U.N.: Eritrea Has Armed Islamic Fighters

[General Duke]

U.N.: Eritrea Has Armed Islamic Fighters

 

By CHRIS TOMLINSON

Thursday, July 26, 2007

 

Islamic insurgents have enough surface-to-air missiles, suicide vests and explosives to sustain their war against the internationally backed Somali government, largely due to secret shipments from Eritrea, a U.N. monitoring panel said in a report.

 

The report, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, said Eritrea has shipped a "huge quantity of arms" to the insurgents, known as the Shabab. The shipments continued despite U.N. efforts to bring peace to Somalia and the deployment of African Union peacekeepers.

 

 

 

Somali's are trained how to handle assault rifles, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006 at the Arbiska training camp just outside the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Eritrea has secretly supplied "huge quantities of arms" to a Somali insurgent group with alleged ties to al-Qaida in violation of an international arms embargo and despite the deployment of African peacekeepers, U.N. arms experts have concluded."Somalia is awash with arms," the experts said in a report to the U.N. Security Council obtained by the Associated Press on Thursday July 26 2007.(AP Photo) Eritrea denied providing any assistance to the Shabab, the militant wing of an Islamic group that ruled much of southern Somalia for six months last year. U.S. officials believe the militants have close ties to al-Qaida.

 

There are more arms in Somalia now than at any time since the country's civil war broke out in 1991 and "there is no clearly established authority that has the capability of exercising control over a majority of the arms," the report found.

 

The Monitoring Group on Somalia was appointed by the U.N. Security Council to report on violations of the arms embargo on Somalia established in 1992.

 

Since the start of the civil war, various clans and religious groups have struggled for power, dividing Somalia into warring fiefdoms. In December, Ethiopia sent troops into Somalia to save the U.N.-backed administration that was under attack from the Islamic group in the south.

 

Ethiopian and government troops have since come under near daily attacks by the Shabab, and the Islamic leadership continues to operate from Eritrea.

 

Since December, "huge quantities of arms have been provided to the Shabab by and through Eritrea," the U.N. monitors said. Eritrea has supplied the insurgents with SA-18 surface-to-air-missiles, one of which was used to shoot down a Belarussian cargo plane on March 23, the U.N. said.

 

"The SA-18 was reported to be part of a consignment of six SA-18s that had been delivered by Eritrea to (the Shabab)," the report said. "The group has also learned ... that additional missiles may be secreted in arms caches."

 

The monitoring group also determined that the Ethiopian military intervention, also a violation of the U.N. arms embargo, succeeded in only scattering the Shabab and that it remains a potent guerrilla force with enough explosives to continue suicide attacks against the government.

 

Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu denied that his country has provided any assistance to the Shabab.

 

"It is a total fabrication and the intention of the report is to depict it as if there is a proxy war between Eritrea and Ethiopia," Abdu told the AP from Asmara, the Eritrean capital.

 

In past reports, the U.N. monitors have said almost a dozen countries were supplying arms or cash to the warring parties in Somalia. The latest report was likely to fuel fears that Somalia is becoming an Ethiopia-Eritrea war by proxy.

 

Ethiopia and its much smaller neighbor Eritrea fought a border war to a stalemate from 1998-2002, and Ethiopia has so far refused to give up territory granted to Eritrea under an internationally mediated agreement.

 

In a letter attached to the U.N. report, Eritrea's ambassador to the U.N. claimed his country was the victim of "continuous and deliberate subtle disinformation campaigns," and accused Ethiopia of "destabilizing military adventurism" in Somalia.

 

The U.N. allegations revolve around a chartered Boeing 707 cargo plane that made 13 flights from Asmara to Mogadishu, Somalia's capital. Despite Eritrean denials, the flights were confirmed by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the report said.

 

The monitoring group also requested information from the United States concerning airstrikes carried out on Jan. 7 and Jan. 23 and a naval bombardment on June 1. The U.S. government acknowledged in a letter to the group that it had "conducted several strikes in self-defense against al-Qaida terrorist targets." The U.S. sees Ethiopia as a partner in the war on terror.

 

Arms prices in Somalia have skyrocketed with the growing Islamic insurgency against the government, the experts found. Warlords were the most important buyers as the country appeared to be descending back into chaos.

 

"They had lost control of their fiefdoms after the Islamic Courts Union took over central and southern Somalia during 2006," the report said. "The Monitoring Group has received information that the warlords are currently trying to reconstitute and arm their respective militias."

