NAIROBI, 7 April 2007 — A senior European Union security official has warned the head of the EU delegation for Somalia that Ethiopian and Somali military forces there may have committed war crimes and that donor countries could be considered complicit if they do nothing to stop them.

The warning was made in an urgent e-mail to Eric van der Linden, the chief EU official for Kenya and Somalia.

“I need to advise you that there are strong grounds to believe that the Ethiopian government and the transitional federal government of Somalia and the African Union (peacekeeping) Force commander, possibly also including the African Union head of mission and other African Union officials have through commission or omission violated the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” the e-mail said.

EU officials, speaking on condition they not be named because a legal matter was involved, confirmed the e-mail’s authenticity and said the author’s reputation and position meant it was being taken very seriously.

In the Somali capital, Mogadishu, residents were still burying bodies from last week’s fighting that killed hundreds of people. A fragile five day cease-fire was still holding but residents were still fleeing, fearing new clashes between Somali government forces and their Ethiopian backers and Islamic forces.

The e-mail’s author, whose name was blanked out on the copy obtained by The Associated Press but whose senior position was apparent from the text, went on to detail the exact statutes that were violated. They included intentionally directing attacks against civilians and ordering the displacement of civilians for reasons related to the conflict.

“In regard to the abovementioned potential violations of international law there arise urgent questions of responsibility and potential complicity in the commission of war crimes by the European Commission and its partners,” the e-mail said. The European Commission has been a major financial backer of the Somali government and the African Union peacekeeping mission, which is currently made up of only Ugandan troops.

The e-mail was sent Monday, following four days of the heaviest fighting in Somalia in 15 years. Richard Hands, deputy head of delegation for the EU in Kenya and Somalia, said: “These allegations are, of course, taken seriously and we are looking into it.”