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UN SECURITY COUNCIL: SOMALIA ON THE TABLE TODAY July 14, 2005

<|united_nations_somalia.jpg||left|>Members of the UN Security Council are meeting today on Somalia’s current situation and whether it is the right time to lift arms embargo or not. Somali president asked the United Nations to lift the embargo on several occasions. However, Mogadishu based faction leaders stated news arms imports to Somalia will be a recipe for disaster.

The team will debate on two documents:

1- “Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia pursuant to Security Council resolution 1558 (2004)”

Summary

Pursuant to paragraph 3 of Security Council resolution 1558 (2004) of 17 August 2004 concerning Somalia, the Secretary-General re-established the Monitoring Group on Somalia composed of four experts for a period of six months.

The Monitoring Group learned that arms embargo violations had continued to occur at a brisk and alarming rate. The Monitoring Group uncovered 34 individual arms shipments or violations of the arms embargo from February 2004 to the time of writing the present report. The shipments ranged in size from an individual weapon such as a large and expensive anti-aircraft gun to ocean freight containers full of

arms, ranging from explosives and ammunition to small arms, mines and anti-tank weapons.

The demand for financial sources by major parties to the conflict in Somalia to fund the arms purchases has soared, along with the arms prices. Information developed by the Monitoring Group indicates the existence of a sophisticated financial network operating inside and outside Somalia that may be directly involved in arms purchases.

Recent arms shipments have strengthened the military capacity of opposition elements inside Somalia. They are well organized and funded and have publicly expressed their intent to violently oppose the Transitional Federal Government and any international supporters that may provide military support inside Somalia.

In addition, the Bakaaraha arms market inside Somalia, particularly in Mogadishu, and the arms market in the neighbouring Gulf State continue to play central roles as sources of arms that fuel violent clashes and remain an obstacle to peace and stability in Somalia. These markets are also a main cause of the many arms-related problems in the front-line States.

With an increasing number of arms embargo violations, the trend has continued to rely less on air transport to ferry the illegal arms shipments. Instead, ocean transport of clandestine arms shipments, in conjunction with road transport, has been the predominant means by which arms are delivered to purchasers in

Somalia.

The Monitoring Group has investigated arms shipments that were offloaded from container ships at a neighbouring country’s seaport and transported to Somalia by a combination of road and dhows. Organized criminal groups involved in the clandestine movement of arms shipments from source to recipient have consistently circumvented customs and police authorities of various States responsible for interdicting illegal arms shipments.

As a result of the continued heavy flow of arms into Somalia, most of which has been directed to those elements opposed to the Transitional Federal Government, there is a seriously elevated level of threat of possible violence against the peaceful establishment in Somalia of the Transitional Federal Government.

In paragraph 3 (b) of its resolution 1558 (2004), the Security Council requested the Monitoring Group to continue refining and updating information on the draft list of those who continue to violate the arms embargo inside and outside Somalia, and their active supporters, for possible future measures by the Council, and to present such information to the Committee as and when the Committee deems appropriate. The Monitoring Group has, pursuant to its mandate, provided the Committee with the draft list on a confidential basis for the Committee’s consideration.

2- “Report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Somalia (2005)”

I. Introduction

1. The present report is submitted pursuant to the statement of the President of the Security Council of 31 October 2001 (S/PRST/2001/30), in which the Council requested me to submit reports on a quarterly basis on the situation in Somalia. The report covers developments since my report of 18 February 2005 (S/2005/89), and focuses on the issues and challenges confronting the Transitional Federal Government. It also provides an update on developments inside Somalia, the security situation and the humanitarian and development activities of United Nations programmes and agencies in the country.

Documents in PDF:

Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia pursuant to Security Council resolution 1558 (2004)

Report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Somalia (2005)

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