The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Monday to tighten the ten-year-old but only lightly-enforced arms embargo on Somalia.
Resolution 1425, which was presented by Norway, bans direct, government to government deliveries as well as financing and military advisors and puts in place a committee charged with setting guidelines for violations and enforcement.
Violations were “severely undermining peace and security and the political efforts for national reconciliation in Somalia,” according to the wording of the resolution.
A July 11 UN report revealed that amongst others, the United States, Ethiopia and Iran had at some time supplied arms to Somalia in violation of the existing embargo.
Without the control of a central government since the early 1990s, Somalia is considered ideal ground for terrorist groups such as al-Qaida. A naval blockade of the country is in place in an effort to prevent al-Qaida members fleeing Afghanistan from entering.
The Barakaat organisation, which operates as the central bank in Somalia, is also suspected by the United States of collaborating with terrorist groups.
“We focus on the need to put a damper on the free flow of arms coming through the borders (of Somalia),” said British ambassador to the UN and current Security Council chairman Jeremy Greenstock.
The country most frequently mentioned in the UN’s July report was Ethiopia, which it says supplied not only small-calibre arms but mortars and anti-aircraft artillery to groups opposed to Somalia’s transitional government in June 2001.
The United States supported Ethiopia, which in turn armed and trained Somali warlords, according to the UN document.
The transitional government was put in place in the summer of 2000 with the support of the international community, but in reality has little authority outside certain sectors of the Mogadishu.
The United States also supplied 5 000 assault rifles and 5 000 handguns to “the Somali police force” in March 1994, while Poland and Latvia weighed in with hand grenades, automatic pistols and other munitions.
Iran and Libya are named in the report as suppliers of mortars, grenades and other armaments. Other countries mentioned as having broken the UN arms embargo were Djibouti, Dubai, Eritrea and Yemen.
“There is a common view that the embargo has not been enforced effectively since it was established in 1992, the report concludes. – AFP