Ethiopia: Donor Aid Supports Repression

Contributors Should Review Development Programs, Monitor Use of Funds

(London) - The Ethiopian government is using development aid to suppress political dissent by conditioning access to essential government programs on support for the ruling party, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch urged foreign donors to ensure that their aid is used in an accountable and transparent manner and does not support political repression.

The 105-page report, "Development without Freedom: How Aid Underwrites Repression in Ethiopia," documents the ways in which the Ethiopian government uses donor-supported resources and aid as a tool to consolidate the power of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

"The Ethiopian government is routinely using access to aid as a weapon to control people and crush dissent," said Rona Peligal, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "If you don't play the ruling party's game, you get shut out. Yet foreign donors are rewarding this behavior with ever-larger sums of development aid."

Ethiopia is one of the world's largest recipients of development aid, more than US$3 billion in 2008 alone. The World Bank and donor nations provide direct support to district governments in Ethiopia for basic services such as health, education, agriculture, and water, and support a "food-for-work" program for some of the country's poorest people. The European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany are the largest bilateral donors.

Local officials routinely deny government support to opposition supporters and civil society activists, including rural residents in desperate need of food aid. Foreign aid-funded "capacity-building" programs to improve skills that would aid the country's development are used by the government to indoctrinate school children in party ideology, intimidate teachers, and purge the civil service of people with independent political views.

Political repression was particularly pronounced during the period leading up to parliamentary elections in May 2010, in which the ruling party won 99.6 percent of the seats.

Despite government restrictions that make independent research difficult, Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 200 people in 53 villages across three regions of the country during a six-month investigation in 2009. The problems Human Rights Watch found were widespread: residents reported discrimination in many locations.

Farmers described being denied access to agricultural assistance, micro-loans, seeds, and fertilizers because they did not support the ruling party. As one farmer in Amhara region told Human Rights Watch, "[Village] leaders have publicly declared that they will single out opposition members, and those identified as such will be denied ‘privileges.' By that they mean that access to fertilizers, ‘safety net' and even emergency aid will be denied."

Rural villagers reported that many families of opposition members were barred from participation in the food-for-work or "safety net" program, which supports 7 million of Ethiopia's most vulnerable citizens. Scores of opposition members who were denied services by local officials throughout the country reported the same response from ruling party and government officials when they complained: "Ask your own party for help."

Human Rights Watch also documented how high school students, teachers, and civil servants were forced to attend indoctrination sessions on ruling party ideology as part of the capacity-building program funded by foreign governments. Attendees at training sessions reported that they were intimidated and threatened if they did not join the ruling party. Superiors told teachers that ruling party membership was a condition for promotion and training opportunities. Education, especially schools and teacher training, is also heavily supported by donor funds.

"By dominating government at all levels, the ruling party controls all the aid programs," Peligal said. "Without effective, independent monitoring, international aid will continue to be abused to consolidate a repressive single-party state."

In 2005, the World Bank and other donors suspended direct budget support to the Ethiopian government following a post-election crackdown on demonstrators that left 200 people dead, 30,000 detained, and dozens of opposition leaders in jail. At the time, donors expressed fears of "political capture" of donor funds by the ruling party.

Yet aid was soon resumed under a new program, "Protection of Basic Services," that channeled money directly to district governments. These district governments, like the federal administration, are under ruling party control, yet are harder to monitor and more directly involved in day-to-day repression of the population.

During this period the Ethiopian government has steadily closed political space, harassed independent journalists and civil society activists into silence or exile, and violated the rights to freedom of association and expression. A new law on civil society activity, passed in 2009, bars nongovernmental organizations from working on issues related to human rights, good governance, and conflict resolution if they receive more than 10 percent of their funding from foreign sources.

"The few independent organizations that monitored human rights have been eviscerated by government harassment and a pernicious new civil society law," Peligal said. "But these groups are badly needed to ensure aid is not misused."

As Ethiopia's human rights situation has worsened, donors have ramped up assistance. Between 2004 and 2008, international development aid to Ethiopia doubled. According to Ethiopian government data, the country is making strong progress on reducing poverty, and donors are pleased to support Ethiopia's progress toward the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Yet the price of that progress has been high.

When Human Rights Watch presented its findings to donor officials, many privately acknowledged the worsening human rights situation and the ruling party's growing authoritarian rule. Donor officials from a dozen Western government agencies told Human Rights Watch that they were aware of allegations that donor-supported programs were being used for political repression, but they had no way of knowing the extent of such abuse. In Ethiopia, most monitoring of donor programs is a joint effort alongside Ethiopian government officials.

