At
UN
on Eritrea,
Discordant NYT
Note in Arming
Shabab
Narrative
Ignored
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 28 --
After the
Somalia /
Eritrea
Sanctions
Committee
of the UN
Security
Council
provided a
closed door
briefing on
Wednesday,
Inner City
Press asked
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Philip Parham
of the UK,
this month's
Council
president,
about it:
Inner
City
Press: There
had been this
controversy
about a flight
where
Eritrea had
been accused
of bringing,
flying in
weapons to
Al-Shabaab.
There were
media accounts
that the
report of the
Committee
cleared them
of that, or
said there was
no evidence of
that. Has this
now finally,
has this
reached the
Council, was
this
discussed at
all?
Amb
Parham:
Yes. The role
of Eritrea was
discussed in
the
consultations
we have had
just now. The
Monitoring
Group say that
they have
established
that Eritrea
has been
breaching the
arms embargo.
That’s
clearly a
serious issue
and I think
the Committee,
chaired by
Ambassador
Puri, will
take that
forward, among
other things,
I think,
in discussion
with the
Eritreans
themselves.”
Inner
City
Press: There
was a New
York Times
report saying
actually that
the Committee
had found a
particular
flight that
was used as a
rationale for
entering
Somalia didn’t
take place.
Was the
presentation
uniformly --
Amb
Parham:
In the
discussion
just now we
didn’t get
into the
specific
flights, but
what we did
hear is that
the Monitoring
Group have
established
that there
have been
breaches by
Eritrea and
that is
something
which, I
think, the
Committee will
take forward
including,
as I say, with
the Eritreans
themselves.
Thanks.
Just
on this
issue, Reuters
on January 16,
2012 reported
and the New
York Times of
January 17,
2012 at Page
A10 published
as followed:
Eritrea:
Panel
Finds No Arms
Were Sent to
Somali Rebels
By
REUTERS
Published:
January
16, 2012
Eritrea
did
not airlift
arms to
Islamist
militants in
the Somali
town of
Baidoa late
last year, a
preliminary
United Nations
report has
found.
Kenya accused
Eritrea in
November of
delivering
weapons to the
Shabab, a
Qaeda-linked
rebel group
battling to
overthrow
Somalia’s
Western-backed
government.
Eritrea
repeatedly
denied the
accusation.
The United
Nations
Monitoring
Group on
Somalia and
Eritrea said
that
its
'preliminary
assessment is
that these
reports were
incorrect and
that the
alleged
deliveries to
Baidoa
probably did
not take
place.'
Was
this
Reuters
and NYT report
false? No
correction was
ever
published. If
not, how
could the
Committee not
discuss it,
but rather
hear only that
"the
Monitoring
Group say that
they have
established
that Eritrea
has been
breaching the
arms embargo"?
Perhaps
relatedly,
how can it be
that after
Ethiopia
admitted
attacked
inside
Eritrea, which
wrote to the
Council as
first reported
by Inner City
Press, the
Council has
held no
meeting or
discussion,
until the
above
summarized
sanctions
discussion?
One
thought that
UN and even
Security
Council was
about hearing
from those
accused,
and about
dialogue. But
perhaps not.
Watch this
site.
, 
