Somalia: not piracy catch all thread

[SWJED]

28 July BBC - Eritrea 'Arming' Somali Militia.

Insurgents in Somalia have received huge numbers of weapons in secret shipments from Eritrea, the UN says.

There are now more arms in Somalia than at any time since the civil war started in 1991, the UN report says.

Eritrea, which has repeatedly denied aiding the insurgents, dismissed the report as a "total fabrication"...

[Beelzebubalicious]

It's worth reading the UN monitoring report in full. There's some interesting information in here. I like the statement by Zalmay Khalilazad on behalf of the US Government that the US conducted several strikes in self defense against Al Qaida operatives and that these attacks didn't violate the "plain meaning" of the UN Security Council Resolution requiring a "general and complete embargo on all deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Somalia".

Here's a link to the full Somalia Monitoring report:
http://www.eritreadaily.net/News0307/RPRTSOMMNGRP.pdf

there's also some good analysis and interview on VOA with Timothy Othieno, a senior researcher at the Institute for Global Dialogue in Midrand, South Africa. He basically states that there is a proxy war being fought in Somalia between Ethiopia and Eritrea and that it stems from the unresolved border dispute (mainly the issue of the return of Badme to Eritrea) and that the UN (and by extension, international community) is to blame for not enforcing the border ruling.

http://www.voanews.com/english/Afric...7-27-voa27.cfm

[Jedburgh]

HRW, 13 Aug 07: Shell-Shocked: Civilians Under Siege in Mogadishu

...The conflict in Mogadishu in 2007 involves Ethiopian and Somali government forces against a coalition of insurgent groups. It is a conflict that has been marked by numerous violations of international humanitarian law that have been met with a shameful silence and inaction on the part of key foreign governments and international institutions.

Violations of the laws of war documented in this report include the deployment of insurgent forces in densely populated neighborhoods and the widespread, indiscriminate bombardment of these areas by Ethiopian forces. The deliberate nature of these bombardments, evidence of criminal intent, strongly suggests the commission of war crimes....