EU looks at potential war crimes by Somalia, Ethiopia

By C. Bryson Hull

NAIROBI, April 6 (Reuters) - A European Union security expert has warned that Ethiopian and Somali troops may have committed war crimes during a four-day battle in Mogadishu, adding to growing criticism of rights violations in Somalia.

The warning in a letter to the EU ambassador for Somalia and Kenya, dated April 2, came just a day after the end of a four-day offensive by joint Somali-Ethiopian forces to eliminate insurgents in the Somalian capital.

At least 400 people were killed and nearly 1,000 wounded as Ethiopian and government troops flattened pro-insurgent neighbourhoods with tanks, helicopters and artillery, in the heaviest fighting in 15 years in a city notorious for bloodshed.

"There are strong grounds to believe that the Ethiopian government and the transitional federal government of Somalia and the African Union force commander ... have through commission or omission violated the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court," said a copy of the letter seen by Reuters.

The ICC, in The Hague, is responsible for prosecuting war crimes. The EU itself has no power to do so.

The AU peacekeeping force, including its head of mission and other officials, could also be complicit for not acting to stop crimes occurring in areas for which it has responsibility, the letter said.

So far, the envisioned 8,000-strong AU force has only 1,500 peacekeepers from Uganda inside the Horn of Africa nation.

Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman, ambassador Solomon Abebe, said: "Talk about war crimes is not valid. The crime is committed by extremists who are defying ... the wishes of the international community."

Ugandan State Minister for Defence Ruth Nankabirwa said the accusation was "utterly unfair and should withdrawn with apologies".

Somali and African Union officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Neither could the EU's ambassador for Somalia and Kenya in Nairobi.

The consultant wrote that he based his concerns on press statements by Somali government officials warning that civilian targets would be hit if they shielded insurgents, and reports from rights groups.



COMPLICITY FEARS

The letter from the security consultant, the authenticity of which was verified by diplomats who had seen it, says that the EU may be at risk if it does not act to stop abuses because it is providing funding to the Somali government.

"There arise urgent questions of responsibility and potential complicity in the commission of war crimes by the European Commission," it says.

The EU already demanded an end to the indiscriminate shelling, which accelerated a rapid exodus of people.

The U.N. says 124,000 have fled Mogadishu since early February, straining limited resources -- and potentially tempers -- in the communities where they have arrived.

Insurgent attacks -- mostly by gunmen from the city's dominant Hawiye clan and a militant Islamist movement -- have gone on almost since the government and Ethiopia took Mogadishu back in late December in war to rout the Islamists.

Human rights groups also have complained about the indiscriminate shelling.

"The warring parties are legally obliged to protect civilians and to stop indiscriminate attacks," Human Rights Watch deputy Africa director Georgette Gagnon said in a statement.

Watchdog Amnesty International this week also said Kenya should open its borders to allow refugees in from Somalia, as is required under international humanitarian law.

Kenya closed its border in January to stop fleeing Islamist fighters entering, and has kept it sealed on security grounds.