Interim gov't denies violating arms embargo

Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) on Tuesday refuted claims in a United Nations report that said it had violated an arms embargo on the strife-torn Horn of Africa country.

The report released on 4 October by the UN-appointed monitoring team said violations of the embargo by the TFG, its opponents in the capital, Mogadishu, and certain parties in the region had taken a "sustained and dramatic upswing".

The increased arms inflow was a manifestation of "highly aggravated political tensions between the TFG and the opposition" and had given rise to increased militarisation of both sides resulting in a severely elevated threat of widespread violence in Somalia.

The TFG's deputy information minister, Salad Ali Jeele, however, told IRIN that the administration had not received any weapons from external sources.

"I don't know where they obtained their information, but it is not true," Jeele said. "I can tell you no one has given us any weapons," he added.

"We feel that the embargo is unfair at this stage of Somalia's development. Our president has asked for the lifting of the embargo but was denied." The TFG, however, had not violated the embargo, he emphasized.

President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, in an address to the UN General Assembly on 17 September, appealed for the lifting of the embargo on the grounds that it was hampering his government's efforts to maintain law and order in Somalia.

"The embargo directly undermines the government's inherent right and genuine effort of forming its national security force that would protect the public and keep the peace by enforcing law and order throughout Somalia," Yusuf said.

The UN imposed an arms embargo on Somalia in 1992, in the midst of a civil war that followed the 1991 collapse of the government of president Muhammad Siyad Barre.

Jeele invited the UN monitoring team to visit Jowhar, 90 km south of the capital, where Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Gedi are based.

"We want them [UN monitoring group] to come to Jowhar and see everything. We want to cooperate with them if they are willing to cooperate with us. We have nothing to hide," said Jeele.