Eritrea conspired to attack at AU summit, bankrolls Somali rebels – UN
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
July 29, 2011 (ADDIS ABABA) – A UN report released on Thursday accused the Eritrean government of being behind a bomb plot to attack an African Union summit held earlier this year in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
“The Eritrean Government conceived planned, organized and directed a failed plot to disrupt the African Union summit in Addis Ababa by bombing a variety of civilian and governmental targets.” states the report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea.
The intention was to attack the AU’s headquarters with a car bomb as leaders took breaks, to blow up Africa’s largest market to “kill many people”, and attack the area between the Ethiopian prime minister’s office and the Sheraton hotel, where most heads of state stay during summits.
“If executed as planned, the operation would almost certainly have caused mass civilian casualties, damaged the Ethiopian economy and disrupted the African Union summit,” the report added further accusing Eritrea of strategic use of explosives to create a climate of fear, represents a qualitative shift in Eritrean tactics.
The UN report, says Eritrea’s intelligence personnel are active elsewhere in the region and the country’s actions posed a threat to security and peace in the region.
“Since the Eritrean intelligence apparatus responsible for the African Union summit plot is also active in Kenya, Somalia, the Sudan and Uganda, the level of threat it poses to these other countries must be re-evaluated.”
The UN Security Council last year imposed sanctions against Eritrea for allegedly supporting hard line Islamic insurgents in Somalia including Al-Shabab – a group believed to have links with the international terrorism network, Al-Qaeda.
The latest report however revealed that the Red Sea nation is still engaged in financing al Shabab, via its embassy in Kenya
Ethiopia’s ministry of justice on Wednesday alleged that Al-Shabab receives 80 thousand dollars from the Eritrea government on a monthly basis.
At workshop held this week aimed to deliberate ways of implementing United Nation’s anti-terrorism strategy in East Africa, Ethiopia justice minister, Berhan Hailu said that Eritrea transfers the money to Al-Shabab through its embassy in Kenya.
Eritrea has repeatedly denied plotting a bomb attack at AU summit and any involvement in funding rebel groups in the region.
Araya Desta, the Eritrean ambassador to the UN, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that the report is “a work of fiction”, calling it was a “fabricated drama” which is “outrageous and ridiculous”.
“Eritrea has no record of acts of terrorism. Ethiopians are our brothers and sisters, there is no reason why we should target them,” Desta said.
He said that the report shows the UN monitoring group’s bias against Eritrea and that it is “part of a wider scheme to push for more sanctions on Eritrea”.
(ST)
kinagonago
Eritrea conspired attack at AU summit, bankrolls Somali rebels – UN
We will get rid of terrorist nations soon. The self-claimed arab Eritrea was given money by terrorist organization to kill African leaders. Shame on Eritrea.
Kinagonago
sebit
Eritrea conspired to attack at AU summit, bankrolls Somali rebels – UN
The eritrean government are trying to be terroiesm since they were supporting al shabab in somalia and now they even complaine about south sudan independance and they forgot about themself when they fought against ethiopia for their independance and even their president he is not even clear himself if he is christain or muslim he never told the world about his faith shame on eritrean president we sudanese in the south and the north are not like eriteran cause eritrean and ethiopian look a like and same religon if thats was sudan we don’t have brake into two like this but i believe eritrean government are very stupid enough to be under arab leadrship islam now even a most eritrean are converten to islam cause they need food and money clothes to wear i think ethiopia need to get eritrea back
Biniam B.
ERITREA’S RESPONSE TO THE ALLEGATION THAT IT PLOTTED A BOMB ATTACK IN ADDIS ABABA DURING THE AFRICAN UNION SUMMIT IN JANUARY 2011
The centerpiece of the SEMG’s (and Ethiopia’s) accusations that Eritrea is engaged in terrorist plots and acts of regional destabilization is the alleged plot to bomb Addis Ababa during the AU Summit in January 2011. The SEMG claims that “although ostensibly an OLF (Oromo Liberation Front) operation”, that it was conceived, planned and directed by Eritrean NSA. It concludes that the “operation was effectively an Eritrean intelligence activity falsely flagged as an OLF initiative.”
The operation is described in a dramatic thriller fashion over several pages of confusing and contradictory narrative, one full of holes. If it is given the opportunity, Eritrea will present a detailed expose that will prove conclusively that the SEMG accusation of Eritrea is utterly unfounded. As to the alleged role of the OLF, the organization can speak for itself.
In this preliminary response, Eritrea presents the following facts and pieces of evidence that underscore that the SEMG’s accusations are not based on solid and conclusive evidence.
