Exclusive: U.N. monitors warn of 'systematic' Somali arms diversion
By
<
http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=uk&n=louis.charbonne
au&> Louis Charbonneau
20 Feb 12, 2014 - 10:11:50 PM
(Reuters) - A confidential U.N. monitors' report warns of "systematic
abuses" by Somalia's government, which the monitors say has allowed the
diversion of weapons Somali authorities purchased after the U.N. Security
Council eased an arms embargo on Mogadishu last year.
Some of the arms believed to have been diverted in the conflict-torn Horn of
Africa nation were earmarked for a leader of the al Qaeda-linked Islamist
militant group al Shabaab, the monitors said in their report, which was
obtained by Reuters.
In their 14-page report to the Security Council's sanctions committee, the
U.N. Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group recommends either restoring the
full arms embargo or at least tightening notification and reporting
requirements related to arms deliveries.
"The Monitoring Group has identified a number of issues and concerns over
current management of weapons and ammunition stockpiles by the Federal
Government of Somalia (FGS), which point to high-level and systematic abuses
in weapons and ammunition management and distribution," the report said.
The monitoring group is a panel of independent experts that track compliance
with the U.N. Somalia-Eritrea sanctions regime.
The council's decision to ease Somalia's decades-old arms embargo last March
was a controversial one. Some members of the 15-nation council disagreed
with it, although Washington supported the Somali government's appeals for
relaxing restrictions to enable it to better arm its security forces to
fight al Shabaab.
The new report details difficulties the monitors have had in getting access
to weapons stockpiles in Somalia and information about the country's growing
arsenal. It says the government canceled several inspections of Somali
armories the monitors and U.N. officials in Somalia had planned to
undertake.
The monitors describe how parts of shipments of weapons from Uganda and
Djibouti, including assault rifles, rocket launchers, grenades and
ammunition "could not be accounted for." The report also mentioned
discrepancies about what had happened to arms sent from Ethiopia.
"Given the gaps in information ... it is impossible to quantify what the
scale of diversion of weapons stocks have been," the report said. "However,
the Monitoring Group has obtained other pieces of qualitative evidence that
point towards systematic abuses by the (Somali army)."
AL SHABAAB
The Security Council imposed the embargo on Somalia in 1992 to cut the flow
of weapons to feuding warlords, who a year earlier had ousted dictator
Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the country into civil war. Somalia held its
first vote since 1991 in 2012 to elect a president and prime minister.
For two decades Somalia was virtually lawless.
The monitors' report said that it has identified at least two clan-based
"centers of gravity" for arms procurement within Somali government
structures that are distributing arms to "parallel security forces and clan
militias that are not part of the Somali security forces."
One of those groups is within the Abgaal sub-clan of Somali President Hassan
Sheikh Mohamud, who last month said he wanted the U.N. Security Council to
extend the partial lifting of the embargo beyond its March expiry because
government troops needed more and better equipment to battle al Shabaab.
The monitors' report said "a key adviser to the president, from his Abgaal
sub-clan, has been involved in planning weapons deliveries to al Shabaab
leader Sheikh Yusuf Isse ... who is also Abgaal."
The report also referred to the role played by a Somali government minister
from the sub-clan Habar Gedir in relation to arms purchases from a "foreign
government in the Gulf" - a government the report does not identify.
"The Monitoring Group has received credible evidence of un-notified weapons
deliveries by air from the Gulf state to Mogadishu during the course of
October 2013, which would constitute a direct violation of the arms
embargo," it said.
"Indeed, after delivery, some of the weapons were moved to a private
location in Mogadishu," the monitors said.
The easing of the U.N. arms embargo has allowed sales of such weapons as
automatic assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, but left in place a
ban on surface-to-air missiles, large-caliber guns, howitzers, cannons and
mortars as well as anti-tank guided weapons, mines and night vision weapon
sights.
"The trends described above demonstrate that the implementation of the
(government's) security policy is being captured by clan and sub-clan
politics," the report said.
"Weapons distribution along clan lines for the prosecution of clan warfare
is ultimately reducing the prospect of a cohesive strategy by the
(government) against al Shabaab."
The report said private arms markets have popped up in Mogadishu where
weapons diverted from the army have been sold.
The monitoring group presented eight options for the arms embargo next month
when the current easing of weapons-import restrictions expires. The options
it offers the Security Council range from lifting the arms embargo
altogether to restoring the full embargo and possibly adding new measures.
The monitoring group recommends either restoring the full embargo as it was
before the restrictions were eased last year or at least keeping it as is
and introducing stricter rules regarding notifying and reporting to the U.N.
sanctions committee regarding arms sales to Somalia.
It also suggests the possibility of beefing up the U.N. mission in Somalia
by attaching a verification team to it that would track arms deliveries and
stockpiles in Somalia.
Received on Thu Feb 20 2014 - 18:34:27 EST