US Envoy: 'Reliable Information' Foreigners Arming Somalia
KAPENGURIA, Kenya (AP)--The U.S. ambassador to Kenya said Saturday there was
ample information that foreign countries were providing weapons to Somalia,
despite denials from several nations accused of doing so in a controversial
U.N. report.
U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger wouldn't comment specifically on the
report or the 10 countries named in it, although he said it was "generally
known Eritrea is involved."
"We do have reliable information that arms are flowing into Somalia from a
number of different sources," Ranneberger told The Associated Press when asked
whether the U.S. was confident in the report. Most of the countries named in it
have denied the accusations.
Eritrea's information minister, Ali Abdu, said Saturday the allegations were
" absurd."
Somalia hasn't had an effective government since 1991, when warlords
overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another. A
government was formed with the help of the U.N. two years ago, but it controls
just one town.
Islamic militants, meanwhile, have been steadily seizing territory since June
and now control much of the country's south.
A U.N. panel, charged with monitoring the 1992 arms embargo on Somalia, said
in a report obtained last week by the AP that Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt, Yemen,
Libya, Iran, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Uganda had provided weapons,
money and training to armed groups in Somalia.
The four-member panel, which includes a Belgian, an American, a Kenyan and a
Colombian, based their report on their own investigations, interviews and
material supplied by embassies in Nairobi. Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen, Libya,
Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria sent letters to the panel denying the allegations.
Ranneberger spoke in Kapenguria, capital of the West Pokot district, about
400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Nairobi. He appeared at a race
sponsored by former marathon world record-holder and two-time New York Marathon
winner Tegla Loroupe.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires 11-18-061116ET Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones &
Company, Inc.
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