UN approves new Somalia sanctions to reduce arms

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to impose new sanctions aimed at reducing the arms flowing into Somalia and the lawlessness and piracy that have flourished there.

It was difficult to say how the sanctions would be carried out in Somalia, as those responsible for much of the anarchy plaguing the country are well outside any tradititional finance system. Ransoms the pirates get for seizing ships come in cash — sometimes dropped in burlap sacks from buzzing helicopters, or in waterproof suitcases loaded onto skiffs.

The 15-nation council, the U.N.'s most powerful body, endorsed a British plan for a council panel to recommend people and entities whose financial assets would be frozen by nations.

"Not Somalia itself, but on individuals in Somalia who obstruct the peace process there, who breach the arms embargo or who obstruct the delivery of humanitarian aid," British Ambassador John Sawers emphasized.

The council's action comes as the African Union urged the U.N. on Thursday to quickly send peacekeepers to Somalia.

In the past two weeks Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates have seized eight vessels including a huge Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil. Several hundred crew are now in the hands of Somali pirates.

Council members say the added sanctions, which exclude money intended for basic expenses like food and medicine, are intended to strengthen Somalia's weak U.N.-backed government.

Haile Menkerios, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for political affairs, told the council that just last month more than 37,000 people were displaced from Mogadishu, the nation's capital and largest city, due to insecurity and sporadic attacks. Humanitarian and food aid is increasingly difficult to deliver for 1 million Somalis, he said, and hard-line groups are expanding their military operations in south-central Somalia.

The latest sanctions resolution also reaffirms the U.N.'s arms embargo against Somalia under resolutions since 1992.

 

Source: Associated Press