In rebel region, Ethiopia turns to civilian patrols

By Jeffrey Gettleman December 14, 2007



NAIROBI, Kenya — The Ethiopian government, one of America’s top allies in Africa, is forcing untrained civilians — including doctors, teachers, office clerks and employees of development programs financed by the World Bank and United Nations — to fight rebels in the desolate Ogaden region, according to Western officials, refugees and Ethiopian administrators who recently defected to avoid being conscripted.

Ethiopia has been struggling with the rebels for years. But with tens of thousands of its troops now enmeshed in a bloody insurgency in Somalia and many thousands more massing on the border for a possible war with Eritrea, the government seems to be relying on civilians to do more of its fighting in the Ogaden, a bone-dry chunk of territory where Ethiopian troops have been accused by human rights groups of widespread abuses.

In a recent report, government officials in the region called upon elders, traders, women and civil servants to form local “security committees” and mobilize their clans to destroy the rebels and their bases of support. The government says that the rebels are terrorists who have carried out assassinations and bombings, and that civilians have volunteered to fight them.
But by many accounts, the militias are hardly voluntary. One Western aid official said soldiers had barged into hospitals to draft recruits and threatened to jail health workers if they did not comply. In other cases, lists of names were posted on public bulletin boards, ordering government employees to report for duty, according to a current member of the regional parliament and two Ethiopian administrators who have fled the country. Many of those who refused were fired, jailed and in some cases tortured, the administrators and parliament member said.

The civilians are serving as guides, porters, translators and foot soldiers, and they are sent into the bush with little or no training to confront hardened guerrilla fighters. In the ensuing battles, many civil servants have recently been killed, according to accounts corroborated by Western officials and aid workers.

“Anybody who works for the government — teachers, doctors, clerks, administrators — has to join a militia,” said Hassan Abdi Hees, who worked as the head accountant in a government office in the Ogaden and is now seeking asylum in Kenya. “I left because I didn’t want to die.”
Several Western officials say they are alarmed about this new strategy, especially when the first signs may be emerging of a humanitarian crisis that aid officials predicted over the summer.
Earlier this year, the Ethiopian military sealed off large swaths of the Ogaden to choke off support for the rebels, preventing much of the commercial traffic and emergency food aid from entering.

Western aid officials warned this could cause a famine. The military has since relaxed some restrictions, but a survey by the aid group Save the Children U.K. found that child malnutrition rates in some areas have soared past emergency thresholds and are now higher than in Darfur or Somalia, widely considered the two most pressing crises in Africa.

In late November, John Holmes, the most senior humanitarian official at the United Nations, came to the Ogaden to assess the situation. While there, he said, he heard reports of civilian militias being formed, and observed that it was increasingly difficult to find health workers, livestock workers and trained professionals to distribute much-needed aid in the region, which now faces a drought.
“There is not a catastrophe there, for the moment,” Mr. Holmes7 said. “But there is a lot of concern the Ogaden could become a serious humanitarian crisis.”
Ethiopian officials deny this.
“Many media and international organizations have been exaggerating the problems,” said Nur Abdi Mohammed, a government spokesman. “There is no food aid problem. There is no malnutrition problem.”
As for militias, Mr. Mohammed said, “what is happening is that the local tribes are forming to fight against the O.N.L.F.,” the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the main rebel group in the area.
“The people want to protect their livelihood,” Mr. Mohammed added.
According to the recent government report, which was published by regional authorities, rank-and-file civil servants are not the only ones called upon to fight the rebels. It also lists several employees who work for programs financed by international donors. They included a pastoralist development project that receives millions of dollars from the World Bank and the Ethiopian government’s AIDS prevention office, which is supported, in part, by the United Nations and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. A second government document ordering civil servants to report for duty lists 10 employees from an AIDS office.
One government official said that his entire department, including white-collar professionals, clerks, watchmen and drivers, had been forced to go on reconnaissance patrols to hunt down the rebels. The official, who feared government reprisals if he were identified, said that the militia duty interrupted humanitarian programs supported by the United Nations and that several colleagues were killed while on patrol.
“We don’t know how to operate guns, but the government sent us to the front lines,” the official said.
Other civilians who served in the militias said they were not given camouflage, and even had to buy their own rifles.
“It’s terrifying,” said Ali Mahamoud, a Koranic teacher who said he was yanked out of Arabic class a few months ago and assigned to a militia. “You can’t see the rebels when they’re shooting at you. And the Ethiopians will kill you if you try to run.”
The rebels said the civilians were easy targets.
“They don’t know the bush,” said Daous, a commander for the Ogaden National Liberation Front.
Some of the region’s best-trained professionals have chosen to flee, including Sadik Mohammed Hajinur, a Sudanese-trained doctor who used to work at a rural hospital. He said that Ethiopian soldiers demanded that he recruit militia members from his clan and that when he refused, they beat him with rifle butts.
“I faced so many problems from the army,” said Dr. Sadik, who is now seeking asylum in Sweden.
Dr. Sadik and other refugees described the militia program as another example of the extremes to which the Ethiopian government will go to control the Ogaden region, which lies on the border of Somalia and is home to mostly ethnic Somalis, who speak a different language and have a different culture than the highland Ethiopians who rule the country.
Several United Nations officials and Western diplomats said they were discussing the militia program in private meetings, but contended they could not comment publicly for fear of provoking the ire of the Ethiopian government, resulting in a possible suspension of humanitarian efforts in the region.
“We are walking a very thin line, and we need to concentrate on saving lives right now,” a United Nations official said.
Ethiopian authorities have already expelled the Red Cross from the Ogaden, accusing aid workers of being spies.
The Bush administration considers Ethiopia its No. 1 ally in combating terrorism in the Horn of Africa, and the American government provides it with roughly $500 million in annual aid. Last winter, American commanders gave Ethiopia prized intelligence to oust an Islamic movement that had controlled much of Somalia.
But Human Rights Watch says it has documented dozens of cases of severe abuse by Ethiopian troops in the Ogaden, including gang rapes, burned villages and what it calls “demonstration killings,” like hangings and beheadings, meant to terrorize the population.
“This is a mini-Darfur,” said Steve Crawshaw, the United Nations advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.
The Ethiopian government’s response to such criticism is often one word: Eritrea. Ethiopian leaders have accused their tiny neighbor of arming insurgents in Somalia and the Ogaden. Eritrea denies this, but a United Nations report concluded that the country had indeed shipped planeloads of weapons into Somalia. Ethiopia also blames Eritrea for failing to compromise on the border issue, which has led to a major military buildup on both sides.
As for human rights, Ethiopia’s prime minister, Meles Zenawi, said at a recent news conference that “there have been no widespread human rights violations in the Ogaden, not only because we believe in the respect for human rights, but because we know how to fight the insurgency.”
But several soldiers who have recently defected said they had participated in brutal killings. Ahmed Mohammed, 24, said he was born in the Ogaden and served two years in the national army. In August, he said, his platoon was blockading a road and caught a truck trying to sneak through. The soldiers dragged the driver out and Mr. Ahmed said he watched his commander saw off the driver’s head with a 10-inch hunting knife.
“We left the body by the road,” said Mr. Ahmed, who is now a refugee in Kenya. His account could not be independently verified, but was consistent with those of other soldiers who had defected.
Mr. Mohammed, the government spokesman, dismissed the story, saying: “There is not a single soldier who is abusing human rights. The Ethiopian military is very disciplined and would not abuse its own people.”

