Torture, and Rape in ******

[cynical lady]

Ethiopia: Army Commits Executions, Torture, and Rape in ******

 

Donors Should Act to Stop Crimes Against Humanity

(Nairobi, June 12, 2008) –

 

In its battle against rebels in eastern Ethiopia’s Somali Region, Ethiopia's army has subjected civilians to executions, torture, and rape, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

 

The widespread violence, part of a vicious counterinsurgency campaign that amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, has contributed to a looming humanitarian crisis, threatening the survival of thousands of ethnic Somali nomads.

 

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.

Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch

 

 

The 130-page report "Collective Punishment: War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in the ****** Area of Ethiopia's Somali Regional State," documents a dramatic rise in unchecked violence against civilians since June 2007, when the Ethiopian army launched a counterinsurgency campaign against rebels who attacked a Chinese-run oil installation. The Human Rights Watch report provides the first in-depth look at the patterns of abuse in a conflict that remains virtually unknown because of severe restrictions imposed by the Ethiopian government.

 

"The Ethiopian army's answer to the rebels has been to viciously attack civilians in the ******," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "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."

 

Human Rights Watch researchers located and interviewed more than 100 victims and eyewitnesses to abuses, as well as traders, business leaders, and regional government officials located in neighboring Kenya, the semi-autonomous region of Somaliland in northern Somalia and in Ethiopia. The research, largely carried out between September and December 2007, was further supplemented with satellite imagery that confirmed the burning of some villages. In chilling accounts, witnesses and victims described to Human Rights Watch nightly beatings with the barrel of a gun, public executions, and the burning of entire villages.

 

The report describes the army's response to the April 2007 attack by the rebel ****** National Liberation Front (ONLF) on a Chinese-run oil installation in Obole that killed more than 70 Chinese and Ethiopian civilians. During the peak of the army’s counterinsurgency campaign from June to September 2007, witnesses described how Ethiopian troops forcibly displaced entire rural communities and destroyed dozens of rural villages; executed at least 150 civilians, sometimes in demonstration killings to terrorize those communities suspected of supporting the ONLF; and arbitrarily detained hundreds of civilians in military barracks where they experienced beatings, torture, and widespread rape and other forms of sexual violence. Thousands of civilians fled the conflict-affected areas for neighboring countries. Some of the patterns of violence are ongoing, and Human Rights Watch believes its findings represent only a fraction of the actual abuses.

 

Ethiopian authorities also stepped up their forced recruitment of local militia forces, many of whom are sent to fight against the ONLF without military training, resulting in large casualty rates.

 

The rebel ONLF has also been responsible for serious violations of the laws of war, including the summary executions of Chinese and Ethiopian civilians during the April 2007 attack on the Obole oil installation and killing suspected government collaborators, which are considered war crimes.

 

Many civilians living in the conflict zone are nomads who must move to fresh grazing areas and regional markets to sell their livestock. Since mid-2007, Ethiopian forces have imposed a series of measures aimed at cutting off economic support to the ONLF, including a trade blockade on the war-affected region, restricted access to water, food and grazing areas, confiscation of livestock and trade goods, and obstruction of humanitarian assistance. In combination with the drought produced by successive poor rains, this “economic war” is threatening the lives of thousands of civilians, yet many of them lack access to food aid due to government manipulation of food distribution.

 

"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."

 

The Ethiopian government did not respond to Human Rights Watch’s requests for access to the conflict-affected area, and has tried to stem the flow of information from the region. Some foreign journalists who have attempted to conduct independent investigations have been arrested and residents and witnesses have been threatened and detained in order to prevent them from speaking out. In July 2007, the government expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross from Somali Region, although it has since permitted some UN and nongovernmental humanitarian organizations to operate, albeit under tight controls.

 

The report also analyzes the Ethiopian government and international community’s responses to the continuing abuses. Ethiopia continues to deny the allegations but has yet to investigate them or hold anyone accountable. Human Rights Watch says that donor governments are failing to demand human rights accountability, despite the substantial economic aid to Ethiopia and its partnership in regional counterterrorism efforts.

 

Western governments and institutions alone, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, give at least US$2 billion in aid to Ethiopia annually, but have remained silent on the widespread abuses being committed in the ****** area. The US government, which views Ethiopia as a key partner in regional counterterrorism efforts, has failed to use its significant leverage, including military aid, to press for an end to the crimes.

 

Human Rights Watch called on major donors to press Ethiopia to end the violence and recommended that:

 

• The US government should investigate reports of abuses by Ethiopian forces, identify the specific units involved, and ensure that they receive no assistance or training from the United States until the Ethiopian government takes effective measures to bring those responsible to justice, as required under the "Leahy law," which prohibits US military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity.