 

The group recommended more support for the government in efforts to reach peace deals with the various armed groups, start a disarmament program and eliminate the main arms markets in downtown Mogadishu. It also recommended professional police and border control forces to end the smuggling of weapons.

[General Duke]

Qaramada Midoobay oo eedayn kulul u jeedisay Wadanka Ereteria hub iyo tababaro ay si toosa u siisay kooxaha argagixisada ee ka hawl gala somalia.

 

Khubaro dhinaca hubka ah oo ka tirsan qaramada midoobay ayaa warbixin dheer oo ka diyaariyeen arimaha somalia iyo saamaynta ay ku leeyihiin wadamada dibadu waxay ku sheegeen in wadanka Ereteria uu hubkii ugu faraha badnaa u diray wadanka somalia isagoo ku taageeraya in qalalaase iyo xasilooni daro ay ka wadaan kooxaha gacan saarka la leh Alqaacida ee ka dagaalama magaalada muqdisho.

 

Waxaa khuburadani sheegeen in wadanka ereteria uu si cad u jabiyay xayiraadii dhinaca hubka ahayd ee la saaray wadanka somalia 1992 sidoo kalana wadanka ereteria xarun wayn ka siiyay dalkiisa kooxaha ku kacsan dawlada somalia ee ka haray maxkamadihii islaamiga.

 

Wasiir u hadlay wadanka ereteria oo ah wadanka labaad ee ugu yar qaarada africa marka laga reebo wadanka Djabuti ayaa siwayn u beeniyay hadalka ka soo yeeray qaramada midoobay isagoo ku tilmaamay mid u xaglinaya dhinac.

 

Ereteria waxay sheegtay inaan warbixinta QM. marnaba lagu soo qaadin ciidamada kumanaanka gaaraya oo ku hubaysan nooc kasta oo hub ah ee Ethiopia ay galisay wadanka somalia.

[Abwaan]

So what? Ethiopia invaded Somalia why don't they condemn that?

[Fabregas]

Originally posted by Abwaan:

So what? Ethiopia invaded Somalia why don't they condemn that?

Ethiopia was accused of using chemical weapons,something which Mr Duke scorned at when it was suggested during the fighting.

 

 

quoteMinneapolis (kilil5)--In a hotly constested report by both Ethiopia and Eritrea, the United Nations alleges that Ethiopian forces used a controversial and banned chemical white Phosphorus on insurgents during the fight for Mogadishu.

According the the United Nations report,the Ethiopian military used white phosphorous bombs to kill 15 insurgents and 35 civilians in Mogadishu in April. Eye witnesses and mogadishu residents said the bombs melted the insurgent fighters and civilians cought in the cross-fire at the point of impact and those exposed to the phosphorus in immediate surroundings.

Weapon grade phosphorus if it comes into contact with the skin melts humans, including their bones. This is because,phosphorus is a very reactive chemical agents, has multiple bonds and reacts with oxygen from human cells. Humans body consists 70-90% of water, and water in our bodies are made of two elements of hydrogen and one element of oxygen. Phosphorus reacts with this oxygen, literally melting our bodies if we are exposed to it. This is why it is a banned chemical agent in wars but governments including the United States, and Israel continue to use them. The UN has accused the United States and Israel of using Phosphorus in Iraq and Lebanon by Israel last summer.

The Ethiopian government denied this and called the accusation “baseless,”. However,United Nation monitors provided bomb scene photographs and evidence which showed melted bodies of insurgents and civilians. The UN report also provides Soil samples and tests conducted at the site of bomb impacts which yielded abnormal amounts of phosphorus, as high as 117 times the amount of normal phosphorus in a normal Soil.

The report also detailed for the first time to the media the casualties of Ethiopian troops sustained from one of the many suicide missions targeting Ethiopian troops during the hight of the insurgency in Mogadishu. Although the media reported the suicide attack at the time, no one knew the casualty figures sustained by Ethiopian troops. The government usually doesn't report to the media casualties inflicted on Ethiopian troops.

The report says that 63 Ethiopian soldiers were killed and more than 50 wounded,a deadly suicide mission, making it one of the deadliest suicides in Somalia but one that had been under-reported and down played at the time.

Had it been reported at the time, it would have caused a significant embarrassment to the Ethiopian Armed forces, Ethiopian mission to Somalia and probably would have caused a public outcry.