Martin Plaut | January 31, 2014
The Ogaden is Ethiopia’s dark, dirty secret. It is far from prying
international eyes, where almost anything can be done to anyone the
government does not like.
The Ogaden was conquered and forcibly incorporated into Ethiopia by
Emperor Menelik II in the last quarter of the 19th century. Its Somali
speaking, almost exclusively Muslim community, never really accepted an
Ethiopian identity. In 1977 it was the scene of an international
conflict, as Somali President Siad Barre attempted to wrest the region
from Ethiopia. The Soviet Union poured arms and Cuban troops into
Ethiopia and the invasion was halted. The Ogaden National Liberation
Front (ONLF) has been fighting the Ethiopian government since 1995, and
local people have been caught up in the conflict.
The Ethiopian authorities have sealed off the region to international journalists.
As Human Rights Watch wrote as early as 2008: “The Ethiopian
government’s reaction to reports of abuses in 2007 has been to deny the
allegations, disparage the sources, and actively restrict or control
access to the region by journalists, human rights groups, and aid
organizations (including by expelling the International Committee of the
Red Cross in July 2007)”. [See Annex below] When two Swedes, Martin
Schibbye and Johan Persson, entered the Ogaden with the ONLF in July
2011 they were captured. The two men were sentenced to 11 years in jail
and only freed in September 2012, after appeals for clemency.
As Human Rights reported:
“Ethiopian troops have forcibly displaced entire rural communities,
ordering villagers to leave their homes within a few days or witness
their houses being burnt down and their possessions destroyed—and risk
death. Over the past year, Human Rights Watch has documented the
execution of more than 150 individuals, many of them in demonstration
killings, with Ethiopian soldiers singling out relatives of suspected
ONLF members, or making apparently arbitrary judgments that individuals
complaining to soldiers or resisting their orders are ONLF supporters.”
Since 2008 few reliable reports have been published. The UN
Commissioner for Human Rights has received submissions from time to
time – some of them detailed and well sourced. But they have received little international media attention.
A terrible silence has descended over the Ogaden.
In recent weeks I have been contacted by Ogadenis living in exile, who have begun to send me information. These
testimonies cannot be independently verified, but since the alternative
is not to speak about the human rights violations that are almost
certainly taking place, I have decided to publish them.
The testimonies come at the same time as the mysterious disappearance of two senior ONLF negotiators from Nairobi. The
two men – Sulub Ahmed and Ali Hussein were members of the ONLF
negotiation team that was in Nairobi for a proposed third round of talks
with the Ethiopian government. They disappeared from a restaurant by
men in three cars – the ONLF believes they were abducted by Kenyan and
Ethiopian security forces and possibly taken by force into Ethiopia. The
ONLF say this is the second time the Ethiopians have abducted and
killed negotiators – the last time it happened in 1989.
The story of Balidhuure
Balidhuure village, 150 kilometres South-East of the city of Harar,
has been the scene of repeated atrocities carried out by Ethiopian
security forces. The village, which is home to about 1,500 people,
lives on its goat, sheep and camels. This is a dry semi-desert region,
with low bushes providing what fodder the animals need. It should be a
peaceful rural scene, but this is a region living in fear. Ethiopian
troops patrol the villages and have bases in the main towns. Over the
past 5 years repeated atrocities have been inflicted on local people,
who are accused of supporting the liberation movement, the Ogaden
National Liberation Front. This is the testimony of Captain Hassan
Mohammed Abdi, who has since fled from the country. It offers a rare
glimpse into an area from which all independent journalists have been
banned, and from which international aid agencies are banned.
The Liyu Police – brutal arm of the Ethiopian state
in the Ogaden is mainly carried out by the notorious Liyu Police; this
is a locally recruited force that has been widely condemned for the
repressive methods that it uses.
This is how the force is described by Human Rights Watch:
“Ethiopian authorities created the Liyu (“special” in Amharic) police
in the Somali region in 2007 when an armed conflict between the
insurgent Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the government
escalated. By 2008 the Liyu police became a prominent counterinsurgency
force recruited and led by the regional security chief at that time,
Abdi Mohammed Omar (known as “Abdi Illey”), who is now the president of
Somali Regional State.
The Liyu police have been implicated in numerous serious abuses
against civilians throughout the Somali region in the context of
counterinsurgency operations. The legal status of the force is unclear,
but credible sources have informed Human Rights Watch that members have
received training, uniforms, arms, and salaries from the Ethiopian
government via the regional authorities.”
