UN criticizes Eritrea over arms supply to Somali fighters

May 15, 2009 — The UN Security Council on Friday criticized Eritrea
for supplying arms Somali armed opposition and condemned an offensive
against the tottering UN-recognized government.

In what is called a “non-binding statement”, the UN Security Council
condemned “the recent renewal in fighting” by insurgents, a reference
to an onslaught against the Western-backed government this week that
has left over 135 dead, 315 wounded and 30,000 displaced.

The UN statement follows an escalation in rhetoric between a top
Islamist opposition leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and the UN envoy
to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah. The 62-year-old Aweys is from the
Ayr wing of the Habr Gedir, the major sub-clan of the Hawiye clan to
have bitterly opposed the 1992-1993 operations conducted by the UN.

The 15-member council also demanded that Somali opposition groups
immediately join reconciliation efforts, which Aweys said yesterday he
would not do until the African Union peacekeepers leave the Somali
capital.

” The Council expressed its concern over reports that Eritrea had
supplied arms to those opposing the legitimate Transitional Federal
Government of Somalia, in breach of the United Nations arms embargo,
and called on the Sanctions Monitoring Group to investigate,” the
statement said.

The UN-backed Transitional Federal Government accused Eritrea earlier
this month of supporting its opponents with planeloads of AK-47
assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons.

Aweys, who returned to Somalia last month after more than two years in
Eritrea, had headed an Islamist administration in 2006 that controlled
much of south and central Somalia, including the capital, before being
toppled by a US-backed Ethiopian invasion.

(ST)