The source for the information and “evidence” that underpin the accusation are highly suspicious and not credible. The SEMG admits that its only sources for its allegations are Ethiopian security authorities and alleged perpetrators detained by Ethiopian security. It is obvious that an Ethiopian government that is hostile to Eritrea and actively campaigning for additional sanctions has the desire and the means to tamper with, embellish, distort, even fabricate pieces of evidence. It is also clear that any testimony by detainees in the hands of a government that is well known for routinely resorting to torture cannot contradict the official Ethiopian government version as this would lead to severe consequences for the detainees.
An additional fact that severely tests the credibility of the testimony of the detainees is their claim that the person who allegedly played the central role, Colonel Gemachew Ayana, is an official in Eritrean intelligence and not an OLF official, as we have seen above. If the informants actually played the roles ascribed to them in the narrative of the alleged plot, there is no conceivable reason that they would not know Gemachew was in fact an OLF official. If they knew and deliberately misled the SEMG (to give the benefit of the doubt to the SEMG) into thinking that he was an officer in Eritrean intelligence, then they must have been coached by their handlers with the express purpose of implicating Eritrea.
The SEMG claim that Eritrean officers played the central role in the plot is plain wrong and contradicted by its own narrative. To justify its premise that the attempted bombing of Addis Ababa was an Eritrean operation, the SEMG states that only one OLF detainee, the “team leader Omar Idris Mohamed appears to have been in regular contact with the OLF leadership. All other teams’ members were isolated from OLF structures from the moment of recruitment and received training and orders direct from Eritrean officers.”
It adds that according to Omar (the team leader) “only OLF Chairman Dawud Ibsa was aware of the existence of the special operation and its objective, but does not appear to have exercised any command or control over its actions.”
According to the narrative in the SEMG report, however, and again we are by no means lending any credence to the allegations- it is OLF’s officials who allegedly played the key role.
This is what the narrative says. Back in 2008, “an OLF associate in Kenya put the leader of team 1, Fekadu, in contact with an Eritrean Colonel named Gemachew Ayana.” (As previously stated, Gemachew is in fact an OLF official and not an Eritrean.) Gemachew also approached Omar Idriss Mohammed the overall team leader, who says “that he was contacted in August-September 2009 by OLF Chairman Dawud Ibsa and informed that he would be given a secret assignment.” In March 2010, Gemachew “instructed Fekadu and his team to return to Addis Ababa.” Fekadu “remained in contact with Gemachew with phone records indicating at least 27 conversations.” Gemachew also arranged for “money transfers to team members in Addis Ababa.” According to Omar, it was Gemachew that “gave team members the equipment and explosives that would be used in the operation.” Again, Gemachew “provided final instructions and explosives.” In early January, Omar “requested additional funds from Gemachew.” In the last week of January, “with time running out, Omar felt the need to consult with Gemachew, phone records appear to indicate that they made contact a total of 39 times, mainly initiated by Gemachew.”
There is some mention of Eritreans in the narrative, but in a limited and secondary role, again based on suspicious testimony from detainees.
Even if we allow the narrative is in fact true- and Eritrea believes it isn’t- it is abundantly clear that the alleged attempt was from start to finish an OLF effort.
There are other major problems with the narrative.
It states categorically that the operation did not target the African Union leaders, but then claims that one of the targets was the Sheraton Hotel where most of the leaders were staying.
The report states that a sniper rifle, which allegedly in the possession of one member of the team was sold to Eritrea by Romania as corroborated by the Romanian Government. We will seek to get back to the Sanctions Committee with information on the veracity of this claim. But even if we assume that it is of Eritrean source, this still does not show conclusively when and how the rifle ended up in the hands of the Ethiopian government. On the other hand, the report does not provide any evidence at all that the essential equipment, the explosives, that were going to be used in the alleged plot were sourced from Eritrea.
The SEMG bases much of its claims on an “OLF contact list in Asmara” but it then admits that this key piece of evidence is an outdated one from 2006. Realizing it is on untenable grounds, it flimsily tries to justify itself by claiming that unnamed former OLF members (defectors) had told it that the list is currently valid, forgetting that testimony of defectors, now collaborating with the Ethiopian government cannot be regarded as credible sources.
This account belies the claim that the alleged Addis Ababa operation was conceived, planned and directed by Eritrea. It also shows that there is no incontrovertible evidence of Eritrean involvement, even the limited role that remains once we take into the account that the alleged key actors, those who allegedly had the command and control were non-Eritreans. If given the time, Eritrea wishes to provide crucial extra information pertaining to this sensationalized accusation, which reminds of an earlier accusation by the Monitoring Group that Eritrea had 2000 soldiers in Somalia, with detailed information on when and how they arrived and where in what numbers they were deployed. This showpiece of an earlier report, which proved to have been totally groundless, was used at the time to build a case for sanctions against Eritrea.
Excerpt from “Eritrea’s Preliminary Response to the Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG) Report”