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Ethiopia's hidden horrors |
JAMAL OSMAN
| NAIROBI, KENYA - Jul 11 2008 06:00
Suleikha Mohamed Adan, a 30-year-old widow
and mother of five, was living a difficult
nomadic life in the harsh Ogaden region of
eastern Ethiopia when government soldiers
came to her house and arrested her.
Her husband and father were killed last year
by government forces, who accused them of
the same crime for which she was arrested:
sympathising with the Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLF), a group fighting
for self-determination for the Ogaden
region.
"My five children were crying when they tied
my hands behind my back and kicked me to the
ground," said Adan, who now lives in Kenya,
as she wiped the tears from her face. "I was
blindfolded and they threw me like a ball on
to a military truck."
After two nights, Adan found herself in an
underground prison in the town of Godey
where she was kept for 15 months with
hundreds of other prisoners.
"Soldiers would take me out to beat me up
and sometimes rape me," she said, sitting in
her room in Eastleigh, Nairobi. "Younger
women were the soldiers' favourites. While I
was there I saw two old men hanged from the
roof with a wire and they both died."
Adan escaped and feels very lucky to have
got away from the worsening situation in
Ogaden, a region that has been embroiled in
conflict for decades.
Somalia and Ethiopia have twice gone to war
over the region, which is populated by
ethnic Somalis, and which each country
claims as part of its territory.
The Ethiopian military campaign has
intensified since the ONLF attacked a
Chinese-run oil installation in April last
year, killing 75 people, including nine
Chinese workers.
A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW)
released late last month accuses the
Ethiopian regime of committing widespread
abuses against civilians. "The Ethiopian
army's answer to the rebels has been to
viciously attack civilians in Ogaden," said
Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at HRW.
"These widespread and systematic atrocities
amount to crimes against humanity. Yet
Ethiopia's major donors -- Washington,
London and Brussels -- seem to be
maintaining a conspiracy of silence around
the crimes."
Ethiopia has become a close ally of the
United States since the September 11 2001
attacks. Western governments and
institutions -- including the US, the United
Kingdom, and the European Union -- give the
country at least $2billion in aid each year.
Many of the civilians living in the conflict
zone in Ogaden are nomads who are constantly
on the move in search of fresh grazing.
Maryan Nur Ahmed (52) said her house, in a
village near the town of Shilabo, was raided
at night by the Ethiopian military.
Jailed by Ethiopian forces, she was
repeatedly tortured but the soldiers
considered her too old to be raped. Instead,
they raped her daughter when she visited the
prison.
"They used to say [an] old woman is [no
use]," said Ahmed, who is now also in exile
in Kenya. "I have 10 children, but my
youngest child is the only one with me here
in Kenya. I do not know if the others are
safe."
She said that the soldiers often tortured
and killed prisoners. After five of her
fellow inmates were killed, she decided to
escape. "One night, I realised the guard was
falling asleep and I used my chest to walk
like a snake," she said, describing how she
wriggled out of the prison.
HRW has also condemned Ethiopian forces for
imposing a series of measures aimed at
cutting off economic support to the ONLF,
including a trade blockade of the
war-affected region and the obstruction of
humanitarian assistance.
"The government's attacks on civilians, its
trade blockade and restrictions on aid
amount to the illegal collective punishment
of tens of thousands of people," said
Gagnon. "Unless humanitarian agencies get
immediate access to independently assess the
needs and monitor food distribution, more
lives will be lost."
In July last year the Ethiopian government
expelled the Red Cross from the region. It
has since permitted some United Nations
agencies and NGOs to operate, but only under
tight controls.
HRW has also criticised the ONLF for
violating the laws of war, including summary
executions of Chinese and Ethiopian
civilians during the Obole attack and the
killing of suspected government
collaborators.
The Ethiopian government has denied HRW's
allegations. Foreign journalists who have
attempted to conduct independent
investigations have been arrested.
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address:
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-07-11-ethiopias-hidden-horrors
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