July 02, 2006 Ogaden online reporter in the Qorahey province reported the grisly discovery of the bodies of two men in the tributary of the city of Qabridahar. The dead bodies had been strangled to death using metal rods. When the bodies were found the metal rods were still connected to their necks. These two dead bodies were last seen in the custody of the Tigrey militia station in the city of Qabridahar.

The body of a third man was also found in the same area. The dead man's body showed signs of severe body mutilation. It is not known whether he was mutilated alive or after having been strangled to death. The area where these three dead bodies were found is not far from the main Tigrey militia garrison in Qabridahar.

The fact that all these three dead men were last seen in the custody of the Tigrey militia and the tactics used in their death which is against all norms and cultural beliefs of the local population, makes the Ethiopian militias the main and the only culprits of this heinous crime.

Identification of the true identities of these three dead bodies was made the more difficult by the fact that their faces were severely swollen. Also part of their bodies were eaten away by hyenas who were the first to spot these dead bodies floating in the tributary. All three dead bodies were buried in the main cemetery in the city of Qabridahar.

It was only last week that the Ethiopian military carried out mass burial of nineteen men who were extrajudicially killed by Tigrey militias deployed in and around the city of Jig Jiga. These latest finding is making Ogaden civilians more nervous and they are reportedly worried about the new tactics employed by the Ethiopian militias.

Civilians met by our reporter in Qorahay province belief that these killings are part of a new campaign to exact revenge on the unarmed civilians since the Tigrey militia appears incapable of confronting Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) forces in the battlefields.

What worries civilians in Ogaden is the increase of extrajudicial killings carried out by the recently deployed Tigrey militias. They see an unexplained surge in mutilations and extrajudicial killings of both their next of kin and many unidentified people found in the vicinity of the militia garrisons in many parts of Ogadenia. Our reporter in Qorahay province reports that so far no one in the so called local administration or from the military regime in Addis Ababa has spoken about or explained these killings of unarmed civilians.




Ogaden Online News