 

• The UK government and the European Union should condemn the abuses, publicly call on the Ethiopian government to investigate the crimes in Somali Region, demand that civilian and military officials are held accountable, and monitor development funding to ensure it is not being used for security operations.

 

"Influential states use many excuses – such as lack of information and strategic priorities – to downplay the grave human rights concerns in Somali Region," said Gagnon. "But crimes against humanity can't be swept under the carpet. Donor governments should reconsider their policies on Ethiopia until these abuses end and those responsible are brought to justice."

 

Witness accounts from the report:

 

"The soldiers came to Aleen, after they burned down Lahelow. Then they burned Aleen. We were there at the time. The soldiers arrived and ordered the people out of their homes. They gathered all of the people together. Then the commander ordered the village burned. The commander told us, ‘I have told you already to leave these small villages,’ and then they forced us out. Then they burned down all the homes. The houses are just huts, so it is easy to burn them."

– Villager, September 23, 2007

 

"I was taken away with two men, Hassan Abdi Abdullahi and Ahmed Gani Guled. First, they pulled ropes around the necks of the two men and pulled in opposite directions, and both fell down. They put me in a ditch while they were strangling the other two. One soldier tried to strangle me with the metal stick used for cleaning the gun [by pushing it down on my throat], but I twisted his finger until he released me. Then two other soldiers came and they put a rope around my neck and started pulling. That is the last thing I remember, until I woke up, still in the ditch. A naked body was on top of me, it was Ahmed Gani Guled, who was dead. I couldn't move out of the ditch until I was found by some women who came to the waterhole."

– Ridwan Hassan-rage Sahid, October 30, 2007

 

"They started beating me with the backs of their AK-47 guns. They hit me once with the gun in my face, and then started beating me. They also hit me with the gun barrel in my teeth, and broke one of my teeth. Then they started beating me with a fan belt on my back and my feet. It lasted for more than one hour. Then they tied both my legs and lifted me upside down to the ceiling with a rope, and kept beating me more, saying I had to confess. For two months, we underwent this same ordeal, being taken from our rooms at night and being beaten and tortured."

– Thirty-one-year-old shopkeeper, September 20, 2007

 

"They wanted to intimidate the rest of us, so they brought the two girls who they said were the strongest ONLF supporters. They made the rest of us watch while they killed the two girls. First they tried to get them to confess, saying they would kill them otherwise. Then they shot both of them with their guns. Their names were Faduma Hassan, 17, and Samsam Yusuf, 18. Both were students."

– Student, September 23, 2007

 

"We have a well in Qoriley which is surrounded by wire. The army has prohibited us from using it, so you have to sneak in at night. All these things have been imposed on us this year. At nighttime, we will try and get some water to store in our houses. But if the soldiers see you are fetching water, they can kill you."

– Villager, September 22, 2007

 

"If [the federal government] followed the law, it would be good, but even the law they’ve created is not being followed."

– Former regional court judge, December 5, 2007

 

See the Report in Full- http://hrw.org/reports/2008/ethiopia0608/

[Abtigiis]

The likes of Naxar Nugaleed, Koora Tunnshe should have lived under this occupation to ever know what it means to be colonized. But They haven't and they talk nonesense here with Ethiopia is a friend blah blah.... Useless.

[-Lily-]

Very sad. It was in yesterdays Guardian. May Allah give them the strenght to endure, survive and be victorious.

[Abtigiis]

U.S. denies silence on war crimes in Ethiopia

June 12th, 2008

 

(By David Gollust, VOA) — The United States said Thursday it has “persistently” expressed concern about human rights in Ethiopia with top officials in Addis Ababa, including alleged abuses in the ****** region. The comments follow an assertion by the monitoring group Human Rights Watch that the United States and key European countries have been silent on ****** rights violations. VOA’s David Gollust reports from the State Department.

 

The State Department says it is giving the Human Rights Watch report on the ****** careful study but it is rejecting out-of-hand the report’s assertion of U.S. silence on Ethiopian human rights.

 

The New York based monitoring group said in a report issued Thursday in Nairobi that in its battle with rebels in the eastern ****** region, the Ethiopian army has subjected civilians to executions torture and rape, and that the violence has added to a humanitarian crisis in the region.

 

The report, which also accuses the rebels of the ONLF, the ****** National Liberation Front, of serious violations, charges key aid donors to Ethiopia - the United States, Britain and the European Union - with remaining silent on ****** abuses.

 

It says the United States, viewing Ethiopia as a key anti-terrorism partner, has failed to use its leverage with Addis Ababa including military aid, to press for an end to the crimes.

 

At a news briefing, acting State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said the United States takes all allegations of human rights violations seriously and “strongly rejects” the Human Rights Watch contention that it has minimized or ignored Ethiopian abuses.