Recent refugees said the military was trying to starve them out and the blockade had been like a noose on some parts of the region, cutting off food supplies.
In October, Save the Children U.K. surveyed more than 600 Ogadeni children and found that 21 percent were acutely malnourished, compared with United Nations surveys that found malnutrition rates of 19 percent in an area of Somalia and 13 percent in Darfur, Sudan. The United Nations considers 15 percent the emergency threshold.

“We’ve crossed the line into a humanitarian crisis,” said one Western diplomat who asked not to be identified because he was afraid of reprisals from the government.
Western officials said the Ethiopian government has begun to respond by loosening the restrictions on commercial traffic and food and allowing the United Nations to open field offices in the Ogaden. “There have been positive developments in the last three weeks,” said Marc Rubin, emergency director for Unicef in Ethiopia.
But there is a lot of catching up to do. The amount of emergency food that the United Nations World Food Program has dispatched to the Ogaden this year is a fraction of what it was last year, 19,475 tons compared with 155,249 tons .
Several refugees said they had been reduced to eating grass.
Habsa Ghaffir, who arrived at a camp in Kenya four weeks ago, said that after Ethiopian troops burned her fields and shot her husband, her 4-year-old son starved to death.
“I remember him saying to me, ‘Mom, bring me food, Mom, bring me tea, Mom bring me water,’” Ms. Habsa said.
But she had none.
“It is like they are trying to wipe us out,” she said, nervously snapping twigs between her fingers as she spoke outside her hut. “Even here, we’re not safe.”
United Nations officials said Ethiopian intelligence agents had infiltrated Kenya, and on Nov. 2, there was a mysterious attack that only added to these fears.
According to Kenyan police, masked men burst into an apartment building in a Nairobi slum and shot five Ethiopian refugees. Two died, along with a guard outside who was shot in the head.
Nothing was taken. Witnesses said the killers went straight to the Ethiopians’ room. The Ethiopian victims had been student leaders in their country, and the Kenyan police said some of them had previously asked for protection.
Kenyan police commander Joseph Maina Migwi said he could not say whether Ethiopian security agents were involved.
“But whoever did it,” he said, “were definitely paid professionals.”

Source: The New York Times

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Horn African Diaspora unites for peace and stability of the region

Horn African Diaspora unites for peace and stability of the region.
Meadna News, Tuesday, 11 December 2007

A conference for peace and stability in the horn of Africa was held in London on Sunday December 9th 2007, bringing communities from Ogden, Somalia, Eritrea and Oromo together. The conference, first of its kind, was jointly organised by the Oromo Youth Organisation, Ogaden Youth Organisation, Eritrean Youth Organisation and Somalia Youth Congress to address problems in the horn Africa region including killing of civilians, destruction of livelihoods, war crimes, rape and sexual assaults, arrests and detentions, occupation, forced expulsion and violation of international rulings that are being committed by the Ethiopian regime.
Followed by the official opening of the conference, representatives of Oromo Youth Organisation, Eritrean Youth Organisation, Ogaden Youth Organisation and Somalia Youth Congress gave presentations on the state of affairs of their countries and people in historical context respectively.

The Oromo representative, stating the present time as “historic moment”, expressed their delight to have the opportunity to “voice our voice for those voiceless majority Oromos in Ethiopia.” The presentation focused on gross violation of human right in Ethiopia including the extrajudicial killing, disappearances of hundreds of thousands Oromos, mass detention and economic crimes directed at all Ethiopian ethic groups denying them to engage in any significant economic activities. The presentation described the plight of Oromo farmers who are “facing unprecedented scale of eviction from their farming land which time in memorial belongs to their ancestors.”

The presentation also highlighted the role of the powerful nations that have got the Ethiopian regime as their ally to their war on terror “are in reality supporting a terrorist government.” The presentation further added “whether it is a matter of coincidence or intentionally, the US government is supporting the most brutal, undemocratic, corrupt and uncivilized political power in Ethiopia”

Describing the Ethiopian regime as the “the most notorious threat to East Africa,” the presentation stated “the TPLF went into war with Eritrea in 1998 to 2000, which ended up with the loss of 70,000 lives and displacement of 700,000 people. In the involvement of Ethiopian government into internal affair of Somalia, the direct targets of the TPLF are Oromos who took refugee in Somalia.”

