with Eritrea.
“This is a matter of serious concern and it is my hope that this summit will
focus some attention on it in view of the need for collective security and
sustainable peace,” President Kibaki said.
True to his hopes, when the conference ended, the six-country organisation
directed its diplomatic guns on Eritrea, accusing it of supplying arms to
the Al Shabaab through Kismayu.
“The presidents were really concerned about the role Eritrea continues to
play in aiding these violent groups.
“They were told that the Kampala bombers were trained in Eritrea, which also
tried to use the OLF (Oromo Liberation Front) to bomb an AU (African Union)
meeting in Addis Ababa in January,” said a member of the Kenyan delegation,
which accompanied President Kibaki who requested not to be named because he
is not authorised to speak on behalf of the Head of State.
Eritrea has long been courting the protests over its involvement with
extremist Al Shabaab fighters in war-torn Somalia.
Since 2002, the Somalia Monitoring Group has investigated the role of the
Eritrean regime in destabilising Somalia.
Its reports reveal that in the May-November 2006 hiatus, the Eritrean regime
used dhows and leased aircraft to transport weapons to Somalia.
*Train extremist groups*
This effectively subverted the efforts of the African Union and the United
Nations to restore peace and stability in one of Africa’s failed states.
“Driven by geo-political rivalries, religious and ideological differences,
Libya, Saudi Arabia and Egypt supported Eritrea to supply arms and train
extremist groups,” said Mr Thomas Kimaru of the Africa Policy Institute.
In December 2009, following revelations of its activities in support of
terror networks, the Security Council imposed targeted sanctions on Eritrea.
On March 10, 2010, the Security Council expanded the mandate of the
Monitoring Group to cover oversight of the arms embargo on Eritrea and the
designation of individuals subjected to a travel ban and asset freeze for
violations.
In an interview with the *Sunday Nation*, Eritrea’s ambassador to Kenya, Mr
Beneye Russom, denied that Asmara was behind the instability in Somalia.
He also denied that Eritrea was funding Al Shabaab, which controls large
parts of the war-torn country.
“Eritrea is a very poor nation. We do not have the capacity or the will to
fund Al Shabaab. It is not our agenda to see Somalia disintegrate,” Mr
Russom said.
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