Mantra of Islamist states “We Didn’t Do It!
Why do news reports continue to report state’s denials of arms supply to Somalia? In a recent report, October 2006, The Monitoring Group for the Somali arms embargo sent out 52 letters to arms supplies and colaborators. They recieved 26 responses, and of these not a single contributor admitted supplying arms to Somali militants, not even Eritrea, the conduit for most of the supply:
Monitoring Group sources clearly indicate that Eritrea is being used both as a conduit and platform for, and coordinator of, support for the Somali ICU (Islamic Courts Union). States using Eritrea for this purpose include Djibouti, Libya, Egypt and certain middle-east countries.
This evidence withstanding, all news agencies include these states’ denials of involvment in Somala in their reports. If they don’t admit involvement, what does that say? What does it add to the coverage? Of course these actors are not saying they are ‘supplying arms’, such an admission would close off World Bank loans and multinationals investment, among other international consequences. But these denials are demonstatably false. And by including these denials, news organs are contributing to the impresion that these states denials are worth the pixels they take to display. Saying ‘We didn’t do it’, cannot continue to suffice for not doing it.
Monitoring Group Reoprt on Arms Embargo October 2006, http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/Somalia.doc, pp 7
