|
2008-01-28
15:36:44 -
DEGAHABUR, Ethiopia (AP) - In this remote
Ethiopian trading town, people speak of the
fight between the government and separatists
furtively, in snatches. They are trapped in
the middle, silence and anonymity their only
shield.
«We have problems with the (rebels) and the
government, both of them,» said a woman
crouched in a tailor's shop, mending a pair
of trousers. «They harm us. People have run
away from the city because of the clashes
between the two parties.
She looked around as she spoke, wary of
being overheard by government agents.
In May, the Ethiopian government launched an
offensive against the Ogaden National
Liberation Front, which in April attacked a
Chinese-run oil exploration field in
Ethiopia's southeastern Somali region,
killing 74 workers.
The ONLF, founded in 1984, is fighting for
independence for a large part of Ethiopia's
Somali region, known as the Ogaden. Most of
the group's members are part of the large,
mostly nomadic Ogadeni clan, the region's
predominant clan.
The government claims that an eight-month
siege has decimated the rebels, but
residents say fighting has not subsided.
Determining what is happening in the Ogaden
is difficult. The government usually keeps
outsiders out, citing security fears.
Government officials closely monitored a
group of foreign journalists allowed to tour
the region earlier this month following
criticism from human rights, aid and other
groups that a government crackdown on the
rebels has led to systemic abuses of
civilians.
Women gave accounts of rapes, mass arrests
and attacks by government soldiers. One man
said four college students had been arrested
and had their throats slit by government
soldiers. Another told of the arrest of an
80-year-old man, shocking in a culture in
which elders are venerated. Hurried,
whispered conversations often end with the
same refrain, «We are very frightened.
Leslie Lefkow, Human Rights Watch's senior
researcher on the Horn of Africa, said her
organization, which the Ethiopian government
accuses of bias, has had to gather
information on the Ogaden from refugees who
have fled the region and other sources.
«We know that there are ongoing clashes, we
know that there are ongoing abuses of
civilians, but it's very difficult to know
the exact number of people who are
affected,» Lefkow said, accusing the
government of launching «a campaign of
terror intended to terrorize the people who
are believed to be supporters of the ONLF.
High-level military officials in the region
did not speak to reporters, and reporters
were not allowed to visit detention centers
in which officials said they were holding
ONLF members. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
has denied charges his troops are violating
his citizens' rights. His officials say it
is ONLF fighters, not government soldiers,
who have terrorized the Ogaden.
Regional security chief Abdi Mohammed Umar
said the guerrilla group had killed 200
civilians in the last two months. Abdullahi
Hassan, the top government official for the
region, called the rebels «anti-peace
elements» who have killed religious elders
and women and mined roads.
Anyone speaking openly of support for the
rebels could end up jailed _ at one point
during the government-organized tour, the
region's security chief quoted details of
reporters' private conversations with
locals. Most residents said they supported
neither the rebels nor the government.
Local elders in Jijiga, the busy commercial
town that is the regional capital, were more
open about describing constant clashes
between their primarily farming clan and the
nomadic Ogadeni clan associated with the
ONLF. They accused the ONLF of stealing
livestock.
Lefkow, of Human Rights Watch, described the
ONLF uprising as «classic rural insurgency,»
with clan ties affecting support for the
movement.
Gode, the region's second-largest city, has
been on the periphery of the fighting.
Residents at the governor's house as he
prepared to greet visiting journalists in
Gode spoke of relatives being killed by the
ONLF.
«If they are fighting for the people, they
would not kill us,» said Faduma Muhumed, 40,
who said her sister was killed recently by
five rebels. Faduma said she, like most
rebels, was of the Ogadeni clan.
«We are Ogadeni and they are Ogadeni too,»
she said. «I don't think that many people
support them. Nobody likes them. Nobody can
like people who are killing their people.
Mariam Qorane, a 50-year-old mother of 10,
was in Gode's small and understaffed main
hospital after a stray bullet hit her below
her right breast during a battle between the
government and ONLF. She blamed neither
side.
«I know nothing about it,» she said. «I'm a
mother, I was in my house.
Even those who have not been directly
affected by the violence are helplessly
caught in the crossfire. The fighting has
kept goods from the markets, leading to
inflation and hunger.
United Nations officials have in recent
months warned of a deteriorating
humanitarian situation in the region. U.N.
aid officials reported earlier this month
that emergency food aid deliveries were
being made, but that the regional
government's requirement that every food
truck be escorted by armed military escorts
was slowing the process.
At the Gode cattle market, a 29-year-old
woman sat with two spindly goats, which
she'd brought from her remote village and
hoped to sell for about US$30. She said food
prices at her local market had risen because
of scarcity.
She accused government troops of
slaughtering rebels like cattle. But she
said she sided with neither the government
nor the ONLF.
«I feel frightened,» she said. «It's not
just me. It's the whole city
|
