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Ethiopia 'smuggle weapons'
11/05/2005 11:25 - (SA)
Nairobi - A group of Somali lawmakers in-exile on Tuesday accused Ethiopia of smuggling weapons to militias in Somalia in violation of a 13-year-old UN arms embargo on the war-shattered Horn of Africa nation.
The members of parliaments' charges, made in Nairobi and Mogadishu, were immediately denied by a senior Ethiopian official in Kenya, where Somalia's transitional government had been based since it was since created last year due to insecurity at home.
But, 83 lawmakers, including ministers in the transitional government, were insistent about Ethiopian activity that they said could lead to an imminent explosion of violence in Somalia's central Bakol and Bay regions.
Abdalla Haji Ali of the gruoup said: "Besides donating assorted weapons to favored factions, unfortunately Ethiopian military personnel crossed deep in to Somali regions of Bakol and Bay in the last 48 hours."
Violent clashes between rival warlords
He said: "It is a matter of hours or very few days before an Ethiopian-masterminded war breaks out in Baidoa."
Baidoa, about 250km from Mogadishu in southern Somalia, was the scene of violent clashes between rival warlords, where the government should move when it eventually relocates from exile in Kenya.
Hassan Mohamed Nur "Shatigudud," who served as agriculture minister in the transitional government, was ousted from control of Baidoa in the fighting by Mohamed Ibrahim Habsade, allegedly with backing from Mogadishu warlords.
The MPs on Tuesday said Shatigudud was a prime beneficiary of the allegedly smuggled Ethiopian arms and urged the UN security council to take immediate action to prevent a collapse in the fragile peace process.
Ali said: "We are appealing to the UN security council to tame the violent behavior of Ethiopia, which could renew bloodshed in Somalia and destroy the peace process that led to a formation of a transitional government in Kenya."
Restoring peace and stability
Ethiopia was regarded with deep suspicion by many in Somalia due to its past support for a Somali faction opposed to a new government and many in the lawless nation had vehemently protested the inclusion of Ethiopian troops in a proposed regional peacekeeping mission.
Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, Ajabe Digaba Walde, denounced the MPs charges as "despicable lies" and said Addis Ababa fully supported the goal of restoring peace and stability to the country after 14 years of anarchy.
Walde said: "The accusations that Ethiopian troops have crossed into are not true and we have not given arms to any factions.
"These are the usual and despicable lies. Ethiopia's concern is to see peaceful Somalia."
Somalia had been in chaos without any functioning central authority since the fall of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 turned the nation into a patchwork of fiefdoms ruled by warlords.
- SAPA
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