Eritrea has complained to the United Nations Security
Council about Kenyan allegations that it sent weapons to Islamist
rebels in Somalia, calling for an independent investigation to judge
the dispute.
Foreign Minister Osman Saleh said in a letter to the Council that
Eritrea was confident an investigation would find Nairobi’s
“defamatory” accusations to be baseless, and urged the United Nations
to take action against Kenya in the dispute.
Nairobi has accused Eritrea of flying in weapons for al Shabaab, an
insurgent group liked to al Qaeda which has been fighting the
Western-backed Somali government since 2007, and which is now also
battling Kenyan forces.
“If, as Eritrea confidently believes, the investigation determines
that there is no basis whatsoever to the very serious and harmful
accusations by the government of Kenya, Eritrea calls on the Security
Council to take action that would redress the injustice suffered by
the people and government of Eritrea,” Saleh wrote in the letter, seen
by Reuters.
“Defamation of a member state of the United Nations should not be
indulged in with impunity and must not be tolerated, given its
negative implications for regional peace and security,” he said in the
letter, dated November 16.
Kenya sent troops into Somalia, its anarchic neighbour, last month to
rout the insurgents which it blames for kidnappings of Western aid
workers and tourists on Kenyan soil, and frequent cross-border
incursions.
Nairobi says it has credible information that consignments of arms
were flown to the Somali town of Baidoa from Eritrea. Kenyan officials
have said that Eritrean denials are not enough, and that it should go
further and denounce al Shabaab.
Saleh’s letter to Jose Filipe Cabral, the Security Council’s rotating
president for November, gave no details on who might conduct the
investigation, nor did it say what action Eritrea wanted.
However, Eritrea’s envoy to the African Union said the Kenyan
allegations should be publicly dismissed as a first step.
“It is up to the UN Security Council to take whatever action it feels
appropriate and necessary to rectify such baseless allegations and
defamation of a member state,” envoy Girma Asmerom told Reuters.
“However, as a starter, I strongly feel that the UN Security Council
should urge the government of Kenya to publicly rescind its baseless
accusation against Eritrea,” he said.
“Frenzied Campaign”
Kenyan officials have said the weapons consisted of shoulder-fired
rockets, grenades and small arms munitions, and that they have been
moved to areas in southern and central Somalia.
Slapped with an arms embargo, assets freeze and a travel ban for some
of its officials in 2009, Eritrea faces another round of measures over
charges it was aiding militants fighting to overthrow the
internationally-backed Mogadishu government.
Asmara accuses Ethiopia of being behind the claims through a “frenzied
campaign” to isolate and weaken its government. The neighbours fought
a two-year war over disputed territory a decade ago but the frontier
spat has yet to be resolved.
Scores of Ethiopian military vehicles carrying soldiers have been
spotted by residents in Somalia’s frontier towns in what could be a
joint attempt to flush out al Shabaab.
Ethiopian officials, however, say they have yet to decide on deploying
troops, though they are committed to a regional initiative to
stabilise the lawless Horn of Africa country.
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