Yemeni arms transfers to Somalia “groundless,” says official [Archives:2006/956/Local News]
By Amel Alariqi
SANA'A, June 18 ) On Saturday, an official source said that Yemen has not sent any kind of weapons to Somalia. The source, who wished to remain anonymous, denied the validity of reports circulating on a few Somalia websites about arms shipments as “groundless.”
The source pointed out that Yemen has been in constant contact with both factions) the interim Somali government based in Baidoa, and with the leaders of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union, which currently controls Mogadishu)to persuade them to negotiate.
“The Islamic Courts Union has informed our country that it is willing to come to Sana'a to carry out direct talks with Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and the interim Somali government to stop the bloodshed and restore calm and stability,” said the source.
Some Somali websites posted stories this week reporting that Yemen sent “military suppl[ies], including sophisticated tanks and sorts of heavy and light bullets, to the airport of Baidoa.”
This is not the first time that Yemen has been accused of providing Somalia factions with weapons. In October 2005,Yemen, Ethiopia, and Eritrea were accused of smuggling weapons to Somalia. Contrary to its current response, Sana'a then said that it had sold weapons to what was considered the recognized Somali government. Yemen denied the smuggling of any weapons to Somalia on the basis that the transaction was legal sale between two sovereign states. Sana'a admitted to sending 5,000 pieces of light arms to the interim government.
Official Yemeni sources, who wish to remain unnamed, confirmed that Yemen did not attend the urgent meeting that was held in New York on Thursday. He provided no explanation.
Aljzeera.net previously reported that Yemen received an invitation from the U.S. to participate in the meetings of a group of countries called the “Somali Contact Group.” The meeting was organized by U.S. only days after Somalia's long-running civil war took a new turn with Mogadishu's capture by a militant Muslim faction: the Islamic Courts Union. The newly victorious group has accused the U.S. of backing its battlefield rivals.
Though the Islamic Courts Union has disavowed any links to terrorism, Bush administration officials allege that Al-Qaida operates in areas under its control in Somalia. The U.S. has said that the Islamic Courts Union harbors suspects involved in the 1998 truck bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
The central government in Somalia dissolved amid factional warfare in 1991. In January 2006, President Saleh brokered a deal between Ahmed and the Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan that enabled the splintered national assembly to hold its first session in Baidoa, located 240km southwest of Mogadishu. The interim government had been powerless to control fighting around the country, including in the capital.
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