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In two articles (Ogaden Human Rights Committee Appeals to the United Nations Against Terrorist State ´Ethiopia´ -

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/66548 and ´Ethiopia´: State Specialized in Extrajudicial Killings, Rape and Child Molestation and Torture - http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/66622), I republished parts of a Press Release and Appeal to the International Community, issued by the Ogaden Human Rights Committee (OHRC), in which the leading Ogadeni Human Rights NGO urges the UN and the donor countries to take action against the Terrorist State of Abyssinia (fallaciously re-baptized ´Ethiopia´) immediately. More specifically, following parts have been republished: ´Recommendations and Appeals´, the ´Background´, and ´the Human Rights Situation´.

In their momentous Appeal, OHRC places the international body and governments of several major countries in front of their historical responsibility to put an end to a most appalling – and extensively documented and reconfirmed – genocide. In the present article, I republish the Torture Methods (last section of ´the Human Rights Situation´) and ´the Humanitarian Situation´. In forthcoming articles, I will complete the publication of the OHRC Appeal.

Ogaden : the Dire Human Rights and Humanitarian Situation and the Role of the United Nations

http://www.ogadenrights.org/the_dire.htm

Torture Methods

Torture methods employed against detainees by the Ethiopian armed and security forces in the Ogaden are numerous, few among them are:

An indiscriminate beating with gun butts and barrels, heavy sticks or iron bars.

Gang raping of women and child molestation.

Beatings on the soles of the feet, joints, ankles, shinbone and the testicles.

Knocking detainee´s head into detention walls.

Victims are burned with cigarettes.

Deprivation of sleep and food.

Death threats, with charged guns pointed at the head.

Suffocation of detainees by burying them alive, which causes death in many cases.

Forcing detainees to drink urine or salty water.

Suspending from the roof upside down.

Denial of sanitary visits.

Victims are left for extended periods, in prostrate position under the burning sun with their hands and legs tied together behind the back.

In the Ogaden Ethiopian armed and security forces live on extortion, looting and unlawfully confiscating private properties owned by innocent civilians. They sack also and then demolition private residences. The Ogaden Human Rights Committee has documented many cases of unlawful private property confiscation as well as demolition of large number of houses.

To the best of the Ogaden Human Rights Committee´s knowledge, The Ethiopian government has done nothing to stop or prevent human rights violations in the Ogaden. On the contrary, it encourages, decorates and promotes violators to higher ranks. Since the current Ethiopian government came to power in 1991, no one has been charged for these horrendous crimes, which have been committed in the Ogaden by the Ethiopian armed and security forces.

This is the reality of the Ethiopian government’s attitude towards the human rights situation in the Ogaden, which the international community should take up a tough line with the Ethiopian government to persuade it to comply with international norms of fundamental human rights and civil liberties, and force it to honour its commitments to International Treaties to which it had acceded.

The gross human rights violations and non-compliance to the international human rights treaties, demonstrate the perfidious and inhuman nature of the current Ethiopian government.

Somalis from the Ogaden region are also persecuted in Somalia (Somaliland, Puntland and TFG areas) where they are constantly imprisoned, tortured and then handed over to the Ethiopian government in exchange for ammunition, materials or simply to prove loyalty, cooperation and friendship to Ethiopia.

The Humanitarian Situation

The Ethiopian government´s policy in the Ogaden is based on; deliberate economic strangulation, political marginalization and use of brutal military force to suppress all legitimate demands from the population including the right to self-determination.

Somalis in the Ogaden are the poorest, least educated, most unemployed, most persecuted and most jailed of Ethiopians. They are disenfranchised and downtrodden minority in the empire-state of Ethiopia.

Without their knowledge and consent, the Ethiopian government signed agreements and gave concessions to foreign oil companies to explore oil, natural gas and other minerals in the Ogaden.

As a result of the illegal and shady deals between the Ethiopian government and overseas companies such as; Chinese Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, Malaysian state-owned Petronas, Indian owned Gail India Limited and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited and Swedish Lundin Petroleum, the Ethiopian government forces evicted a large number of nomads from their ancestral grazing lands. Around the exploration sites the poor vegetation, which is essential for the nomads and their livestock was burned or removed[1].

While drought, war and the Ethiopian government´s poor human rights record are primary causes of human sufferings in the Ogaden, the foreign oil companies´ presence has exacerbated an already unstable situation socially, economically and politically.

Somalis in the Ogaden are rich in livestock and natural resources. Never have they experienced; in the history of the Ogaden such inhuman treatment whereby thousands of children die of starvation as a result of the intentional denial of the right of the people to exploit their natural resources.

In Ethiopia, drought, famine, war and ill-conceived policies brought millions to the brink of starvation in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium.

For the last twelve years the Ogaden was a country ravaged by war and haunted by drought and man-made-famine. The Ogaden Human Rights Committee has frequently warned the massive looming famine in the Ogaden in its reports and press releases.

As a part of the Ethiopian government´s policy of starving out the civilian population in the Ogaden to submission, its army has imposed an economic blockade on many towns and villages in the region. This blockade has caused an enormous human suffering. The most affected areas by the military siege are: the regions of Dhagaxbuur, Fiiq, Qabridaharre, Wardheer, Godey, Afdheer and some parts of Jigjiga, where many villages were depopulated and razed to the ground by the government troops.