This was followed by Eritrean presentation, which focused on the current problem, the refusal of the Ethiopian regime to abide by the international final and binding ruling and historical context of the role of the US in the region and particular its policy on Eritrea and Ethiopia which has been the same for over half a century. The presentation also highlighted the human suffering including the mass deportation of Eritreans from Ethiopia and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

The Ogaden presentation was also presented in historical context and the main focus of topics were the plight of the Ogaden Somali people, natural resources, the root causes of the Ogaden trouble and human right violation. The presentation was backed by very distressing images and videos of specific cases of killing of civilians, rape and sexual assaults, arrests and detentions and torture. The evidences were very distressing and caused the presenter and most of the attendants of the conference to burst into tears and weeping. The presentation also highlighted the role of the western nations in supporting and assisting the Ethiopian regime through billions of dollars, which is directly allowing Meles Zenawi “butcher more Ethiopians, Ogaden Somalis, also allow him to invade neighbor countries Eritrea and Somalia.” The presentation ended appealing to the international community to intervene in the plight of Ogaden Somalis.
Finally, the representative of the Somalia Youth Congress presented equally distressing picture of the Situation in Somalia. The presentation highlighted the death of over 6000 civilians, 7000 wounded people and displacement of 1.5 million Somalians, which was caused by the Ethiopian invasion and occupation of Somalia. The presentation also looked at the role of the US, “the Bush administration instead of supporting the IUC for getting rid of the war lords immediately branded the IUC hardliners and made those who have been killing and robbing the Somalian people his allies as well as supporting the Ethiopian occupation.”

Pointing out the agenda of the Ethiopian regime, which is to stop Somalia from uniting and reconstitute their country, the presentation stated “the majority of Smalians do not support the Somalian transition government; it is not an independent government but one that is controlled and guided by the regime in Addis.” The presentation similarly ended with a call on the international community to listen to the screaming of the Somalian people for help.
After giving the attendant of the conference the opportunity for discussion, the six-hour long event was concluded with agreement to stage a peaceful demonstration in January 2008 and invited all the people of the horn of Africa and friends of the region to join them in their appeal to the international community for peace.

Source: meadma.com

Ogaden locals allege abuses by soldiers

Ogaden locals allege abuses by soldiers
11/29/2007By ANITA POWELL The Associated Press KEBRIDEHAR, Ethiopia (AP) — In the desert stretches of eastern Ethiopia, locals accuse soldiers fighting an insurgency of burning villages to the ground, committing gang rape and killing people "like goats."

John Holmes, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief, right, greet residents of Kebridehar in the eastern Ethiopian region of Ogaden, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007. John Holmes, urged officials to allow freedom of movement and more aid agencies in the eastern Ethiopian region of Ogaden, where a low-level insurgency has escalated.(AP Photo/Anita Powell)

The allegations have drawn the attention of international human rights campaigners to this remote corner of a key U.S. ally.Ethiopia's prime minister says his troops are fighting against a separatist movement in the region known as the Ogaden, and he denies that soldiers have committed such atrocities."This is a counterinsurgency. I am not going to tell you there hasn't been anyone beaten up. I am absolutely confident that there has not been any widespread violation of human rights," Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told journalists Wednesday.But a thin, pensive 30-year-old man, who spoke on condition of anonymity this week because of fear of reprisals, told The Associated Press that the army had burned two villages — Lebiga and Korelitsa — to the ground Nov. 23, killing one man.The army, the man said, was killing his neighbors "like goats."

Officials in the area, which covers nearly 80,000 square miles, said they had heard similar reports. They also asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.The 30-year-old man described gang rapes and public hangings, and said villagers had been told not to speak to international observers. Officials in the area also said villagers had been told not to speak to outsiders, and that also was mentioned in a September report by a U.N. fact-finding mission.A 26-year-old man, who also asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, accused the government of withholding food to punish fighters and supporters of the Ogaden National Liberation Front

.For more than a decade, the ethnic Somali rebels have been fighting for greater autonomy in the region, which is being heavily explored for oil and gas. In April, they attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration field in the region, killing 74 people. The Ethiopian military began counterinsurgency operations in May.The ONLF accuses the government of human rights abuses; the government accuses the rebels of being terrorists funded by its archenemy, Eritrea.

The U.S. looks to Ethiopia to help fight the war on terror in East Africa, where al-Qaida has claimed responsibility for several attacks, including the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people.But working with Ethiopia against terror means an alliance with a country accused of violating human and political rights. Last year, the Ethiopian government acknowledged its security forces killed 193 civilians protesting a disputed election but insisted excessive force was not used.Earlier this year,

New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the Ethiopian army of blocking aid, burning homes and displacing thousands of civilians in the Ogaden region.Ethiopia expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Dutch branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres from Ogaden. But in recent weeks, the government has allowed 19 non-governmental organizations to return.

In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, the prime minister told journalists Wednesday that human rights abuses and a humanitarian crisis, "didn't exist. Doesn't exist. Will not exist" in the Ogaden.Meles, a former rebel, said that he would not repeat the measures taken against him by previous regimes and his government will not commit "widespread human rights violations.""We know firsthand how to fight an insurgency and how to avoid stupid mistakes," Meles said.John Holmes, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief, visited the region Tuesday and on Wednesday described the humanitarian situation there as "potentially serious."

He said that he had talked with Meles and other Ethiopian officials about opening up transport and trade, expanding food distribution and addressing human rights concerns. He said Meles took the human rights "issue seriously."Holmes said he heard many secondhand reports of human rights abuses and said that "they come from numerous and sufficiently varied sources to be taken seriously."

He did not give details.The U.N. fact-finding mission said in September that the situation in the Ogaden had deteriorated rapidly and called for an independent investigation.The mission also said that recent fighting in the region had led to a worsening humanitarian situation and called for a substantial increase in emergency food aid.

Source: The Associated Press

Ethiopia forcing untrained civilians to fight rebels, refugees say

NAIROBI, Kenya — Ethiopian soldiers have forcibly drafted hundreds of civilians to fight separatist rebels in the desolate, predominantly Muslim Ogaden region in a shadowy military campaign supported by the Bush administration, according to more than a dozen refugees and former recruits who've fled to neighboring Kenya.

