From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sat Jun 27 2009 - 12:16:40 EDT
Eritrea slams US for providing weapons to Somalia
Saturday, June 27, 2009
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Eritrea on Saturday slammed the United States for
providing weapons to Somalia's beleaguered government in its battle
against Islamist insurgents.
Washington announced on Thursday that it was sending the Horn of Africa
nation an "urgent supply" of weapons and ammunition at the request of
Mogadishu as armed groups closed in on the transitional government's
strongholds.
"US misguided acts of intervention and supply of weapons have not, in
the past years, advanced the cause of stability in Somalia," the
Eritrean foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.
"A repeat of those measures will not produce positive results but only
aggravate and prolong the crisis," it added.
On May 7, the Shebab, a hardline Islamist armed group, and Hezb
al-Islam, a more political group, launched an unprecedented nationwide
offensive against the administration of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
The internationally-backed Sharif has been holed up in his presidential
quarters, protected by African Union peacekeepers as his forces were
unable to reassert their authority on the capital.
Around 300 people are confirmed to have been killed in the latest
violence, many of them civilians.
The United States has also approached Eritrea with "concerns" that it is
aiding the insurgents and warned that such support would be a "serious
obstacle" to better ties, a US State Department spokesman said on
Thursday.
But Eritrea again dismissed the allegations.
"These pronouncements do not contain novel or substantive elements," it
said.
Ties between the two countries have in recent years been frosty, with
Eritrea accusing the United States of backing its arch-foe Ethiopia in a
long-running border dispute.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hYGeGTDiEDt6r8mxItTN7
AyfLPYA
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----