Security Council recommends continued monitoring of Somali embargo violations

The United Nations Security Council today recommended that Secretary-General Kofi Annan re-establish the group monitoring weapons embargo violations in Somalia and that the Council's relevant sanctions committee visit the Horn of Africa country to show the Council's "determination to give full effect to the arms embargo."

Mr. Annan should establish the Monitoring Group within 30 days and for six months so that it can continue to examine transfers of ammunition, single-use weapons and small arms, the Council said in a resolution that it approved unanimously.

The Group would assess actions taken by Somali authorities and Member States, particularly those in the region, to implement the embargo, using field-based investigations where possible, the Council, presided over by Brazil, said.

With regard to the confidential list of violators the Group has submitted, the Council said the Group should "continue refining and updating information on the draft list of those individuals and entities who violate the measures implements by Member States…inside and outside Somalia, and their active supporters, for possible future measures."

The Group should also draw attention to weaknesses in the capacities of neighbouring countries that might impede them in helping with implementation and suggest ways to strengthen them, the Council said.

The Group should provide the Council, through its sanctions committee, with its first briefing within 90 days of its establishment and a full report no later then 30 days before its mandate expires.

Reporting to the Security Council yesterday, before the expiration of its mandate, the most recent four-member Monitoring Group said it uncovered "34 individual arms shipments or violations of the arms embargo from February 2004 to the time of writing the present report," about a month ago, showing that violations had continued "at a brisk and alarming rate."