MCT
View larger image
The untrained and ill-equipped draftees — including students, camel herders and tribal leaders who've never fired weapons in combat — are being thrown into pitched battles with ethnic Somali guerrillas and often suffer heavy casualties, the refugees and ex-recruits said.
Men who resist joining these civilian militias — known as "dabaqodhi," or "puppets" of the government — are beaten, locked up in military prisons or killed, the refugees said in interviews. When recruits perform poorly in combat, as they often do, they're abused and accused of aiding the rebels, refugees said.
The accounts offer a disturbing glimpse into the U.S.-backed Ethiopian government's months-long battle against an ethnic Somali separatist group known as the Ogaden National Liberation Front. The fight has been conducted virtually in secret in the dry, craggy eastern region that's home to about 4 million mostly ethnic Somali nomads.
The refugees' accounts also have renewed questions about the Bush administration's unflinching support for Ethiopia's Christian-led government, its main African ally in the war on terrorism. Ethiopian troops, with U.S. military support, invaded neighboring Somalia last December to oust a hard-line Islamist regime and have been bogged down by a stubborn insurgency there ever since.
Some U.S. and Ethiopian officials think that Islamist fighters from Somalia are aiding the ONLF. On a recent visit to Ethiopia, Jendayi Frazer, the ranking State Department official for Africa, said Ethiopia had a right to defend itself and that allegations of civilian killings were unsubstantiated.
An Ethiopian government spokesman, Zemedkun Tekle, said the allegations were untrue. "The policy of the country to recruit soldiers is on a voluntary basis," he said. "In our country, no one is forced without his will to join the military."
"They came into my school one morning and selected 20 boys and put us into military barracks," said Abdirahman Ali Hashi, a lanky, bookish 23-year-old who described how government troops plucked him last February from his 10th-grade classroom in the town of Degehabur.
With no training other than a cursory lesson on how to fire their AK-47 rifles, they were sent to the battlefield to guide Ethiopian troops who didn't know the terrain, Hashi said. But the guerrillas outgunned them.
Hashi said that soldiers killed another draftee, a childhood friend named Mohammed Abdullah, after their unit came under heavy fire from rebels near the village of Hurale.
"They said he was keeping secrets and accused him of being a member of the ONLF," Hashi said. "When he replied, they used the handles of their guns to beat him. He became unconscious. Then they shot him."
For much of the year, Ethiopia barred journalists and international humanitarian agencies from the region. In recent weeks, however, several relief organizations have been allowed to return, and groups investigating the conflict said they'd also heard accounts of civilians being press-ganged into military service.
"Forced recruitment of militia members is one of a number of very credible allegations of abuses that we've heard coming from the Somali region" of Ethiopia, said Leslie Lefkow, a senior researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch. "There's no question that there has been abuses taking place for many years, but there seems to have been a very serious escalation this year with the government's intensified (military) campaign."
After visiting the Ogaden, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes warned Wednesday of a potentially "serious humanitarian crisis" and recommended that Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi investigate allegations of human rights abuses.
According to former recruits and human rights groups, village elders are forced to produce a quota of fighters from their clan, or tribe. The fighters generally aren't paid or given uniforms, and clans are required to furnish their own weapons. In years past, some elders said that military commanders diverted U.N. food rations from hungry villagers to pay off men who helped recruit fighters.
"They tell you to bring your young boys and give them your guns," said Abdullahi Hassan Mohammed, a 70-year-old clan leader from the Kebredehar district. "They will come to you every morning and demand this, or they will kill you."
The Ogaden nomads — members of a Muslim minority who are tied more closely to tribes in Somalia than they are to the rest of Ethiopia — long have complained that the central government neglects them. Tensions boiled over last April when ONLF rebels attacked a Chinese-run oil field and killed 74 people, most of them Ethiopians.
Since then, the military and the rebels have boasted of winning major battles and capturing or killing dozens from the other side, accounts that have been impossible to verify.
Relief agencies warned of worsening nutrition as government soldiers imposed a blockade on food and humanitarian aid, which they only recently began to lift. Last week, U.S. officials pledged to double humanitarian aid to the Ogaden by sending $45 million in emergency food to the region.
McClatchy Newspapers 2007

One civilian who fought, then ran away

NAIROBI, Kenya — One morning in June, a handful of Ethiopian soldiers came to the town of Lehelow, in the far eastern Warder district, and called the tribal elders together, said Mohammed Abdi, who's 26. "Bring all the young boys," one of the soldiers said.

Shashank Bengali / MCT
Mohammed Abdi, 26, was forced into an Ethiopian government militia to fight separatist rebels in the eastern Ogaden region earlier this year. "I was very worried about being killed," said Abdi, a camel herder who had never fired a weapon except for occasional target practice. View larger image

The elders trotted out 26 men, including Abdi, who ran a tea stall and looked after his family's camels. He was told to bring his rifle, which he often carried to protect his animals from hyenas, but he'd never fired it except in occasional target practice.
"I was very worried about being killed," he recalled.
A few days later, Abdi was forced into battle near the village of Qurarad, a three-hour walk from his home. He was among about 120 militiamen; behind them were 140 Ethiopian soldiers. When the fighting began, Abdi said, he crouched behind the nearest tree and aimed his weapon across a valley at rebel fighters — but didn't fire at anyone.
Twenty militiamen died that day, Abdi said, and the government forces retreated. Back at the base, soldiers abused two of the recruits with the butts of their guns.
Later that week, Abdi's brothers and sisters gave him some money and clothes and stood watch as he fled into the bush toward Somalia, where hundreds of Ogaden refugees already had gathered. After a few weeks, he got word that government soldiers had forced his older brother Ali into battle to replace him and that he'd been killed.
Now Abdi is huddled in the Nairobi neighborhood of Eastleigh, a low-rent Somali enclave that, despite its regal-sounding name, is little more than a sprawling open sewer crisscrossed by tin-and-clapboard shacks and questionable-looking guesthouses. In one of those houses, he shares a 50-square-foot room with five or six other Ogaden refugees.
"There are a lot of people who suffer like this," Abdi said. "Sometimes when I think back on that battle where I was forced to fight, I feel like a madman. Just because of that battle, I lost everything."