Yet few donors have been willing to raise their concerns publicly over the possible misuse of their taxpayers' funds. In a desk study and an official response to Human Rights Watch, the donor consortium Development Assistance Group stated that their monitoring mechanisms showed that their programs were working well and that aid was not being "distorted." But no donors have carried out credible, independent investigations into the problem.

Human Rights Watch called on donor country legislatures and audit institutions to examine development aid to Ethiopia to ensure that it is not supporting political repression.

"In their eagerness to show progress in Ethiopia, aid officials are shutting their eyes to the repression lurking behind the official statistics," Peligal said. "Donors who finance the Ethiopian state need to wake up to the fact that some of their aid is contributing to human rights abuses."

Background
Led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party is a coalition of ethnic-based groups that came to power in 1991 after ousting the military government of Mengistu Haile Mariam. The government passed a new constitution in 1994 that incorporated fundamental human rights standards, but in practice many of these freedoms have been increasingly restricted during its 19 years in power.

Although the ruling party introduced multiparty elections soon after it came to power in 1991, opposition political parties have faced serious obstruction to their efforts to establish offices, organize, and campaign in national and local elections.

Eight-five percent of Ethiopia's population live in rural areas and, each year, 10 to 20 percent rely on international food relief to survive. Foreign development assistance to Ethiopia has steadily increased since the 1990s, with a temporary plateau during the two-year border war with Eritrea (1998-2000). Ethiopia is now the largest recipient of World Bank funds and foreign aid in Africa.

In 2008, total aid was US$3.3 billion. Of that, the United States contributes around $800 million, much of it in humanitarian and food aid; the European Union contributes $400 million; and the United Kingdom provides $300 million. Ethiopia is widely considered to be making good progress toward some of the UN Millennium Development Goals on reducing poverty, but much of the data originates with the government and is not independently verified.

Quotes from the Report

"There are micro-loans, which everybody goes to take out, but it is very difficult for us, [opposition] members. They say, ‘This is not from your government, it is from the government you hate. Why do you expect something from the government that you hate?'"

- A farmer from southern Ethiopia

"Yesterday in fact the kebele [village] chairman said to me, ‘You are suffering so many problems, why don't you write a letter of regret and join the ruling party?'"

- A farmer with a starving child from southern Ethiopia, denied participation in the safety net food-for-work program

"The safety net is used to buy loyalty to the ruling party. That is money that comes from abroad. Democracy is being compromised by money that comes from abroad. Do those people who send the money know what it is being used for? Let them know that it is being used against democracy."

- A farmer from Amhara region

"It is clear that our money is being moved into political brainwashing."

- Consultant to a major donor, Addis Ababa

"Intimidation is all over, in every area. There is politicization of housing, business, education, agriculture. Many of the people are forced or compromised to join the party because of safety net and so on, many do not have a choice - it is imposed."

- Western donor official, Addis Ababa

"Every tool at their disposal - fertilizer, loans, safety net - is being used to crush the opposition. We know this."

- Senior Western donor official, Addis Ababa

"Which state are we building and how? It could be that we are building the capacity of the state to control and repress."

- World Bank staff member, Addis Ababa

Somali Warriors Deliver

Source: Strategypage.com
December 16, 2009: The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has been threatening to launch another series of assaults on oil exploration crews and oil production companies in Ethiopia's Ogaden region. The rebels are specifically threatening a Malaysian oil company and a Canadian firm. The threats get immediate attention because everyone remembers the big ONLF raid in April 2007 on a Chinese oil project. That attack got the ONLF almost everything it wanted: headlines and a withdrawal from oil operations in the region by China's Sinopec petroleum company. Over the past two months the ONLF has also come out and fought the Ethiopian Army, though there is an on-going propaganda battle over just how significant the firefights with Ethiopian main forces have been. Still, the ambushes, small-scale hit-and-run actions, and a series of attacks on towns in the Ogaden (executed in November) are another political signal. The Ethiopian Army contends it months-long offensive damaged the ONLF. Now the ONLF wants to signal it still has strength. Much of that strength comes across the border from Somalia, from fellow ethnic Somalis the ONLF. But the Ethiopian government claims the ONLF operates from bases in Eritrea. The ONLF is largely an ethnic Somali organization. Its charter demands independence for the Ogaden. In fact one reason it took up arms was because a referendum on Ogaden independence was supposed to be held by Ethiopia –way back in 1994.

