15/11/06 (B369) Selon un rapport d’un délégué de l’U.N., 10 pays approvisionneraient la Somalie en armes, en violation de l’embargo décrété à New York. (Article publié par la BBC – Info lecteur)

Powers
‘stoking Somali conflict’

Ten
countries have been violating a United Nations arms embargo to send weapons
to Somalia, according to a UN-commissioned report.

Seven
countries – among them Iran and Syria – have supplied military personnel and
weapons to the Union of Islamic Courts militia.

While
three countries are helping arm Somalia’s weak interim government.

The report
is due to be discussed by a UN Security Council committee on Friday.

The
countries arming the Islamists are Syria, Iran, Eritrea,
Djibouti, Egypt, Libya and Saudi Arabia, according to
the report.

Ethiopia,
Uganda and Yemen are named as the countries supplying Somalia’s interim government.

The report,
by experts monitoring the embargo, also suggests that Iran may have tried
to trade arms for uranium to further its nuclear ambitions.

Ethiopia
and Eritrea are named as the biggest violators of the arms embargo in Somalia,
where there has not been a proper government for more than 15 years.

"There
is the distinct possibility that the momentum towards a military solution
inside Somalia may spill over into a direct state-to-state conflict between
Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as acts of terrorism in other vulnerable states
of the region," Reuters news agency quoted the report as saying.

Many of
the countries named in the report reject the accusations.

In Nairobi,
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has appealed to the transitional government
and the UIC to resume peace talks "very quickly".

"We
have a very serious situation in Somalia," he told the conference on
climate change.

UIC representatives
are expected to meet regional leaders at an economic summit summit in Djibouti
later.

‘Plane-load’

What is
most striking about this report is the detailed links between countries such
as Iran, Syria and Lebanon and the Islamic Courts Union, says the BBC’s Laura
Trevelyan at the UN in New York.

For example,
the authors say 720 Somali fighters went to Lebanon to help Hezbollah fight
Israel in July.

Syria
is said to have sent an aircraft full of guns to the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Iran is
reported to have sent three shipments of arms to Somalia between July and
September.

One paragraph
in the report says two Iranians were in Somalia looking into getting uranium
in exchange for supplying arms.

No further
details are offered. Iran wants uranium to further its nuclear programme,
which it insists is peaceful, while western countries suspect Iran of wanting
a nuclear bomb.