Eritrea calls emergency meeting on Somalia

By Peter Martell

Asmara - Eritrea is calling for an emergency east African meeting to discuss the situation in Somalia, where it and arch-foe Ethiopia have been accused of waging a proxy war, officials said Thursday.

As all-out war that many fear could engulf the Horn of Africa looms in the lawless nation, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki urged a crisis meeting of regional foreign ministers, they said.

The call comes as Somalia's powerful Islamist movement continues to threaten the weak Ethiopian-backed Somali government and follows
UN Security Council authorisation last week of east African peacekeepers to aid the administration.

Eritrea denies charges by UN experts that it is arming the Islamists but has sided with the movement in opposing the deployment of a peacekeeping mission by the regional ter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

In a statement posted to the government's official website, Isaias said the UN step, which also eases a 14-year-old arms embargo on Somalia to equip the force, "is both distorted and one that would further aggravate the situation."

"Deploying peacekeepers in Somalia, partially lifting the arms embargo and supporting one side not only worsens the problem but also lacks clear objective," he said, adding the UN move lacks
"legal and moral responsibility."

"If a peacekeeping mission is at all to be deployed, it has to be done purely with the consent of both parties," Isaias said, calling for a return to peace talks that collapsed last month in Khartoum.

"In order for the Somali problem to be solved peacefully, the peace process taking place under the auspices of the Sudanese government could be facilitated by IGAD," he said.

The statement said the president called for the special meeting in a message sent to the seven-member IGAD's executive committee on
Tuesday.

There was no immediate reaction Thursday to the proposal from IGAD, which is deeply split over the peacekeepers with Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and the Somali government in favour and Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan opposed.

The Islamists have declared holy war on Ethiopian troops now in Somalia protecting the government and have vowed the same against any foreign soldiers, including peacekeepers, sent into the
country.

Eritrea and Ethiopia, still at odds over their unresolved bloody 1998-2000 border war, are two of 10 countries said by UN arms experts to be backing the rival Somali sides in violation of the
14-year-old embargo.

According to a report last month, they have sent thousands of troops each to Somalia, Eritrea on the side of the Islamists and Ethiopia on the side of the government, raising fears the country
has become a proxy battlefield.

Eritrea vehemently denies the charges while Ethiopia says it has sent only several hundred military trainers and advisers to assist the UN-backed but feeble Somali government, which is confined to the town of Baidoa.

Somalia has been without a functioning central government since the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre plunged the country into anarchy.

The government, created two years ago in neighbouring Kenya, has been riddled with infighting and unable to assert authority
particularly since the Islamists seized Mogadishu in June and now control much of southern and central Somalia.
Source: Sapa-AFP (Independent Online)