Fleeing Ethiopians decry atrocities in own country

By Boniface Ongeri

Sometime last year, security officers in Mandera County came across a group of terrified people at an unofficial entry point on Kenya’s border with Ethiopia.

They listened as the group told of a horrid encounter with men in military uniforms.

They claimed they were members of Ethiopia’s military who shot at them, raped women and set ablaze their homes and harvests in south eastern Ethiopia.

Ethiopia’s Ogaden National Liberation Front rebels with their weapons. [PHOTO: BONIFACE ONGERI/STANDARD]

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According to the OB, some of the people had deep wounds they claimed were inflicted with knives and machetes. They wanted refuge in Kenya.

Records at the Mandera law court also show most of the Ethiopians charged with being in the country illegally opted to be taken to the refugee camp than being deported.

"Ordering us back to Ethiopia is a sure way to death. Please take us to camps as that is where we were headed before we were intercepted," Haye Bedel, 40, told the court.

Teeming Camp

At the teeming camp, he is among the latest arrivals fleeing turbulence pitting the Ethiopian government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and the Ogaden National Liberation Front rebels. The militia is fighting for the Ogaden region’s self-determination.

"Thank God I am alive; I have watched many others in my Shilawe District village being killed," said Bedel, whose two legs were cut off by soldiers.

Dadaab refugee camp is synonymous with Somali refugees. Yet the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says close to 100, 000 Ethiopian Somalis are in the camps. Most have fled the brutal campaign in the Ogaden region.

Aid workers and human rights crusaders say the abuses that have rocked the Ogaden region has uprooted tens of thousands from their homes to neighbouring Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti. Human Rights Watch has also documented thousands of killings and rapes.

The international community has been silent. However, the European Union and in particular Ana Gomes, who is a member of the European Parliament, has been the sole voice.

Addressing the EU parliament on December 11, Gomes accused the world of turning a blind eye on the atrocities.

"It is time the international community takes responsibility and unite against the domestic and international threat of Ethiopia’s repressive government and apply stricter sanctions and aid conditions to limit the arbitrary use of government power," she said.

The Ethiopian military roam the Ogaden region in tanks, carry swoops in villages, shoot, rape and burn huts, according to a Human Rights Watch report, Ethiopia Collective Punishment – War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in the Ogaden Area. Witnesses make similar claims.

However, Ethiopia’s ambassador to Kenya, Shamsudiin Ahmed, said there were no atrocities committed by his government in the region. He said the government would investigate claims by human rights organisations and victims. He said insecurity in the area is the work of terrorists seeking to destabilise Ethiopia.

Another refugee, Fatumo Ahmed Ali, said: "I was arrested and jailed in the barracks. They took off all my clothes, raped and tortured me. My husband was shot dead during the swoop," she added.

She was detained without trial for years, and had a stillbirth in detention.

"I was among several women who were released to decongest the prison and I fled to Kenya arriving here last November," she added.

Pockets of farmers

Most of the 6.5 million people in the Ogaden region are pastoralists with pockets of farmers. The region is reported to have oil reserves especially in Obale, Jehdin, Onadhere and Gerare. For long, locals have said they have been marginalised.

Those complaints gave birth to ONLF to protest against the government’s neglect.

Abdirahaman Mahdi, ONLF’s Foreign Affairs General Secretary, says they are fighting for the rights of Somali-speaking Ethiopians who have been marginalised by Addis Ababa. "We are ready for dialogue with the Ethiopian government. But this should be spearheaded by a neutral country. All we are asking is equal rights, or the Ogaden to go its separate way," Mahdi said.

"The African Union and UN have been coerced into silence on what is happening. They should wake up to the atrocities and the current blockade," he added.

As a result civilians have also been targeted for allegedly colluding with the insurgents and Human Rights Watch says the government has slapped a blockade of the region, banning media and aid organisations.

A report by Amnesty International says the government has deliberately and repeatedly attacked civilian populations in an effort to root out the insurgency.

"Villagers have been forced to watch demonstration killing to instil fear. Obstruction of commercial traffic and humanitarian assistance have been used as weapons in an economic war aimed at cutting off ONLF supplies," says organisation’s 2011 annual report on Ethiopia.

ONLF is accused of counter attacks including placing landmines on roads used by Government convoys.

Ogaden region’s long years of oppression

The Ogaden region is Ethiopia has a long history of oppression and violence.

In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia and captured it along with the region.

Then the British defeated Italy in the Horn of Africa in 1941, and it administered the Ogaden for eight years until it transferred part of it (Jigjiga area) to Ethiopia for the first time.

The other parts were transferred in 1954 and 1956. Thus Ethiopia gained control over the Ogaden.

Since then, successive regimes have been accused of mercilessly suppressing local people.

At first, the new Ethiopian rulers forwarded a reasonable programme for addressing the burning issue of colonialism and its solution through recognising and granting the right of nations to self-determination through peaceful processes.

ONLF’s complained of Ethiopia’s interference in the day-to-day affairs of the Ogaden region, which they say contradicted the commitment to regional autonomy and devolution of power to the region.

Officials claim Ethiopia has frozen the regional budget, diverting international aid and discouraging international aid agencies from working in the region.

Initiatives and projects necessary for the region’s development have been stifled, they further claim.

They accuse the regime of Prime Minister Menes Zenawi of not being different from its predecessors.

Abdirahaman Mahdi, the ONLF Foreign Affairs General Secretary said the people’s struggle for equal rights would continue.

"We call on Ethiopia to desist from its current militaristic and aggressive attitude and accept a peaceful negotiated settlement of the current conflict. This is with the participation of third neutral parties from the international community," he said.