 

In the ******, he said non-governmental groups have reported that both the government and ONLF have been responsible for abuses and “harsh techniques” to intimidate the civilian population.

 

The spokesman said that since the resurgence of ****** violence a year ago, the United States - both independently and in concert with others - has pushed for an end to rights abuses:

 

“Since May 2007, the U.S. government has collaborated closely with international organizations, NGOs and other donors, to develop a concerted approach to the Ethiopian government, urging it to mitigate the humanitarian and human rights impact of its counter-insurgency operations in the ****** region. Our ambassador in Ethiopia has persistently raised concerns over human rights abuses at the highest level of the Ethiopian government, as have senior U.S. government visitors to Addis Ababa,” he said.

 

At the roll-out of the report in the Kenyan capital, Human Rights Watch investigator Peter Bouchard said U.S. military and aid personnel have been active in the ****** region and should have first-hand human rights information, not just accounts gleaned from humanitarian groups:

 

“There certainly is a presence. As far as we know U.S. forces were not directly involved or implicated in the abuses documented in our report. But on the other hand, we also know that the U.S. government has sent assessment teams, including from the USAID, to the region, that they have the information available to them about the seriousness of some of the abuses committed in the ******,” he said.

 

****** fighting has been under way for two decades but intensified last year, when the government launched an offensive to pursue rebels who attacked a Chinese-run oil field there and killed more than 70 people.

 

A Human Rights Watch official said in Nairobi the renewed conflict has been largely hidden by a “a conspiracy of silence” by Ethiopia’s main international backers.

 

 

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2 Responses to “U.S. denies silence on war crimes in Ethiopia”Zeudu says:

Blatant lie is not going to help American hypocrisy.

 

Here is Jendayi Frazer (spokes person for woyane) literally standing on fresh blood of murdered Ethiopians and denying the horrible atrocities committed by the Weyane thugs, giving them diplomatic cover, by saying it is mere allegation to the accusations levelled by many humanitarian agencies like Red Cross.

 

Here is a tell all from the British Independant Newspaper

 

"Ethiopia's own Darfur"

 

http://tinyurl.com/ysmvtc

 

June 12th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

 

GOSHU says:

The criminals that were trained by US army, the weapons US sold to Terrorist regime of Tigrean Libertion Front, unstoppable funds that are sent to Mafia family of Tigrean origin is the causes of deaths, displacements, detainsions, tortures.

 

Looke, Awassa massacres where, over one thousand farmers were showered with live bullets were the consequences of United States direct contributions.

 

Gambelas Anuaks massacres that displaced over 100,000 population and caused deaths over 600 humans were funded by

USA and Great Britain.

 

Gara Sufi, Harar Genocide where a young girls bodies were among the butchered hundreds of killed, was the results of concerted efforts to demonize Africans at home through savoury Terrorists such as Meles Zenawi of Tigre Tribe whose begging hands never say enough, don't give me no more hand outs.

 

The Mojo massacres, that 100's prisoners were taken from various cells, their eyes were pulled out, skinned off, riddled with bullets Washington supplied the Africas Nazi party of Meles of Tigre tribe.

 

The Massacares of Bale Oromia, where men were hunted down, their tasticles were removed and showered with guns USA gave as gift to the barbaric migrats from Tigray aduwa.

 

Jima Oromia, thousands of people were murdered by Tigrean Liberation front, who recieved training from US army and the Uniforms and weapons were supplied by the United States.

 

Addis Ababa, election of May 2005, over 200 innocent Ethiopians were butchered while the US Embassy was there enjoying the killings.

 

Wollega massacre of May, 2008 was committed by army personnels that UNITED STATES army trained and supplied with modern Weapons, where over 10,000 frightened citizens are displaced up to this day and over 400 women and children are butchered at night with guns and fires.

 

****** Somali region have been burning for over two years with US trained soldiers of African Hitler, Mr. Meles Zenawi, who is supplied over 200 billions of US dollars over 17 years but the money is being used for ethenic cleansing up to this second.

 

The Tigreans who Originate from their territory of Tigray have succesfully, displaced at minimum over 10 million Ethiopians of diverse ethenic tribal sections. This was made possible by the money western powers shovel down the African Tyrant Meles Zerkawi of Nepotist Tigrean tribal mafia.

 

United States must act fast and denounce their dirty affiliations with barberism that engulfed the entire Ethiopia, Somalia as the results and actions of their incompitant state department agents. Our people are extremely worst states of affairs than the privious Military Junta.

 

US need to stop funding the enemies of the Ethiopian people.The only enemy Ethiopians want out is the regime that is killing them day and night full time, and US is the guarantor and sponsor of Terrorist onto the Ethiopian people.

 

June 13th, 2008 at 12:56 am

[Geel_jire]

Inshalaah we will be able to return the favor some time in the future :mad: