18 November 2006

Eritrea on Saturday joined several nations that denied accusations by UN experts of violating a 1992 arms embargo on Somalia where rivals are now preparing for war.

Asmara slammed allegations it had supplied weapons, including sophisticated shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, 2000 troops and training to Somalia's powerful Islamists as a plot to discredit it and destabilize the region.

It called the charges contained in a report presented on Friday to the UN Security Council "baseless and groundless" and blamed the UN experts who prepared it for falling prey to a "sinister agenda" of the United States.

"Eritrea's role and clear position regarding the issue of Somalia is to leave the matter to the Somalis themselves," said an editorial posted on the state-run website, shabait.com.

"Eritrea remains keen to extend political encouragement to the just cause of the Somali people to create a ground for national reconciliation, dialogue and enable Somalis to live in peace and harmony," it said.

"There is no other agenda beyond that."

The UN report paints a grim picture of illegal militarisation in Somalia, where the Islamists and weak government are now on the brink of all-out war that that many fear could engulf the Horn of Africa region in conflict.

In their 80-page report, the UN experts accuse Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the Lebanese Shi'a Hezbollah militia of supplying weapons to the Islamists, many with Eritrean assistance.

They said that Ethiopia, Uganda and Yemen are providing weapons and troops to the government and that the potential exists for Somalia to become a proxy battleground for arch-foes Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Since the report emerged, Iran, Libya, Syria, Uganda and now Eritrea have specifically denied the charges.

Ethiopia has admitted sending military advisers to help the government but denied sending the thousands of troops.

The Eritrean editorial dismissed the report's proxy war suggestion as a "fairy tale" and said its conclusions were part of a US-backed plot.

"Prolonging and complicating conflicts has become the main concern of the US administration so as to implement its sinister agenda," the editorial said.

It noted that Washington had been behind a covert operation to back Mogadishu warlords against the Islamists that failed when the city fell in June to Islamist forces who have since taken most of southern and central Somalia.

The editorial branded the United Nations as an "extension of the US State Department" that is claimed is "micro-administered by the CIA".

Source: AFP

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