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Ethiopian
army conducting "intensive" training - defecting soldiers |
BODY:
Excerpt from report in English by Eritrean
Ministry of Information's Shabait website on
12 January
Asmara, 12 January: Five Ethiopian soldiers
who recently arrived in Eritrea opposing the
TPLF [Tigray People's Liberation Front,
reference to current Ethiopian government]
regime's war-mongering policy disclosed that
the regime is placing newly-recruited
soldiers in the front-line and has given
orders to veteran ones to shoot them [the
newly-recruited soldiers] whenever they try
to escape backward. They also indicated that
at present, the TPLF regime's army is
engaged in intensive military training.
[Passage omitted: details the of defectors]
One of the soldiers, Abdi Abdulahi Muhammad,
who was a member of a police unit in Zone 5
[Ethiopia's Somali Regional State], said
that he personally witnessed when troops of
the regime raped women, beat children and
cruelly killed pregnant women in the Ogaden
[in eastern Ethiopia, where government
forces continue to fight rebels of the
Ogaden National Liberation Front] region. He
further indicated that 13 family members of
his, who used to live in the Dolo area of
that region were massacred.
Also in similar remarks, Private Ali Wahil
Tola stated that the TPLF regime's army
commanders are so suspicious of Oromo
members of the army that they are closely
following their movement.
Source: Shabait website, Asmara, in English
12 Jan 08
BBC Monitoring
LOAD-DATE: January 13, 2008
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