Eritrea rejects African Union “illegal” call for sanctions

May 28, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) — Eritrea has rejected African Union “irresponsible and illegal” call for the UN Security Council to impose sanction against Asmara over its alleged support to the Somali insurgents.

“Eritrea strongly rejects the irresponsible and illegal statement issued in the name of the African Union” said the Eritrean foreign ministry in a statement issued on May 25.

The statement comes in reaction to a request of the Africa Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) on Friday May 22 to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to sanction Eritrea for supporting Somali Islamist insurgents.

The Eritrean foreign ministry said the regional body has become just an “umbrella for certain external powers to meddle” in the affairs of the African Union with the intention to “compound various crises that afflict our continent.”

Further Asmara descried the statement as illegal saying the current AU chairman, Libyan Muammar Gadhafi had not been consulted about it.

Speaking to Reuters last week, President Isaias Afewerki said U.S. agents were spreading lies to blacken his government’s name.

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Council of Ministers had also issued similar calls against Eritrea on May 20. The IGAD is chaired by Ethiopia since last year.

Eritrea slammed the east African organization position wondering why it had endorsed the Ethiopian invasion to Somalia in December 2006 which aimed at subverting “a healthy internal process of national reconciliation” under the leadership of Islamic courts.

Analysts consider the position of the two foes of the Horn of Africa over Somalia is closely linked to their border dispute which led to the death of 70,000 people. They say the Eritrea and Ethiopia are fighting a proxy war in Somalia.

(ST)