McClatchy Newspapers 2007

Who is in power? On the horns of a dilemma

Who is in power? On the horns of a dilemma
Editorial November 12, 2007

Ethiopian opposition figure Brook Kebede (left) of the CUDP-Kinijit speaks with U.S. Congressman Chris Smith as Engineer Gizachew Shiferaw looks on (Photo: Tamagne Beyene; Sept 26, 2007)

The visiting CUDP officials and accompanying hosts are pictured above with The Honorable Donald Payne, member of the US Congress and author of HR 2003 (File Photo: Kinijit-DC). The official word from the Ethiopian government is that they have violated the terms of their release. They are accused of abusing the government’s gesture of good will in releasing them from prison. They have been talking to Congress. They said there is no democracy in Ethiopia . They have been badmouthing the government in the international press. They said there are gross human rights abuses in Ethiopia . They are consorting with the enemy. They are working with the OLF and ONLF. Reportedly, Meles held a recent video conference with the so-called regionanl council presidents, asking them to petition the federal government to charge the Kinijit leaders with treason for their support of H.R. 2003.
“THEY”, of course, are the Kinijit leaders who have been touring North America, Europe and other places over the past couple of months. As they begin to head home following their wildly successful tour, a constant drumbeat of government propaganda awaits them. The objective seems clear. Dampen the public euphoria over their incredibly successful international tour, soil their reputations, and hopefully, scare them into not returning. The short message to them is, “Return at your own risk!”
The government believes the so-called pardon was a contract for the Kinijit leaders to play deaf, mute and blind. By accepting the “pardon”, according to the government, the Kinijit leaders have taken a vow of silence. Strangely enough, not only are they prohibited from having discussions with representatives of the Ethiopian government, they are also forbidden from seeking out the sympathetic ears of public officials in the host countries they are visiting. Ironically, the government conveniently overlooks its own multimillion dollar lobbying efforts to influence and shape public policy in the same host countries. What is good for the goose is certainly not good for the gander, by the government’s calculation.
If the Kinijit leaders are liable for complaining about human rights violations in the legislatures of their host counties, that would be old hat. The whole world has long known the deplorable state of human rights in Ethiopia . There is nothing they can say about human rights abuses in Ethiopia that has not already been said umpteen times by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch or the U.S. State Department. As to their alleged alliance and collaboration with certain organizations disapproved by the government, there is not a shred of evidence to support that claim. If they are to be charged with treason, the United States government, who benefited from the treasonous acts, should also be charged as a co-conspirator.
Why make a thinly-veiled threat of arrest and imprisonment at this time? The government is apparently very concerned about an explosive resurgence of popularity for the Kinijit leaders upon their return. Perhaps they could be scared into seeking political asylum in the West. As they have repeatedly stated, they will all return because they love their country. They are also prepared to face the wrath of a ruthless dictatorship. Their choices are limited. As Mrs. Benazir Buhtto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, wrote in the New York Times last week on General Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of martial law, “It is dangerous to stand up to a military dictatorship, but more dangerous not to.” W/t Birtukan Midekssa and the Kinijit leaders know all too well that it is dangerous to stand up to Meles Zenawi’s dictatorship, but more dangerous not to.
The threat of jail is an ever present reality to the Kinijit leaders. But 21 months of imprisonment has not broken their spirit or the Kinijit Spirit. It has not dampened their enthusiasm for democracy or their commitment to the rule of law. They and the government know that the Spirit of Kinijit remains hidden in the hearts of the Ethiopian people intact.
Putting them back in jail on trumped up charges has its obvious disadvantages and consequences both domestically and internationally. It is likely that another arbitrary detention could transform these leaders from heroes to superheroes. But with 21 months under their belt, jail time would not come to them as a surprise. But the more likely scenario is a chapter out of the Pakistani/Burmese Book of Dictatorship. Like Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma and Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan , Birtukan Midekssa and the others may have think about house arrest and constant harassment as an ordinary fact of daily life upon their return.
The triumphant return of the Kinijit leaders from their tour underscores the tenuous nature of the regime’s hold on power, and its total unpopularity with the people. But the usual arsenal of jail, intimidation, propaganda and dirty tricks campaigns against the Kinijit leaders will prove futile. Resort to repressive and intimidatory techniques further demonstrates the government’s complete lack of interest and contempt for a peaceful and negotiated settlement of disputes, and in national reconciliation.
Meles and his regime should understand, as has Musharaf in Pakistan , and rather reluctantly, the junta leaders in Burma , that the answer to political problems lies in dialogue, not brute force. But Meles is unwilling to take advantage of the opportunity for a genuine dialogue with the Kinijit leaders either out of personal antipathy, or genuine fear of losing the political argument on democracy and the moral argument on his regime’s legitimacy, or both. That would not be out of character. Meles will never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
The lack of dialogue between the government and the Kinijit leaders and other groups is fueling a gathering storm of opposition at a time when the dark clouds of war and insurrection hang ominously over the land. The winds of war are blowing hard in the Horn of Africa, and the ensuing firestorm will consume all who remain on the warpath. There will be no winners, only losers. This is a prospect Meles Zenawi and his regime should seriously

Xalka Kali ah Somalia U hayn Waa Sidan.

Ethiopia: Warar Xog. ogaal ah lagu kalsoon yahay, ayaa sheegaya in ethiopia ay rabto in somalia loo kala qaybiyo , Gobale federal ah, Iyo, Waqooyi galbeed somalila la Magac baxay somaliland In Ethiopia iyo Kenya ay aqoon sadaaan.

Dalka Ethiopia Ayaa horaantii sanadkan waxaa sameeyay, Gudi uu oo magac darey, Khabiiradaa siyaasada somalia Ee danaha qaranka ethiopia ku bad baadi karto, khabiiradaas ayaa madax waxaa ka ah, Wasiir dowlada arrimaha dibada Dr Alemu Tekede , Inta kalo ah Jenrals ka tirsan ciidanka qaranka, Iyo masuuliyiin ka tirsan parlamenka , ayaa waxaa soo hordhigeen qorshahan oo ah sidan.