The depopulation campaign is in full swing despite the concern and apprehension expressed by the international humanitarian organisations and human rights organisations. The Ogaden region is off-limits to international humanitarian and human rights organisations as well as international press. The Ethiopian government has imposed on the region a complete media blackout to cover up the atrocities, which are being committed on daily basis by its military against defenceless civilians.

The Ethiopian government´s scorched earth policy in the Ogaden was in place since early 1992 when the ONLF has called for referendum on self-determination and independence for the Ogaden. But Ajazeera/Arabic/English exclusive and extensive coverage on the appalling humanitarian situation in the region of April 2008, New York Times´ article of June 18th 2007, Human Rights Watch´s statement and report[2] on the human rights violation in the Ogaden, on July 04th 2007 and on June 12th 2008 respectively, and other international media outlet limited coverages put the spotlight on the slow genocide, which is going on in the Ogaden without the knowledge of the international community.

For the last sixteen years, the rainy seasons failed or there was not enough rainfall in the Ogaden. Water is scarce and dear. Whenever there is scarcity of water, the people move with their animals beside water holes, ponds and water reservoirs. Many water reservoirs and tankers owned by individuals were confiscated by the armed forces. The owners of these reservoirs and tankers were denied the use of their water and property for their families and thirsty animals.

The Ogaden region is witnessing a severe famine which requires a large scale emergency food aid from the donor countries and humanitarian organisations. The prolonged drought caused a mass starvation and breakout of epidemics related to malnutrition and bad sanitation. The people are running out of food and their animals are getting weaker by the day as well.

The worst hit areas are Dhagaxbuur, Fiiq, Godey, wardheer and Qorraxay regions, where the pastoralists have lost many of their herds to drought and their livelihood is getting more uncertain. No food aid is reaching to those affected areas[3].

The Ethiopian government´s military onslaught, its commercial blockade and the global food crisis exacerbated an already precarious humanitarian situation in the region.

The prices of foodstuff and other basic necessities in the region have soared to an unbelievable level where no one can afford to buy basic food. The prices of staple food have increased more than 400% since the Ethiopian military blockade which started last year.

Article 54 -Protection of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population -of the protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 states that “Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited. It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motives.”

In May 1996, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) called on African States not to cut off water supplies to civilians as a tactic in their wars.

However, contrary to protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, the Ethiopian armed forces indiscriminately mined areas where civilians frequent, particularly around water wells and caravan routes, which lead to neighbouring countries, in order to stop trade movements and starve out the civilian population. It also uses water and international food aid as a weapon to starve out the civilian population in the areas which it designates as ONLF support bases.

In the past, international donor community has helped the victims of the drought generously. But as is usual with Ethiopian government, the aid donated by the international community to the victims of the drought through the Ethiopian Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (ERRC), renamed as the Disaster Prevention and preparedness Commission (DPPC), which is in effect run by the Tigray Relief Society (TRS), never reached its intended beneficiaries in the Ogaden, because the Ethiopian government has misused it by diverting it to the army.

According to reliable reports received by the OHRC, emergency aid consignments, which were handed over for distribution to the Disaster Prevention and preparedness Commission (DPPC) by the World Food Programme (WFP) were not reached famine victims in the region.

The international emergency food aid was stocked in Ethiopian military barracks.

And the government is using it to feed its army and allied clan militias. This flagrant violation of the United Nation´s humanitarian principles is being tolerated by the World Food Programme officials.

On June 03rd [4]and 12th 2008, the Ethiopian government asked the international community for an urgent humanitarian aid to feed 4.5 million Ethiopians facing starvation mainly in southern and south-eastern Ethiopia. The Ogaden region is the worst hit area by this Ethiopian man-made famine. Ironically, this same government has announced plans to increase its military budget from $350m to $400m.

The Ogaden Human Rights Committee is warning the looming human tragedy in the Ogaden and urges the international community to act immediately in order to prevent it. It appeals also to the international community to help the Ogaden people directly through international NGOs in order to assure the reach of the food aid to the victims of the famine; otherwise the relief will end up in military barracks as usual.

On July 24th 2007, the Ethiopian government expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from the Ogaden, and later hindered the work of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) – Doctors without Borders, which spoke out about the Ethiopian atrocities against the civilian population[5]. It is worthwhile to mention that the ICRC is allowed to operate in Tigray, Ethiopian Prime Minister´s native land.

In this regard, the Ogaden Human Rights Committee demands the unconditional and immediate return of the ICRC and MSF to the Ogaden region and calls upon the United Nations and other donor countries to put in place an effective and verifiable monitoring mechanism to assure the reach of the emergency aid to its intended beneficiaries in the Ogaden.

Notes

1. “Ogaden: Overseas Oil Companies Exacerbate an Already Precarious Human Rights Situation” Ogaden Human Rights Press Release ref: OHRC/PRO/0407, 29th April 2007

2. http://hrw.org/reports/2008/ethiopia0608/ethiopia0608webwcover.pdf

3. See “Ogaden: Terror, Extrajudicial Killings and Mass Arrests” Ogaden Human Rights Press Release ref: OHRC/PRO3/0607, 11th June 2007

4. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jMvcsQ9-2NTxX-ZLkkg7DmtsPcbA; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7451936.stm; http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/09572FAB-885F-49CB-9504-4B7BBB7B86E7.htm

5. See “Ogaden: Ethiopia expels the ICRC a Potential Credible Eyewitness” Ogaden Human Rights Press Release ref: OHRC/PRO4/0607, 25th July 2007

Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis