JEDDAH, 14 November 2003 — The United Nations Security Council’s Sanctions Committee will visit Somalia and its neighbors to investigate and tighten the arms embargo to stop illegal arms supplies to and from the country.
The mission, which is led by Bulgarian Ambassador Stefan Tafrov, comprises experts from Security Council member states.
According to the UN Media Center, the mission will hold a high-level meeting at the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and a meeting with participants of the ongiong Somali peace talks in Kenya.
The mission, which is scheduled to end Nov. 21, will also meet the government officials of Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya Yemen, Egypt, Italy as well as the general secretaries of the African Union, the Arab League and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African body.
On Tuesday, the Security Council called on Somalia’s leaders to agree on a lasting solution to their conflict and to establish the framework for a viable government.
“The Security Council urges all Somali leaders to participate constructively in the leaders meeting planned by the IGAD Facilitation Committee in Kenya in November 2003 to bridge their differences and to reach agreements on a viable government and a durable and inclusive solution to the conflict in Somalia,” Angolan Ambassador Ismael Abrao Gaspar Martins, who holds the council’s monthly rotating presidency for November, said in a statement.
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The British ambassador to Ethiopia, Miles Wickstead, has disclosed that detectives from Britain’s Scotland Yard will take part in the investigation of the recent killing of two British and Italian aid workers in the region, media reports said on Wednesday.
Attending a Remembrance Day function in Somaliland, he said the detectives will train police officers in Somaliland and help them investigate the murders.
The British couple was killed on October 20, while an Italian aid worker, Annalena Tonelli, was shot dead earlier in October in Somaliland. The region has been peaceful since the collapse of Somali government, compared to the chaos in other parts of the country.
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Abdikarim Ali Haji, a Somali who has lived in New Zealand for five years, has been granted a temporary suspension from deportation to his home country, New Zealand Herald said on Wednesday. The paper said that a removal order was issued last month against Haji. The 28-year-old asylum seeker would have been the first Somali person deported from this country.
A High Court judge granted an interim order that Haji not be removed until a report was received from the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on the removal of people to Somalia. “He was absolutely terrified. This is a pretty significant situation. It’s unprecedented as this is the first Somali who faced removal from New Zealand.
“It’s hard to say we are happy; it’s an interim order. We are relieved we have managed to stave off his removal today. We hope after consideration of the report the position of the minister might be reconsidered.
America, Britain and Australia all had a policy that it was not safe to remove anyone to Somalia as the country had no functioning government and was in a state of anarchy,” his lawyer said.
About 25 people, mainly Somalis, were at Auckland International Airport to protest against Haji’s deportation but called the protest off after hearing news of the court order. Haji applied for residency on his arrival five years ago.