1- In Ethiopia aqoonsato somaliland, Aqoonsi Caalami ahna ooga raadiso,

2- In Ethiopia somalia kale u kala qaybiso Gobalo ana lahyn awood mulatari oo federeal ah, Puntland, Juboland Hawiye land, Raxanwaynland.

3- In Ethiopia dhulka Somalada ogadeniya laga xayiraa qaybaha somalida kale , xaga is dhex galka , ganacsiga bulshada.

Arintaan ayaa wararka wariyaha ku sugan adiss ababa shegayaa in la hor dhigaay masuuliyiin ka tirsaan, Waqooyi galbeed somalia, lamagac baxay Somaliland , Masuulyiin ka tirsan Puntland, Iyo Madaxda Dolwda u sareeyaa Cabdulaahi yusuf Iyo geedi,

Riyaale kaahin oo ah ku Maxada ismaamulka somaliland Aayaa qorshahaas soo dhaweeyay, Kuna diirsaday waxaan Gurigaa adiss aba looga yaqaan, Prime minister palace Casho loogu sameeyay habeenkii halkaas laga wad hadlay in ciidan garaya ilaa 7000 keeni doona koonfur , ciidankaas caawiyaa Ethiopia,, Madaxwaynaha jamuuriya federalka Somalia Cabdulaahi yuusuf Axmed ayaa arrintaa Gaashanaka ku dhuftay caro kala so tagay magaalada Adiss Ababa.

source: Girma waldo

COLEMAN MEETS WITH YEMENESE AMBASSADOR TO DISCUSS SOMALI REFUGEE CRISIS

October 30th, 2007 - Washington DC - As ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Near East Affairs Senator Norm Coleman today met with the Ambassador of Yemen, Mr. Abdul Wahab Al-Hijri, to discuss the humanitarian situation of Somali refugees in Yemen. Yemen is the primary destination for Somali refugees who cross the Gulf of Aden to escape the highly volatile situation in their home country.

The UN estimates that there are approximately 100,000 Somali refugees residing in Yemen, with thousands of others making the attempt to cross the Gulf of Aden, which often results in human smuggling and other dangers posed by poorly constructed and overcrowded boats. “Today I met with Ambassador Al-Hijri to discuss the humanitarian situation of Somali refugees fleeing to his country,” said Coleman.

“This issue is a very high priority for me, as I have heard very troubling reports about the treacherous conditions faced by Somalis who cross the Gulf of Aden and the many deaths associated with these journeys. The dangers they face include becoming victims of human trafficking and enduring perilous conditions as they travel across the sea, which has led to a situation in which hundreds of deaths have occurred this year.” “The humanitarian situation of Somalis that actually arrive in Yemen is also very difficult, as demonstrated by reports of poor conditions at the refugee camps,” added Coleman. “It was important to me to raise my deep concerns for the Somalis crossing the Gulf of Aden to the Ambassador, who was very receptive to my comments. I also expressed my appreciation to the Ambassador for Yemen’s compassionate policy of granting refugee status to all Somalis that arrive on its shore. This has allowed many Somalis to escape the dangers that currently plague parts of Somalia. I pledged to work with the Ambassador and his government to try to better address the issue of Somali refugees in Yemen, and am very encouraged by his openness to such cooperation.”

Contact(s):Leroy Coleman, (202) 224-5641

Child hunger 'crisis' in Ogaden

Child hunger 'crisis' in Ogaden
Elizabeth Blunt BBC News, Addis Ababa

Aid agencies have been sounding the alarm for monthsA humanitarian disaster is now imminent in Ethiopia's Somali region of Ogaden, a report says, just two months after the UN warned of acute food shortages.
Ethiopia's Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency says the situation is critical, with over 20% of children in the Ogaden acutely malnourished.
Rebel attacks and military counter insurgency operations have disrupted food supplies for months.
In August, the UN said emergency food aid was needed for 600,000 people.
This latest report, prepared with technical assistance from the aid agency Save the Children is the first attempt to measure the effects of the current situation on young children in the Ogaden.

See detailed map of Ogaden
It follows reports submitted to the government last month by both Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) and the UN, which also sounded the alarm.
Famine looming
The Ethiopian government had promised to ensure that the food and medical needs of the people in the region were met in collaboration with UN agencies and other partners.

Ogaden suffered badly in 2000 following drought
But by the time the children were assessed in early September, over 20% of under fives were already found to be acutely malnourished and 1.5%, severely acutely malnourished - a term which indicates the kind of listless children with wasted arms and legs found in famine situations.
This, the report says, indicates a critical nutritional status situation, which is something short of a humanitarian emergency but could very quickly turn into one without immediate action.
The report scrupulously avoids allotting blame but shows how natural and man-made causes have combined to put these children in danger.
Rains and rebels
The area of Fiq where the assessment teams carried out their work was already impoverished and short of food even before the upsurge in rebel attacks this year and the army operation which followed.
The Ethiopian army has been accused by Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) separatists of operating a food blockade and causing a man-made famine.
The rains in Fiq have been poor for the past two years and there is little pasture for the animals.
Now security operations have disrupted normal commercial food supplies and made men in particular afraid to travel to places where they might be able to buy.
Prices of grain have doubled, while the price of livestock - people's main source of income - has halved.
Even those with money, the report says, have no easy access to food and an urgent response is needed to ensure that the children in these areas survive.
In early September MSF warned that a disaster was looming in the region and complained it had been denied access by the government in Addis Ababa.
Later the same month a UN fact-finding mission found a "pervasive climate of fear" in Ogaden and called for an independent investigation into abuses of civilians.
The ONLF was founded in 1984 and is fighting for independence from Ethiopia, complaining of discrimination by the central government against the region's Somali-speaking nomads.

