Mulugeta Alemu
27 July 2007
Followings the presentation of the report from the Group of Experts Monitoring Arms Embargo (whose membership include Bruno Schiemsky, Melvin E. Holt, Jr, Harjit S. Kelley And Joel Salek), the Security Council of the United Nations unanimously adopted Resolution 1766 on the 23 July 2007 condemning the inflow of arms to Somalia in contravention of its embargo put in place since 1992 (Resolution 733). The Council had earlier partially lifted the arms embargo, through its Resolution 1744 (2007), in order to allow assistance including arm supplies intended to support the internationally endorsed Transitional Government of Somalis and its institutions. Eritrea’s military shipment and assistance, according to the report of the Group, goes not to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) but to the Shebabs and Al Qaeda operatives. The report of the Monitoring Group has named Eritrea and found it in clear contravention to the resolutions. The July 2007 report is a no-brainer. It restates what the same expert group has found in its previous investigations Eritrea is not named in the Resolution. But the message is clear.
The report is damning to Eritrea in its findings. It states “the Government of Eritrea has made deliberate attempts to hide its activities and mislead the international community about its involvement.” It exposed the various techniques Eritrea is using to ship armaments to Somalia in violations of the arms embargo. These include (a) creation of business front companies for the sole purpose of hiding government activity; (b) use of different existing, or legitimate, airline companies; (c) creation and fabrication of false documentation, that is, filing of false flight plans indicating flights to third countries that never took place and the unauthorized use of registration numbers and call signs. During the current mandate, the Monitoring Group obtained a copy of the contract of sale of the IL-76 aircraft to a company in Eritrea. A person intimately familiar with the transaction confirmed the information contained in the previous report of the Group added that the company that had purchased the aircraft was a front for the Eritrean Government. The person also indicated that a down payment of US$ 200,000 had been paid by Eritrean diplomats based in a Gulf country to the seller of the aircraft. The Group also reported that it has information that Eritrea used Fab Air, registered in Kyrgyzstan, but operating out of the United Arab Emirates to ship armaments to Somalia.
Eritrea’s measures are in violations of international law in myriads of respects. They are in breach of the principal instrument of international law, the Charter of the United Nations. They also violate the various decisions and measures taken by the United Nations, the African Union and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development. These decisions are legally binding instruments whose violations invite clearly defined penalties and censure. The Transitional Government of Somalia, through friendly members of the international community, should consider filing a formal complaint in international legal forums including the International Court of Justice based in The Hague, the Netherlands. There are clear evidences, including the report of the Expert Group, which effectively impeach Eritrea’s illegal arm shipments to Somalia.
The impact of these shipments to civilians in Somalia is unbearable. Civilians including small children are the daily victims of roadside bombs, grenades and shelling (BBC, 6 July 2007). These arms are used to impede the effort of the TFG to bring reconciliation and political stability in the Country. The numbers resolutions of the Security Council emphasises the role of the TFG to bring reconciliation and national dialogue. Eritrea is currently hosting terrorists and pirates in its territory and contradicting such process in Somalia with impunity. Sheikh Sharif Ahmed and his cohorts are operating from Asmara. Its shipment of arms is used to throw bombs at delegates attending the current reconciliation conference in Mogadishu.
It is incumbent on the Security Council in particular and the international Community in general to take specific measures against the illegal measures taken by the Eritrean Government. The Group of Experts need to assist the Security Council in this regard. Resolution 1766/2007 requests the group to develop ways and means to improve compliance with the Council’s decisions and resolutions.
The African Union, the Arab League and IGAD should condemn such acts by Eritrea. These institutions are indeed faced with an unusual state. Under the leadership of President Isaias Afeworki, the country has shown no respect to international law and international institutions. The Eritrea Ethiopia Claims Commission had found Eritrea in violations of Article 2 of the United Nations Charter for illegal use of force in 1998. Currently Eritrea stands in violations of the 2001 Algiers Agreement by violating the buffer zone between Ethiopia and itself. The Security Council is fully seized with this situation. Some argued that the international community has run out of any means of putting pressure on the country.
Eritrea’s exceptionalism is the source of this immense problem. Eritrea is tiny and small. The once gallant and freedom conscious Eritrean public is now subdued by the extreme form of repression of the regime. Its population, which has gone through a 30 years of unbearable fight for independence, is simply out of steam for any resistance against its government which has gone berserk. The Government has managed to seclude Eritrea from the community of civilised nations. Its seats in important international forums are vacant. The country has suspended its membership in IGAD and other international organisations. Its novice diplomatic establishment has died before it was born. It has expelled most of the representatives of its international civil society from Eritrea. The country has neither a parliament, nor viable opposition groups. There are no independent media outlets. Reporters Borders published a painful story on July 2007 that Paulos Kidanea, a reporter on the state-owned Eri-TV and radio Dimtsi Hafash, died while fleeing Eritrea to the Sudan with other Eritreans in early June.
Senior party members, who spoke against the president, have vanished. It is not clear whether they are dead or alive. Its once very active and pro-Isaias Diaspora community is aloft and confused. Eritrea’s influential and internationally known intellectuals are either too old or subdued. Eritrea’s youth, both men and women, are not in front of their computers. They are either in dingy military training camps or are paying fortunes to flee the country through Sudan and Ethiopia. Its influential Orthodox Church whose pontiff, Abune Antonios still in jail, is under a strict government control. Other Christian denominations are outlawed and are summarily arrested if seen and found worshipping. Diplomats and international civil servants are puzzled by the fact that the state has not imploded.
Eritrea’s unique problem has put the traditional diplomacy incapable of responding to its predicament. Failing to know how to respond, EU scandalously flirted with the Eritrean leader. It was ironic that the European Union Development Commissioner Louis Michel embraced Eritrea’s president as an important peace maker in the Horn as recently as May 2007. The US has also become blind folded. It has mysteriously kept quite despite Eritrea’s public war of words and actions against its interest. America’s Congress and its self-congratulatory human rights missionaries are not interested in the human rights situations in Eritrea. A time has come for the US to call the shots. Human Rights organizations have almost forgotten whether Eritrea exists. They need to put Eritrea’s government in their radar. The only one who is taking advantage of Eritrea’s irrelevance to the international community is the Government of Eritrea itself. It is time that it is put to task. After all Eritreans deserve the protection and freedom all members of humanity enjoy.
