Monday, May 14, 2007
UN emergency humanitarian co-ordinator John Holmes said Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed had agreed to the UN probe into rights breaches during clashes between Ethiopia-backed Somali forces and insurgents that killed an estimated 1 400 people and forced tens of thousands to flee.
"I raised the claims that there have been massive abuses of international law ... because civilian areas were being used and targeted in different ways," Holmes told a news conference in Nairobi.
Holmes, who had to cut short a weekend visit to Mogadishu for security reasons, said: "I raised the questions of detentions and disappearances of people.
"The (government) denied any responsibility ... but he (Ahmed) accepted the idea of a visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour to look at the investigations and come up with a proper conclusion," he said.
"Clearly, there were major problems, major abuses during that period," Holmes said, referring to two bouts of heavy clashes in March and April that ended with the Ethiopia-backed interim government claiming victory over the insurgents on April 26.
In April, the European Union envoy to Nairobi, Eric van der Linden, said he had asked Brussels to investigate whether Ethiopian and Somali forces had committed war crimes in their crackdown on militants and clan insurgents in Mogadishu.
Holmes also said on Monday that the UN was working to address Somalia's worsening humanitarian crisis, with up to 400 000 people displaced during the recent fighting.
But he said that aid was reaching only 35 to 40 percent of those in need due to difficulties linked to both access and security.
Ethiopian forces helped Somali troops rout an militant movement from south and central Somalia, including Mogadishu, at the start of the year.
Source: AFP, May 14, 2007