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7069818.stm

Ethiopia faced with tough decisions in Somalia

Ethiopia faced with tough decisions in Somalia
Published 10/30/2007 - 7:49 a.m. EST
Slide Show PM Meles Zenawi at a press conference in Addis Ababa


Despite the swift collapse of the Islamists forces

almost ten months ago, Addis Ababa remains in an awkward position as the transitional Somali government’s Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi recently resigned from his post. Analysts say Ethiopia has various cards to play in Somalia since it has a range of partners, but almost all of the moves will end up displeasing another Ethiopian ally in the anarchic Somalia. At the center of it all is the breakaway Somaliland region in the north that is seeking UN recognition. Supporting Somaliland is often seen as the best solution in Addis Ababa as well as in Nairobi, since even a non-Islamist stable central government in Mogadishu can end up seeking the much feared irredentism policies in the long term. Also, Somaliland’s staunch cooperation with Ethiopia against the ONLF rebels is seen to give Somaliland the edge over Puntland. Meanwhile, Puntland is the biggest source of man power for Ethiopian troops and for the pro-Ethiopia but weak transitional government of President Abdullahi Yusuf. Thus the tangled situation makes it a challenge for Addis Ababa to fully support Somaliland, as Hargeisa also battles pro-Puntland militias to take over disputed territories in the north. Some sources are stating that Ethiopia is trying to diversify away from its overdependence on Puntland and on President Abdullahi Yusuf, by seeking a more powerful anti-Islamist Hawiye leadership in Mogadishu. This indirectly helps bring balanced clan representation in the TFG while at the same time giving Ethiopia a non-Darood powerful ally in the south as Ethiopia eventually seeks to strengthen its ties with Somaliland.

Ethiopia's 'own Darfur' as villagers flee government-backed violence

By Steve Bloomfield in Bosasso
Published: 17 October 2007

Early one June morning, in Kamuda, a village of 200 families in the remote Ogaden region in eastern Ethiopia, 180 soldiers announced their arrival by firing guns in the air.
The village, they said, had been providing food and shelter for the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a separatist rebel group . As the villagers froze in horror, the soldiers plucked out seven young women, all aged between 15 and 18, and left.
The following morning the youngest girl was found. Her body, bloodied and beaten, was hanging from a tree. The next day a second girl was found hanging from the same tree. A third suffered the same fate. The others were never seen again.
Shukri Abdullahi Mohammed, 48, a mother of seven children, lived in Kamuda. As she describes the fate of the seven girls – "the most beautiful girls in the village" – she tightens her headscarf around her neck to indicate the way they were killed. "I will not forget it," she says.
Days later, a 12-year-old boy from the same village was kidnapped by soldiers and gang-raped. Every night, soldiers would knock on doors looking for women to rape. "I did not want to wait until it happened to my family," said Mrs Mohammed. They left Kamuda and made their way across the porous border with Somalia, before travelling a further 300 miles by foot to the hot and humid port town of Bosasso.
About 100 Ethiopians are now arriving here every day. Their stories reveal the brutality of Ethiopia's hidden war, a brutal counter-insurgency that some aid officials believe has parallels with Darfur. Some estimates put the number of people displaced by the violence at 200,000 already.
According to accounts from refugees, Ethiopian troops are burning villages, raping women and killing civilians as part of a systematic campaign to drive them from their homes. They reported dozens of villages destroyed and accused the Ethiopian government of forcibly starving its own people by preventing food convoys reaching villages and destroying crops and livestock.
A former Ethiopian soldier who defected from the army said how he had been ordered to burn villages and kill all their inhabitants. He said the Ethiopian air force would bomb a village before a unit of ground troops followed, firing indiscriminately at civilians. "Men, women, children – we killed them all," he said.
"We were told we were fighting guerrillas – the ONLF," he said. "But we were killing farmers – they were not ONLF."
Those who managed to escape are living in a series of ramshackle refugee camps on the edge of Bosasso. Their shelters are made from pieces of cardboard and old rags, scraps of plastic sheeting and rusting corrugated iron.
Sat outside the shelters, on the grey expanse of dust and stone, voices overlap as refugees list the villages that have been destroyed. Kor u Celista, Gallaalshe, Fooldeex, Yoocaalle – places that were all once home to hundreds of families, now abandoned and empty, the huts burnt to the ground.
Abudllahi Shukri Mohammed, 30, a cattle herder from Dega Bur province tells how he was forced at gunpoint to work as a porter for a group of 300 soldiers. They took his 18 cows and made him and five other nomads carry heavy loads. After three long days marching through the Ogaden, Mr Mohammed tried to escape.
"They caught me and started beating me. They kicked me in the head and hit me with the back of their guns." With his right arm he motions the steady, repetitive smack of the guns against his body. His left arm lies limp on his lap. He has been unable to move it since the attack, his fingers fixed in an ugly formation.
"They beat me for two hours," he says, "then I fell unconscious. They thought I was dead so they left me."
Ethiopia claims it is defending itself against an insurgency launched by the ONLF in a region that has long been marginalised.
It claims villagers have been giving the fighters shelter and food. Analysts say Ethiopia has been attempting to reduce that support by emptying the countryside. Thousands have been moved to towns heavily controlled by the military. Anyone left in the villages is considered a possible ONLF supporter.
The Ethiopian military is not the only destructive force in the region. The ONLF launched its most daring assault in April. The group attacked a Chinese oil installation in Abole, killing nine Chinese and 65 Ethiopians.
It was that attack which sparked the fresh counter-insurgency – a fierce scorched-earth policy. In the Ogaden's main towns, Jijiga and Gode, the prisons are overflowing. "They are arresting anyone who they think might have a connection with the ONLF," says one human rights worker in Bosasso. "Some are being killed if the security forces don't believe they are telling the truth."
Human rights investigators are gathering evidence of widespread use of rape, with women reporting gang-rapes by up to a dozen soldiers. In some villages, men have been abducted at night, their bodies dumped in the village the next morning.
While in Darfur, aid agencies have been able to establish camps and provide humanitarian support, they have been blocked from setting up operations in the Ogaden. The International Committee of the Red Cross has been thrown out and Medicins Sans Frontieres has also been prevented from working. Journalists trying to enter have also been banned – those that have tried have been promptly arrested.
A UN team was allowed into the Ogaden last month to investigate allegations of abuse by Ethiopian troops. Its report was not made public but the team called for an independent inquiry.
But while Khartoum's counter-insurgency in Darfur has been described by the US as "genocide" and by the UN as "crimes against humanity", international condemnation of Ethiopia has, so far, been limited. Indeed, the US has given its backing to Ethiopia. America's top official on African affairs, assistant secretary of state, Jendayi Frazer, visited one town in the Ogaden last month.
On her return to Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, she criticised the rebels and said the reports of military abuses were merely allegations. "We urge any and every government to respect human rights and to try to avoid civilian casualties but that's difficult in dealing with an insurgency," she said.
America sees Ethiopia as its principal Horn of Africa ally in the "war on terror". The US gave tacit approval for Ethiopia's Christmas invasion of Somalia which ousted the Union of Islamic Courts.
It also provided logistical and technical support for the operation and continues to help co-ordinate a response to the insurgency in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, which seeks to destabilise the transitional government, propped up by Ethiopia.
The US provides some $283m (£140m) in military and humanitarian aid to Ethiopia and has trained its military – one of the largest and strongest in Africa.
The Ogaden has become the latest flashpoint in a broader conflict in the Horn of Africa. On one side is Ethiopia and the weak transitional government of Somalia, on the other is Eritrea and two insurgent groups, the ONLF and the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS).
From West's favourite leader to grave-digger of democracy
Sat between a beaming Tony Blair and Sir Bob Geldof, Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, could hardly have wished for a stronger endorsement. The launch of Mr Blair's Commission for Africa report in March 2005 in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, enhanced Mr Meles's position as the British Government's – and the West's – favourite African leader.
Handpicked by Mr Blair to sit on the commission, Mr Meles was viewed as the man to lead the "African renaissance". He was seen as a leader committed to development and democracy.
But within two months of the commission's report being published, Mr Meles's star began to fade. Huge street protests erupted in Addis Ababa in May 2005 following a general election which both the government and opposition claimed they had won. Security forces opened fire on protesters, killing 193 people, and thousands of opposition supporters and leaders were arrested.
More than 100 opposition leaders were put on trial for treason while the police crackdown intensified. Text messages, which had been used to organise the demonstrations in 2005, were banned. The next time Mr Meles and Mr Blair found themselves sat next to each other, at a summit in South Africa, the stiff body language and the lack of eye contact between the pair underlined the deterioration in the relationship.
Britain still gives Ethiopia £130m in humanitarian aid each year – more than any other African country. Like the US, Britain has tried to retain a relatively close relationship with Ethiopia – one of its few allies in a volatile Horn of Africa.http://http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article3067244.ece

