The government of Eritrea categorically rejects accusations by the United Nations Security Council that it is supplying arms to destabilize Somalia's Transitional Government, which is a product of "ill-advised formulas," according to a letter addressed to the president of the Security Council made public on Friday.
"I wish to put on record my government's strong opposition to, and categorical rejection of, the unsubstantiated accusations leveled against my country," said Eritrean Ambassador to the UN Araya Desta in a May 19 letter. "As my government has underlined on many occasions, the highly complex and grave conflict in Somalia will not be resolved by arbitrary and ill-advised formulas that have no basis in international law and that do not reflect the wishes and sovereign political choices of the Somali people."
On May 18, the 15-nation Council adopted a presidential statement expressing its "concern over reports that Eritrea has supplied arms to those opposing the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in breach of the UN arms embargo" and called on the Sanctions Monitoring Group to investigate.
In his letter, Desta said that Eritrea has been "falsely accused of 'sending troops or supplying weapons' to 'this or that Somali faction' on several occasions before" and alluded that such accusations were motivated and "conveniently timed with illegal acts of interference and invasion of Somalia by certain powers and their regional allies."
In 2006, backed by the Security Council and the United States, Ethiopia invaded Somalia to oust Al-Shabab -- once the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union, which was designated a terrorist group by the United States and declared to be affiliated with the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Subsequently, Somalia's weak Transitional Federal Government ( TFG) was installed, led by one of the former Islamic Courts Union leaders, and a peace agreement was signed in Khartoum, Sudan.
But from the start, the TFG was viewed with suspicion as being under the power of neighboring Ethiopia, a country with a large Christian population. But perhaps more importantly, the TFG has failed to bring stability to the region, causing Somali and neighboring populations to become increasingly disillusioned.
"'Transitional Governments' that are periodically hatched in non-inclusive incubators outside Somalia have never survived the test of time in the past years in spite of the huge military and financial support extended to them by their external sponsors," said Desta in his letter, adding that the Security Council's endorsement of Ethiopia's invasion was "deplorable" and created " two years of chaos and mayhem."
"Over half a million Somalis were dislocated, numerous villages pulverized in indiscriminate air attacks, and tens of thousands of civilians killed," he said. "At the time, the broad collation of the Union of Islamic Courts was routinely condemned, wrongly labeled as 'the epicenter of terrorism' while the 'Transitional Government' of the day was condoned as the sole legitimate authority."
Desta called into question the reports on which the Security Council made its decision to accuse Eritrea of destabilizing the TFG. Their "origins, underlying motivation and veracity have neither been acknowledged nor ascertained," said the letter.
The international community, beleaguered by pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia, has taken a renewed interest in the country' s stability and has reaffirmed its support for the TFG as the legitimate authority.
This, Desta said, is "an experiment" that has not proved fruitful.
(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2009)
