Islamist militia guards a rally in Buur Hakaba, (10 Nov. 2006).

EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 18, 2006 - The authors of a controversial U.N. report that accused 10 countries of providing weapons, money and training to rival sides in Somalia briefed a Security Council committee Friday amid denials and complaints from many of those named.

The closed-door briefing to the committee monitoring a 1992 arms embargo against Somalia follows leaks of the report, which raised skepticism among experts and diplomats about some of its allegations.

In particular, critics question the finding that 720 Somali mercenaries fought alongside Hezbollah in its July battle with Israel and that Iran shipped arms to Somalia's Islamic militants in return for access to uranium mines.

Qatar's U.N. Ambassador Nassir Al-Nasser, who chairs the sanctions committee, said the committee will meet again on Tuesday afternoon to decide whether to send the report to the 15-member Security Council with or without a recommendation.

"No doubt this is a very complicated report, and that's why I asked for another meeting for the committee only," he said.

The four-member panel monitoring the sanctions, which includes a Belgian, an American, a Kenyan and a Colombian, based the report on their own investigations, interviews and material supplied by embassies in Nairobi, Kenya.

Several participants at the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity because the session was closed, said some committee members raised questions about verifying the information.

The panel found that Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Iran, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Uganda had all supported armed groups inside Somalia. Most of the nations denied the allegations in letters to the panel.

Al-Nasser said Thursday that "countries are really very upset." Many countries complained to him and to the president of the Security Council "that they should talk to those people before they put their name on the report," he said.

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another. A government was formed with the help of the U.N. two years ago, but has struggled to assert its authority.

Islamic militants, meanwhile, have been rising up since June and now control the capital and most of the country's south.

Experts say Somalia could become a proxy battleground for neighboring Ethiopia and Eritrea, which broke away from Ethiopia in a 1961-91 civil war and fought another 1998-2000 border war with its rival. Eritrea supports the Islamic militia, while Ethiopia backs the interim government.

On Thursday, Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts called the report "fabrication" and denied having links or receiving weapons from the countries or groups mentioned in the U.N. report.

Hezbollah's senior political officer in south Lebanon, Sheik Hassan Ezzeddine, rejected the report as "baseless."

Egypt's Foreign Ministry on Friday denied it was supplying guns, money or training to Somalis.

"Egypt expresses great surprise and anguish that such totally incorrect and untrue allegations have been included in U.N. reports prepared by Western experts whose political affiliations are not known," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Source: The Associated Press

Home | Contact us | Links | Archives