Arms Embargo Against Somalia Reappointed

Monitoring Group For Security Council Arms Embargo Against Somalia Reappointed

With Somali armed groups reported to be still receiving weapons despite a 1992 embargo, United Nations Kofi Annan has appointed four experts as members of a re-established sanctions Monitoring Group called for by the UN Security Council.

In a letter to the President of the Security Council released today, Mr. Annan names two as Melvin Holt, Jr., of the United States and Joel Salek of Colombia, both of whom served on the last Somali Monitoring Group.

The other two are Harjit Singh Kelley of Kenya, who previously served on an expert panel on Liberian sanctions, and Bruno Schiemsky of Belgium, who served on a group monitoring the embargo against the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

On 15 March the Security Council requested Mr. Annan to re-establish within 30 days and for a period of six months a Monitoring Group with a many-faceted mandate, including “to continue investigating the implementation of the arms embargo by Member States and violations, inter alia, through field-based investigations in Somalia, where possible, and, as appropriate, in other States, in particular, those in the region.”

The panel should also assess the actions taken by Somali authorities and other UN Member States, especially Somalia’s neighbours, “fully to implement the arms embargo.”

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