by Aaron Maasho

DEGAHABUR, Ethiopia, Jan 23, 2008 (AFP) - The scars on Mohammed Dhaqane's tanned face offer a glimpse of the kind of ordeal he and many others have been subjected to over the past year in Ethiopia's Ogaden region.

"I was just a businessman, I had no involvement in any matter," he says, his hearing and delivery impaired by his wounds. "Now I can't work or feed my family."

Mohammed was among 50 people who were on board a bus that was caught in the middle of a firefight four months ago between government troops and rebel fighters in Danan, a sparsely-settled town in the region.

A bullet sliced his right cheekbone and cut the lower portion of his right ear. He has suffered nerve problems ever since and his health has steadily declined.

Dozens of locals have similar stories of death, mutilation and hardship.

Ethiopia's little-known Ogaden region is a vast expanse of often hostile land baked most of the year by a scorching sun and inhabited by ethnic Somalis.

Ethiopia launched a massive clampdown in the oil-rich Muslim region against the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a secessionist rebel group formed in 1984 in response to what it claims is systematic marginalisation by Addis Ababa.

The counter-insurgency started in April last year, after the ONLF attacked a Chinese-run oil venture about 145 kilometers (90 miles) east of the regional capital Jijiga, killing 77 people.

Since then, both the ONLF and aid groups have claimed widespread reprisals and punishments on civilians to undermine support for the rebels in the region.

Thousands of refugees have flocked to neighbouring countries blaming rape and other abuses, including the burning of villages.

"Don't you see? People have scattered, everyone has run away," says an elderly street vendor in Degahabur, a zone designated by the UN as one of the most affected areas by the conflict.

"We don't talk about that around here, you never know what would happen," she adds, referring to reprisals.

"Everything has happened here, people have been killed and raped," a frightened woman nearby says before quickly fleeing.

She also claims that government troops had even arrested elderly people, some as old as 80, for refusing to join in the crackdown. Regional authorities categorically deny abuse claims.

"If there ever were human rights violations, they were done by the terrorists (ONLF). They (locals) are our own people, why should we commit such actions upon them?" regional president Abdullahi Hassan asks.

"Those who burn villages are the ONLF and the Islamic Courts."

Ogadenis express their dismay over the consequences brought about by the conflict in their region, long a bone of contention with neighbouring Somalia.

"Occasionally, they (soldiers) come around and detain people suspected of links with the ONLF," a khat dealer says while angrily stuffing khat leaves in his mouth.

"I don't know anyone who supports the ONLF here but they (ONLF) are based around the outskirts of the city," he adds.

The rebels also get their share of the blame, as some locals accuse them of forceful recruitment, livestock theft and killings.

"We have problems with both of them, they both harm us. People have been running away because of the battles between the two," adds the elderly vendor.

Addis Ababa, a key US ally in the region, accuses the ONLF of receiving backing from its archfoe Eritrea and of supporting the Islamist insurgents Ethiopian troops are battling in Somalia.

Last September, a UN mission recommended an independent probe into allegations that the government had committed rights abuses in its clampdown on ONLF rebels. The government has fiercely denied those claims.

str/eg/jmm/bm AFP 230250 GMT 01 08

Copyright (c) 2008 Agence France-Presse
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 01/22/2008 21:50:41