From: Berhan Sium (eretrawi@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Jul 29 2009 - 18:53:53 EDT
Selam Dehai,
In the wake of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Kenya and projected meeting with Sheikh Sharif Ahmed of the so-called Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (a government confined to a small quarter in Mogadisho), US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, is once again rattling the sabre and issuing threats of sanction against Eritrea. This is totally unacceptable even by the standards of the unilateral hegemonic policies of the US. It is the abysmal failure of years and years of interventionist policies of the US, including the last one in 2006-2007 of proxy war in Somalia through its Ethiopian client regime of Meles Zenawi, trying to prop up an illegitimate "Transitional Federal Goverment" led by Abdullahi Yusuf that led to the total chaos of the current situation in Somalia.
Eritrea's only sin has been to consistently point out that the US sponsored interventionist policy in Somalia is a bankrupt approach that would lead to more strife and untold misery for the Somali people. Eritrea has been consistently seeking and supporting an all-inclusive political solution that would engage ALL Somalis in a broad political process of dialogue and reconciliation to seek a lasting Somali solution (free from any external interference). Eritrea's geographical location, its limited resources, and its principled stand towards the Somali crisis over the past 18 years are ample proof that it has not been arming so-called Somali Islamists. It is the US and client regimes in the region, at the forefront of which is Ethiopia, who are to be blamed, for having violated international norms and resolutions by arming certain favored Somali factions, and ultimately outright invasion of the country in a lawless fashion, to give political and diplomatic
cover for "solutions" which ultimately have proven to be total failures -- in short, it is the US itself who has to blame its policy failures in the Horn of Africa, in general, and Somalia, in particular, and not Eritrea.
Again and again we must tirelessly point out that Eritrea is being unjustly blamed here as a scapegoat and a victim for US policy failures. Ambassador Susan Rice's sabre rattling must be taken seriously and Eritrea needs to proactively counter it diplomatically.
Berhan Sium
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[dehai-news] US's UN ambassador warns Eritrea over Somalia rebels
From: Eri News (er_news@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Jul 29 2009 - 14:28:43 EDT
US's UN ambassador warns Eritrea over Somalia rebels
Wed Jul 29, 2009 1:07pm EDT
WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - Eritrea has only a short time to stop undermining security in Somalia or face possible U.N. sanctions, Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said on Wednesday.
Rice told a congressional committee the United States was "deeply concerned and very frustrated" with Eritrea's behavior in Somalia, including arming and funding Islamist insurgents
"It is unacceptable, and we will not tolerate it, and nor will other members of the Security Council," she told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The U.N. Security Council warned Eritrea this month it would consider action against anyone undermining peace in Somalia.
"We will continue to discuss with colleagues in the Security Council, appropriate measures including potentially sanctions, against Eritrea for its actions in Somalia," Rice told the committee.
"There is a very short window for Eritrea to signal through its actions that it wishes a better relationship with the United States and indeed the wider international community.
"If we do not see signs of that signal in short order, I can assure you that we will be taking appropriate steps with partners in Africa and the Security Council," she said.
Somalia's government and others have accused Eritrea of supplying arms to insurgents in breach of a U.N. embargo that allows such shipments only to the government.
The African Union, which has a force of 4,300 peacekeepers in Somalia, has called on the United Nations to impose sanctions on Eritrea for backing the rebels.
Eritrean officials deny the charges of arms supplies.
Al Qaeda-linked fighters belonging to the al Shabaab insurgent group control much of southern and central Somalia and most of the capital Mogadishu.
Rice said the Eritreans had rebuffed repeated U.N. attempts to discuss the situation. She said that Eritrea had essentially "stiffed and stonewalled" the U.N. (Editing by Alan Elsner)
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