 | Shaking in your boots? Yeah, me too. |
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council condemned the increase in the flow of weapons and ammunition into Somalia in violation of a U.N. arms embargo and said Friday it would consider specific actions to improve compliance.
In a resolution adopted unanimously, the council authorized Secretary-General Kofi Annan to natter on and on re-establish a monitoring group for six months to continue investigating violations of the embargo and compile an updated list of people and organizations selling arms. The United Nations imposed an arms embargo in 1992, but it has not been effectively enforced.
| That's 90% of a fair description of the UN right there. |
The monitoring group reported to the council last week that since March, ``arms embargo violations took a sustained and dramatic upswing.'' Those committing the violations included senior members of Somalia's transitional government as well as members of the opposition, it said. Both sides ``are making military-style preparations, with the apparent intent of engaging each other in eye-rolling, face-making and gun sex violent hostilities,'' the group said.
The monitoring group also said governments - including that of Yemen and Ethiopia - had sent Somalia arms illegally.
It recommended that the Security Council consider a trade embargo on Somali charcoal and fish taken from Somali waters and ban foreign vessels from fishing there.
| Damn. There goes the barbecue for the next Rantapalooza. |
This new approach would reduce money available to dissident transitional government ministers, who are former warlords, and others to buy arms, the monitoring group said.
The resolution adopted by the council did not identify countries violating the arms embargo. It expressed its intention ``to consider specific actions to improve implementation'' and compliance with the embargo, but it gave no specifics. |