Lifting Arms Embargo On Somalia Rebuffed

[Paragon]

Lifting Arms Embargo On Somalia Rebuffed As UN Monitoring Group is Given Extra Six Months

 

Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)

NEWS

November 30, 2006

Posted to the web November 30, 2006

 

By Aweys Osman Yusuf

Mogadishu

 

After Hours of debate about the worsening situation in the war-ravaged country Somalia, UN Security Council has finally urged members to abide by preserving the arms embargo imposed on Somalia in 1992, condemning countries letting flow of weapons in Somalia. Security Council member states including the United States were expected to pass a draft resolution to partially ease the arms embargo on Somalia so that African peacekeepers from the Intergovernmental authority on Development (IGAD) member states would be deployed in Somalia.

 

The most anticipated resolution of alleviating the embargo on Somalia was postponed indefinitely as UN Security Council instead turned their concentration on a report posted on the internet by UN monitoring team, which revealed ten countries that breached the arms embargo by supplying Somalia's vying sides with weapons and money. Most of the countries blamed have denied any involvement in arming the transnational government or the Union of Islamic Courts.

 

UN monitoring team for Somalia's arms embargo has had their work approved by the Security Council and was given extra six months to proceed their work of preserving the embargo and report to the Security Council about countries that violate UN resolutions of the arms embargo on Somalia.

 

Analysts said if the embargo on Somalia were lifted, the country would fall back to civil war as famine, starvation and malnutrition would once again wipe out the civilian population in the Horn of Africa like early 1990s when US military forces went to Somalia for relief operations but ended in disaster.

 

The Islamic Courts leaders who spoke at a massive rally in the capital Tuesday stated they would invite world Muslims to come to Somalia and fight alongside the Islamist fighters against the foreign troops in the country, Ethiopia in particular.

 

The unanimous resolution by member states of UN Security Council has called on the weak transitional federal government based in Baidoa, 250 km southwest of the capital and the Union of Islamic Courts based in most central and southern parts of the country to go back to the negotiating table in the Sudanese capital Khartoum for the third round of peace talks without a delay.

 

United States assistant secretary of state for African affairs Jendiya Frazer said the US government campaigned for partially lifting the arms embargo on Somalia to let peacekeeping forces from East African states go in Somalia to consolidate the tenuous government. She said the transitional government lacks military muscles to face the powerful Islamic Courts forces that sieged the small town of Baidoa headquartered by the government.

 

Frazer also indicated that US government's objective in Somalia was to form a sort a military balance between the Somali government and the Union of Islamic Courts so that Islamic Courts would not claim military dominance but rather should yield to peace talks with the government.

 

Islamic Courts defeated US backed warlords in deadly battles in which several hundreds of Somali civilians have lost their lives early June this year and then expanded to most central and southern provinces in Somalia, including the capital Mogadishu.

 

The country's central authority collapsed in 1991 when tribal warlords ousted former president Siad Barre and then turned on one another throwing the country into factional clan and sub-clan wars.

[Paragon]

UN approves Somalia arms embargo

 

Published: 30-NOV-06

 

Mogadishu - The United Nations (UN) Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution enjoining all member states to comply fully with the 1992 arms embargo on lawless Somalia.

 

The resolution, sponsored by Qatar, was adopted just as the council was mulling a Unites States draft calling for an easing of the embargo to allow plans for a regional East African peacekeeping force to deploy to Somalia.

 

The proposed 8 000-strong peacekeeping mission would be manned by troops from the seven-nation East African regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad).

 

The Qatari text stresses the obligation of all member states to comply with the measures imposed in resolution 733. That resolution, adopted in January 1992, one year after the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, slapped an arms embargo on Somalia.

 

Wednesday's council resolution stressed the need for specific measures to improve implementation of the embargo and called on UN chief Kofi Annan to extend for six months the mandate of a panel of independent experts tasked with monitoring enforcement of the arms ban.

 

The panel said the embargo was regularly violated just as Somalia is on the brink of an all-out war between the weak, transitional government, which is said to be backed by Ethiopian forces, and powerful Islamist forces.

 

The US draft would authorise Igad and African Union member states to "establish a protection and training mission" in Somalia. That mission would protect transitional federal institutions based in Baidoa, located about 250km northwest of the capital Mogadishu, and maintain security there.

 

The US draft would ease the arms embargo to allow "supplies of weapons and military equipment and technical training and assistance intended solely for the support or use by the (Igad) force." Diplomats have warned the conflict in Somalia could engulf the entire Horn of Africa region.

 

The Islamists, who have vehemently opposed the planned deployment of the Igad force, seized Mogadishu in June after months of fighting and then grabbed most of southern and central Somalia where they have imposed strict Sharia law.

 

Analysts have accused Horn of Africa arch-foes Ethiopia and Eritrea, who are still at odds over their unresolved border dispute, of fighting a proxy war in Somalia.

 

Addis Ababa denied claims that it had sent thousands of combat troops to Somalia, insisting that it has only deployed a few hundred military experts to train and advise the Somali government.

 

Eritrea has also flatly rejected the claims, but said Ethiopia should stay out of Somalia. Sapa-AFP

 

Source: Bussiness in Africa

[Gabbal]

That's because the anticipation for the lifting of the arms embargo was politically naive. Qaraar qabyadi maraykanka kuma saabsanayn ka qaadida xayiraada hubka ee Somaliyoo dhan saaran. Tooda waxay ku saabsanayd ka qaadid gaar ah ee loogu talagalay waxay yiraahdaan "peace-keepers". Welina taa lama hor keenin golaha amaanka.

[Paragon]

^^ Waxaan ka hadlayaa 'arms embargo' sxb. Peace-keepers in ay iman karin dalka baan ogahay illeene. Peace-keeping force la shaagayo xitaa u malayn maayo ineey suurta geli doonto, balse waanba wada joognaa oo sidey wax noqdaan waa la arki doona, Insha-Allaah.

[Gabbal]

^Well yeah, I was talking about the arms embargo also or the misunderstanding all Somalis, including their medias from both sides, had about the American resolution.