UN adopts milder Eritrea stance

Kenya is hopeful that it will achieve a diplomatic victory in its dispute with Eritrea over support for Al-Shabaab in Somalia.

The UN Security Council was tentatively scheduled to vote on a Kenya-backed resolution imposing new sanctions on Eritrea on Monday night.

By the time we were going to press, Kenya’s Ambassador to the UN Macharia Kamau had said the he was pretty confident that none of the council’s five permanent members would veto the resolution introduced by Gambia on behalf of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.

Kenya “has been involved in the background” at UN headquarters in New York “to make sure [the resolution] is palatable to as many Security Council members as possible,” Ambassador Kamau told the Nation.

A couple of the proposed sanctions have been weakened in recent weeks in order to gain majority backing in the Security Council.

The measure now contains milder language pertaining to Eritrea’s mining industry, saying that foreign companies should exercise greater “vigilance” in their dealings with that sector.

In addition, the draft resolution now “condemns” rather than prohibits use of a tax on Eritreans working abroad “for purposes such as procuring arms and related material for transfer to armed opposition groups.”

The resolution still refers specifically to Eritrea’s support for Al-Shabaab insurgency that Kenyan and African Union troops are battling in Somalia.

The threat of new punishments and diplomatic disgrace may lead Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki to make what Ambassador Kamau calls “a last-ditch effort at swaying the council not to vote for the resolution.”

The head of state may come to New York in the next few days to personally make Eritrea’s case to the 15-nation Security Council.

Expands current sanctions

Eritrea has denied it is aiding Al-Shabaab and has accused Kenya of making false accusations against it. (Read: Eritrea protests against Kenya threats)

The United States, which favours strengthening the UN sanctions imposed on Eritrea in 2009, opposes a visit by President Afeworki.

“We still think it’s redundant and likely counterproductive to have a spectacle in the Security Council in which heads of state make emotional statements,” US Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters on Wednesday.

East African leaders have demanded that the UN Security Council clamp down on Eritrea which they accused of unprovoked invasions, terrorism and flouting international law.

The prime minister of Ethiopia, presidents of Somalia and Djibouti and ministers from Kenya and Uganda called on the Security Council to pass a resolution that expands current sanctions against Eritrea.

The resolution would also condemn Eritrea’s involvement in a plot to bomb an African Union summit and its support for Al-Shabaab Islamist militants in Somalia.

Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia in 1993 and fought a war with its neighbour from 1998-2000, but Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said “this is not a family quarrel between Ethiopia and Eritrea.”

All East African nations consider that “Eritrea is the prime source of instability in our region,” Zenawi told the 15-member Security Council in a video link from Addis Ababa where the other leaders were.

“It is a problem of attitude of a certain clique in Asmara that has never grown up from a rebel group. It is a problem of lawlessness and reckless disregard for international law,” Zenawi said.

A UN sanctions monitoring group this year said Eritrea was involved in a plot to bomb an African Union summit in Addis Ababa in January and was giving financial support, arms and training to Somali Islamist rebels and Al-Qaeda.

Somalia’s President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told the council Eritrea leader had refused to reconcile with his him.

Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula accused Eritrea of supplying arms and ammunition and other logistics to Al-Shabaab.

“This is truly a hostile and an enemy act by a country that ought to be an active member” of the East African community,” Wetangula said.

Eritrea has strongly denied the accusations made by its neighbours and the UN experts and called the UN resolution “outrageous.”