In January 2013 it was reported that the Liyu police numbered between
10,000 and 14,000. The force was accused of numerous human rights
abuses and summary executions. The
Guardian newspaper reported that it had seen an internal British
government document, from the Department for International Development,
indicating that there were plans to spend £13m–15m of aid money on the
force as part of a five year “peace-building” programme. The report was
denied by the British government, which said all funding would go via
United Nations agencies and not through the Ethiopian authorities.
Despite these assurances concern about the behaviour of the
Liyu police remains. The testimony below and the reports of atrocities
carried out in recent weeks indicate these are well placed.
Testimony of Captain Hassan Mohammed Abdi aka Hassan Afo, a
former member of the Liyu Police, who was active with the force in
Degehbur Province. June 2012.
“In Balidhuure village (Eastern Degehbur Province) located in between
Gurdumi and Koore, a Liyu police unit that left from Aware and
commanded by Major Kidinbir rounded up and finally driven away most of
the people that lived in the area. Among them was a disabled man who
walks with a stick named Ina-Yul-yul or the son of Yul-yul. Not far from
the village of Balidhuure, the handicapped man, Ina-Yul-yul could not
continue walking. One of the Liyu policemen noticed this and he informed
Major Kidinbir by radio. Major Kidinbir said, “He can’t walk? Then kill
him where he is at right now.” That’s how Ina-Yulyul was shot and
killed. He was killed because of one of his brothers was among the ONLF
Reports of human rights atrocities committed in the Ogaden Region over the previous month.
25/12/13: In Guna’gado district of Degahbur province, at least 25
civilians were detained and 25,000 Ethiopian birr was stolen from them
5/1/14: In Gasaangas in Hamara district 5 civilians are unlawfully
detained. They were: Hassan Geday, Hassan Nour Moalim Ibrahim, Rukiya
Moalim Ibraahin, Anbiya Sheikh Mohammed and Nafis.
5/1/14: In Dhuhun a girl named, Halimo Duulane was detained .
10/1/14: In Eastern Iimay, Fadumo Wacdi Ahmed, Sa’ada Hassan and Gordo Abdi God were detained by the Ethiopian Security Forces.
10/1/14,In Guna’gado, Mohammed Isse Gu’had was tortured, detained and his 11 camels were stolen.
3/1/14: Hamuud-ka, in Fiq Province, the security forces detained Mohammed Ibrahim.
5/1/14: Ya’hob Village in Fiq Province, the security forced killed
in a cold-blood Abdullahi Lo’bari in cold blood and injured Ahmed Hassan
5/1/14: Hamaro in Nogob Province, the security forces detained
several people : Mohammed Abdi Rahman Omar, Abdirahman Bade, Ta’kal
Yousouf and Ina-Barud.
Amnesty International on Ethiopia’s Ogaden region
In September, the government and the ONLF briefly entered into peace
talks with a view to ending the two-decade long conflict in the Somali
region. However, the talks stalled in October. The army, and its proxy
militia, the Liyu police, faced repeated allegations of human rights
violations, including arbitrary detention, extrajudicial executions, and
rape. Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees were widely
reported. None of the allegations was investigated and access to the
region remained severely restricted. In June, UN employee Abdirahman
Sheikh Hassan was found guilty of terrorism offences over alleged links
to the ONLF, and sentenced to seven years and eight months’
imprisonment. He was arrested in July 2011 after negotiating with the
ONLF over the release of two abducted UN World Food Programme workers.
Human Rights Watch on Ethiopia’s Ogaden region
Ethiopia’s human rights situation since 2009 has been marked by a
harsh intolerance for any criticism of government actions and a sharp
decline in freedoms of expression and association. Critics of government
policy continue to be subjected to harassment, arbitrary detention, and
politically motivated prosecutions. Two repressive laws passed in
2009—the Charities and Societies Proclamation (CSO law) and the
Anti-Terrorism Proclamation—have been used to decimate independent media
and civil society organizations.
Political space has also constricted as the ruling party, the
Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), has
consolidated control, the EPRDF officially won 99.6% of the votes in the
2010 parliamentary elections after intimidating political opponents,
restricting media, and ensuring political support through its control of
access to government services and other resources. Over the past five
years most legitimate political avenues for peaceful protest have been
shut down and opposition leaders, civil society activists, and
independent journalists have been jailed or forced to flee…