U.S. aids Somalis through side door — Mengistu

Press, 16 February 1978, Page 8

U.S. aids Somalis through side door — Mengistu

NZPA-Reuter Nairobi Ethiopia and the Soviet Union have both accused the United States of indirectly providing Somalia with arms tor use in the Ogaden Desert The Ethiopian Head of State, Lieutenant-Colonel Mengistu Haile Miriam, told a news conference i Addis Ababa yesterday that United States weapons supplied to Iran. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia.i and other countries had beeni transferred to Somalia. He said his forces had' captured vast quantities of| United States weapons ini what he said was the defen- i sive war they were fighting in eastern Ethiopia. These' included tanks, jeeps, and I artillery. Colonel Mengistu threatened to break diplomatic re-> lations with the United; States, Britain, and West! Germany, accusing them of! plotting to overthrow his regime. It was the first time Colonel Mengistu had publi-i cly threatened tn cut ties] v'ith the Western powers,; though he has repeatedly!

u accused Washington and its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies of aiding > ! Somalia in the Ogaden. The diminutive Ethiopian , • leader, smartly dressed in t‘ starched green battledress was flanked by a dozen : , bodyguards armed with Soli viet AK47 assault rifles as |he addressed the three-hour i > news conference in the tori'mer National Assembly. i Above his head was a huge portrait — covered up 11 by a red sheet — of the late I Emperor Haile Selassie, I i whom the military toppled from power in 1974. II Colonel Mengistu also repeatedly denounced the ; | Somali leader, Mr Siad ’Barre, personally as “pathoj logically reactionary” and a “bloodthirsty leader.” The official Soviet news i agency, Tass, yesterday also /accused N.A.f.O. countries of providing Somalia with 'abundant supplies of modern arms through third countries. Tass said the arms which i the Soviet Union was supplying to Ethiopia were ; purely for defensive purI poses.

Ethiopia’s Ambassador to I Kenya (Mr Mengiste Desta) told a news conference in Nairobi that his country's I forces had made considlerable advances since their ‘offensive began last week.

He said Somali forces had sustained heavy losses in men and equipment. But he ■ said Ethiopia would not invade Somalia.

“We have made it crystal clear that Ethiopia has no intention of crossing into Somalia because we have no claim to the territory of our neighbours,” Mr Mengiste said. “Our clear and concise objective is to throw out the invading forces.” In Mogadishu, Somali official., said their forces were holding back an Ethiopian armoured offensive in the Ogaden. They said Soviet-backed Ethiopian forces, backed by sophisticated Soviet planes, heavy artillery, and tanks, had advanced only about 10km east from the mountain city of Harar along the road towards Jigiga. But they said a string of important towns were still in Somali hands.

The “New York Times” quoted United States Intelligence officials yesterday as saying Soviet Air Force units had taken up Cuban defence patrols, apparently to free Cuban pilots to support Ethiopia. “There was no estimate of how many Soviet airmen were involved in the operation, but some officials said Moscow might be in the process of taking over Cuba's entire air defence,” the newspaper said. Some officials had asked whether this. Soviet military presence violated an agreement reached during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union. This was that the United States would not invade Cuba and that no Soviet forces would be stationed on the island, the report said. But State Department officials said the 1962 understanding barred offensive, not defensive, action.

The report added that, according to United States Intelligence analysis, Cuba had lent its best pilots to help Ethiopia.

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