SILENCE AND PAIN: ETHIOPIA’S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD IN THE OGADEN

Martin Plaut  | January 31, 2014
Introduction
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.[1]
As Human Rights reported:[2]
“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.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5]
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
Repression 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:[6]
“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.[7] 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.[8]
 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 fighters.”

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 Awl.
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.
Annex
Amnesty International on Ethiopia’s Ogaden region[9]
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: UPR SUBMISSION SEPTEMBER 2013 [10]

November 14, 2013
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…