Somali govt wants arms

2005-11-30 11:05

Jowhar - Lawless Somalia's nascent and largely powerless transitional government has the right to recruit and equip its own security forces, despite a 13-year-old UN arms embargo, say senior east African officials on Tuesday.

Amid deep concerns about the anarchic nation's possible descent into further chaos and calls for the embargo to be tightened, they said the leaders of the deeply divided government should be allowed to arm an army and police force.

Ministers and senior officials from the seven-nation Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) meeting said there was no reason the embattled Somali government should be prevented from asserting the country's legitimate right to self-defence.

International co-operation

IGAD said: "Somalia has a legitimate government and ... the solemn right to establish, train and equip its law enforcement authority, while seeking regional and international co-operation towards achieving the goal of lifting the UN arms embargo."

The statement was released after a one-day meeting of top officials from the bloc - which groups Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and nominally Somalia - aimed at supporting the deeply divided Somali government.

The administration of transitional president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and prime minister Ali Mohammed Gedi - the latest effort in more than a dozen attempts to restore stability to the war-ravaged nation since it was plunged into chaos 14 years ago - had been paralysed by and internal dispute over the seat of the government.

Capital 'too unsafe'

After leaving its home in June from exile in Kenya, where it was created last year, the government had been split between Mogadishu and Jowhar, with each camp becoming increasingly belligerent over the divide.

Yusuf and Gedi had set up shop in Jowhar, claiming the capital was too unsafe while their foes, including cabinet ministers, MPs and warlords insisted that Mogadishu must be the home of any Somali government.

Tuesday's IGAD meeting in Jowhar was intended to show support for Yusuf and Gedi.

UN security council

IGAD's support for the transitional government buying weapons, came after the United Nations security council this month condemned violations of the arms embargo and warned the rival factions that any use of force to resolve their differences was "unacceptable".

In October, the security council called for the embargo to be tightened after an independent panel reported that weapons shipments to both sides were increasing as the dispute worsened.

At the time, the 15-member council slammed "the significant increase in the flow of weapons and ammunition supplies to and through Somalia, which constituted a violation of the arms embargo and a serious threat to the Somali peace process".

- AFP