Amid
Famine
in Horn of
Africa, US
Wants
Sanctions on
Eritrea, UN
Ignores
Mercenaries of
Saracen, Likes
Sufi Militia
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 10 --
Amid news of
famine in
Somalia, and
some say
Eritrea too,
Inner City
Press on
Wednesday
asked US
Ambassador
Susan
Rice to
confirm that
the Obama
administration
is indeed
seeking
additional
sanctions,
including
against the
Isaias Afwerki
government's
tax on
remittances to
that country.
Ambassador
Rice gave
a long
response,
initially not
address the
Eritrean
famine issue:
"The
United
States is
very, very
concerned
about
Eritrea's
behavior in
the
region. Its
support for
Al-Shabaab,
its support to
destabilize
its
neighbors is
documented
quite
thoroughly and
persuasively
in the
report of the
special panel.
We heard
during the
session last
month
from virtually
all of
Eritrea's
neighbors that
they face a
pattern of
destabilization
that is quite
troubling and
quite
disturbing.
Moreover,
we're
profoundly
troubled and
we have
clearly
condemned the
support that
Eritrea lent
to the
terrorist
attack that
was planned
for-to
coincide with
the African
Union summit
last January
in Addis
Ababa. We
think that's
an absolutely
abhorrent
development,
and we
think it
merits the
full attention
of the
Council. Yes,
the United
States is very
much
interested in
additional
pressure and
sanctions
being applied
on Eritrea.
This is
something that
we'll continue
to
discuss and
debate in the
Security
Council. But
from the U.S.
point
of view, we
think that
that is
timely."
Inner
City Press
then asked
Ambassador
Rice if the US
believes there
is a famine in
Eritrea, and
if so if
further
sanctions
might not make
that worse.
Rice replied:
"any
measures
to be
contemplated
would be
carefully
targeted and
would not
go in any way
to harm the
people of
Eritrea, who
are suffering
enough
as it is. We
believe there
is a famine in
Eritrea, but
we're deeply
concerned that
none of us
know because
they have
barred UN
agencies,
barred NGOs.
It has become
a black hole
in terms of
governance and
humanitarian
ground truth.
And the people
of Eritrea,
who
must...most
likely are
suffering the
very same food
shortages that
we're seeing
throughout the
region are
being left to
starve because
there is not
access,
there's a
clear cut
denial of
access by the
government of
Eritrea of
food and other
humanitarian
support for
its people."
Ambassador
Rice
cited the
Somalia and
Eritrea
sanctions
Monitoring
Group report,
as
later on
Wednesday did
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
envoy to
Somalia
Augustine
Mahiga.
Actually,
when
Mahiga in a
video
conference
briefing from
Mogadishu
talked about
supporters of
Al Shabaab, he
mentioned
people in the
Gulf and
Middle
East. Inner
City Press
asked him, did
this mean
Eritrea is not
a
major
supporter of
Al Shabaab?
Mahiga
called
Eritrea a
"middleman"
that funnels
others' money
to Al
Shabaab. Later
in his
briefing Inner
City Press
asked Mahiga
about
other parties
named in the
Monitoring
Group report,
which he had
not
mentioned.
Private
military
contractor
Saracen, for
example, was
named as a
violator of
sanctions for
its actions in
Puntland.
Mahiga
said he
visited
Puntland and
Saracen is
mostly gone,
it "trained
trainers" who
themselves
remain.
Susan Rice
with Ban,
envoy silent
on PMC Saracen
Last December
27, 2010,
Inner City
Press
reported:
December
27
-- Amid
growing doubts
about
private
military
contractor
Saracen
working for
the Somali
Transitional
Federal
Government and
Puntland,
the lawyer for
the program,
former US
Ambassador at
Large for War
Crimes Pierre
Prosper, spoke
to a half
dozen UN
correspondents
on December
23, ostensibly
on background.
In
remarks
subsequently
disseminated,
Prosper said
that he was
briefing the
Group of
Experts of the
UN's Somalia
Sanctions
Committee but
would not yet
provide the
name of the
program's
funder, due to
concerns the
UN would leak
it.
Afterward,
Inner
City Press on
the record
asked the
outgoing
chairman of
the UN's
Somalia
Sanctions
Committee,
Claude Heller
of Mexico, if
he or the
Committee had
been briefed
about the use
of PMCs or
mercenaries in
Somalia. No,
Heller said,
he had only
read about it
in the
newspapers.
Video here.
With
Mexico leaving
the Council at
the end of the
month, India
is to be given
the chair of
the Somalia
Sanctions
Committee, as
first
exclusively
reported by
Inner City
Press. Will
Saracen reach
out to India?
We will be
asking.
Inner
City Press
asked about
Ethiopia's
support of and
links to Ahlu
Sunna. Mahiga
called it a
"Sufi militia"
-- "very
helpful," he
said.
Next
to him, the
AMISOM force
commander Fred
Mugisha
nodded.
Apparently,
Ahlu Sunna
is the UN and
AMISON favored
militia. The
Monitoring
Group report
says that
Ethiopia never
even sought
Sanctions
Committee
approval for
its work with
this militia.
As one wag
concluded,
when it's all
among
friends....
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
Inner
City Press
three times
asked Mahiga
what message
the UN had for
the
Transitional
Federal
Government
about it human
rights record.
The
first two
times he did
not answer --
on the second,
he diverged
into
a description
of Al Shabaab
"foreign
fighters from
Chechnya,
Waziristan and
Yemen."
The third and
final time, he
said that
the TFG is
improving, and
of course
these things
happen in war.
He
said he didn't
know if the
TFG was
involved in
shooting into
a crowd
of aid-seekers
in Mogadishu
on August 5.
We'll see.
, 
in