From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sat May 02 2009 - 15:57:38 EDT
UN official backs probe of Somalia abuses
Sat May 2, 2009 8:29am GMT
LONDON (Reuters) - A United Nations official said on Friday an
international commission of inquiry should be set up to investigate war
crimes he said had been committed in Somalia.
"I honestly think that there have been very serious war crimes and
crimes against humanity that have been committed by most if not all the
parties to the conflict," the U.N. refugee agency's representative to
Somalia, Guillermo Bettocchi, said.
"I certainly think that there should be a mechanism to bring those
responsible for that to justice," he said, speaking at an event in
London.
Bettocchi said his personal view was that an international commission of
inquiry should be formed to investigate such violations and that the
evidence should eventually be handed over to an international criminal
tribunal.
Bettocchi, who is based in Nairobi, said there was an environment of
total impunity in Somalia. "People in Somalia commit the most serious
violations knowing that nothing will happen to them," he said.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has also called for a commission of
inquiry to probe abuses in Somalia, which has been in chaos since
warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on
each other.
U.S. ally Ethiopia sent its army into Somalia to topple an Islamist
administration in Mogadishu and rescue the Western-backed transitional
government at the end of 2006.
At least 10,000 civilians were killed in an ensuing Iraq-style
insurgency that fomented piracy in shipping lanes off the coast.
According to the UNHCR, 470,000 Somali refugees are living in nearby
countries and 1.3 million are internally displaced, driven from their
homes by the violence.
The Ethiopians withdrew in January and Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a moderate
Islamist who led the sharia courts government overthrown by them, was
sworn in as Somali president, raising hopes that a way could be found
out of the conflict.
Human Rights Watch accused the United States in February of turning a
blind eye to abuses by its allies in Somalia.
In a May 2008 report, Amnesty International said all parties to
Somalia's conflict had carried out rights abuses including executions,
rape and torture.
The Ethiopian and the then Somali government denied committing rights
abuses.
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE54101Q20090502?sp=true
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----