ONLF rebels say they killed 250 troops Reuters | October 23, 2007

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ethiopia's Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels said further fighting with security forces in the nation's remote east had brought the number of government soldiers killed to more than 250.
The Ethiopian government has been denying ONLF reports of mass casualties as falsehoods spread by their foreign-based supporters. No independent verification has been possible.
Facing several insurgencies in remote areas, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government has waged an unprecedented offensive against the ONLF after they killed 74 people during a raid on a Chinese-run oil exploration field earlier this year.
In its latest "military communique" on a flareup over the weekend, the ONLF said fighting continued on Sunday, a day after it reported killing 140 government soldiers in an attack targeting a visiting senior official.
"Battles continued for a second day ... in Ogaden with TPLF regime (government) casualties rising to over 250 killed and an unconfirmed number wounded," it said in the statement sent by email to foreign media on Tuesday.
"Thus far, 13 TPLF regime officers including a colonel and a captain have been killed in battles around Wardheer during the last two days. The ONLF has in its possession the military IDs of many of those officers."
The group, which wants more autonomy in its arid region on the border with Somalia, said it had also destroyed 12 military vehicles during a counter-offensive that 1,500 government troops mounted in response to Saturday's rebel attack.
The ONLF said it had surrounded a large number of Ethiopian troops, and urged them to surrender. ONLF casualties were "light given the scope of the engagements," it added.
Ethiopian officials were not immediately available for fresh comment on the latest ONLF statement on Tuesday.
[Later in the day, the Voice of America quoted Ethiopia's dictator Meles Zenawi as denying a previous ONLF report that a senior government official who was visiting the area fled by a helicopter. Meles said his advisor, Abai Tsehaye, was with him when ONLF was reporting the story. The prime minister said the local people, and not the army, were the ones battling against the rebels.]
During the year, both sides have variously reported hundreds of deaths, and accused the other of terrorising the population.
But with aid groups and journalist effectively barred from the worst-hit areas, independent checks on death-tolls have been impossible. A U.N. mission that went to the region in September did, however, call for a probe into reports of abuses.
Ethiopia accuses the ONLF, which is thought by analysts to number several thousand gunmen, of being terrorists supported by arch-foe and neighbour Eritrea.

source: Reuters

ONLF Press Release on Congressional letter President Bush

ONLF Press Release on Congressional letter President Bush

Oct 26, 2007
O.N.L.F Press ReleaseOctober 26, 2007
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has had a consistent and long standing policy welcoming direct negotiations with the regime currently in power in Ethiopia provided that such negotiations are held in a neutral third country with the presence of a neutral third party arbiter of international standing with no preconditions placed on either party.
In that context, the ONLF welcomes the appeal made by several members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate requesting the President of the United States to instruct the United States Department of State to facilitate negotiations between the ONLF and the regime currently in power in Ethiopia. The ONLF, on behalf of the people of Ogaden, welcomes the concern and commends the leadership of these representatives of the American people.
The Ethiopian regime has shown that, left to its own devices, it will continue to pursue a war it can not win in Ogaden characterized by a policy of collective punishment tantamount to genocide. As such, the international community bears a moral responsibility to intervene in order to hold this regime accountable for its actions.
The United Nations in particular bears a responsibility to act on the recommendations of the recent humanitarian fact finding mission to Ogaden which called for an “independent investigation” into human rights abuses in Ogaden.
As the legitimate representatives of the people of Ogaden, the ONLF stands ready to partner with the United Nations and members of the international community who seek to alleviate the suffering deliberately imposed on our people by the Ethiopian regime as well as those genuinely seeking to find a just, lasting and comprehensive political solution to the Ogaden conflict.Click here to read the Congressional letter to President Bush———————————–Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)