Somali envoy urges UN to impose sanctions on Ethiopia

New York- UN (PANA) -- Somalia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ahmed Abdi-Hashi, has urged the Security Council to impose severe sanctions on the Ethiopian government for funding civil unrest in his war-torn country.
Reacting to the indictment of Ethiopia by a UN panel of experts on the Somali crisis, Abdi-Hashi told newsmen that the regime in Addis Ababa supplied arms and money to warlords in Somalia to destabilise the country's Transitional National Government.
"The Security Council should also identify all individuals linked with the arms deal between Ethiopia and Somali warlords and impose targeted sanctions against them," he added.
The report, just released to the council, discovered that Ethiopia was engaged in the formation of groups of warlords in the neighbouring country, including the training of 3,000 Somali militias in the border town of Manas.
Apart from violating the UN arms embargo on Somali factions through overt involvement in the crisis, the report noted: "Addis Ababa was not only a source of weapons for the warlords but invaded Somalia in 1992.
" The ambassador said factional leaders in Somalia confessed to UN experts that Ethiopia supplied them six truckloads of ammunition.
"And they boasted of receiving four times that quantity at other times," he said.
"We call on the Security Council to impose severe sanctions on Ethiopia for violating its arms embargo," he said, adding, "effective sanctions on Ethiopia would end the war in Somalia.
" Abdi-Hashi, who reminded the UN to honour its earlier pledge to assist Somalia in the demobilisation of its militias and the training of its police personnel, praised Kenya for its efforts towards a lasting peace in Somalia.