December 11, 2009: The Ethiopian government disputed claims by the ONLF that the rebel group had taken control of seven towns in the Ogaden region during fighting in November. The rebels also claimed they engaged a large Ethiopian Army force and killed a thousand soldiers. The government called this claim false. NGOs in the region reported that the ONLF had launched a couple of dozen attacks, but that the claims of taking towns was exaggerated. In an earlier statement, made at the end of November, the Ethiopian government said local militia forces had killed 245 ONLF rebel fighters launched several “desperate” attacks throughout the Ogaden.

November 20, 2009: The Ethiopian government said a court had convicted 27 people –including two former generals-- accused of trying overthrow the government. Several of the defendants accused the government of physical abuse while in jail. This has been a highly sensitive case in Ethiopia, since several of the defendants are regarded as war heroes for their service in the Ethiopia-Eritrea War.

November 19, 2009: The UN Security Council is preparing to take further action against Eritrea. Ethiopia has been lobbying for a complete arms embargo against Eritrea and it may well get it. Uganda has taken the political lead and is pushing for the embargo because it has peacekeepers in Somalia. Ethiopia and a number of other East African and European nations accuse Eritrea of supplying the Somali Islamist al Shabaab with weapons and money. It is a slam dunk certainty that Eritrea believes this. The U.S. is involved and wants a very broad definition of military equipment in the embargo. A draft of the embargo resolution supposedly includes a ban on providing Eritrea with ammo and weapons, but also specifies spare parts. A tight sanctions regimen might include all motor vehicle spare parts, since Eritrea's “mobilized nation” (“total resistance”) strategy makes no difference between military and civilian assets. Military training assistance and financing assistance will also be embargoed.

November 14, 2009: The government of Eritrea denied international claims that the nation will suffer from food shortages in 2010. essentially the government said that the rest of the Horn of Africa might had food shortages and face starvation, but Eritrea would not. A recent UN agricultural and nutrition study reported that two out of three Eritreans are malnourished.

Ethiopia rebels warn oil firms from restive Ogaden (AFP) – Sep 17, 2009

ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia's Ogadeni rebels on Thursday warned oil firms not to venture into the southern region of the Horn of Africa country where they are fighting government forces.

In a statement, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) "strongly advises multinational corporations that Ogaden is a war zone".

"They should not conduct any business activity in it until there is a political solution to the conflict."

The group said it "will not be responsible for any collateral damages that occur from its engagements with the Ethiopian army or security apparatuses wherever they are".

In April, Ethiopia said it had significantly weakened the rebels, a claim the insurgents dismissed.

The military launched an offensive against ONLF rebels after they attacked a Chinese-run oil venture in Ogaden in April 2007, killing 74 people.

Formed in 1984, the ONLF is fighting for the independence of ethnic Somalis in Ethiopia's oil-rich Ogaden region, who they say have been marginalised by Addis Ababa.

Disputing HRW's Irrefutable Facts with TPLF Propaganda

Back in June 2008 this year, the internationally recognized human rights organization known as the Human Rights Watch (HRW) published the most detailed, first hand account of the type of atrocities and genocide carried out by the Ethiopian regime against the Ogaden civilians throughout Ogaden.

Among the HRW report's findings and the indisputable facts submitted as evidence of Ethiopian army brutality were satellite imagery of before and after still images of the areas that were burned down.

Not only did the HRW report condemn the brutality and genocide carried out by the current Ethiopian regime led by Mr. Meles Zenawi, but it also, for the first time, put on the spotlight those Western countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America that perpetually supported the Ethiopian regime under myriad pretexts.

At the time of the HRW publication and up until yesterday, the bevy of Ethiopian spokesman could not refute a single fact mentioned in the HRW's report. Almost five months to the day when the widely received HRW report about Zenawi's genocide in Ogaden were first published, the clique in Addis Ababa finally responded with what it billed as an ‘independent' report.

This report is the furthest to anything a sane human being would call ‘independent'; hence let us call a spade a spade.

First, the report's author is none other than a former Tigrian People's Liberation Front (TPLF) foot soldier. In his own words, Mr. Lisanne Yohannes claims to be a "former high school Chemistry (sic) teacher, a Biochemistry (M.Sc.) graduate [who] then went on to join the TPLF to fight against the defunct regime, the DERG ."

Second, Mr. Yohannes is currently the chairman of a company based in Addis Ababa called GeoSpace Analytical Services (GeoSAS). In the ‘about us' section of the GeoSAS website, the brief biography about Mr. Yohannes posits in part, "[that] in 1991 he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served as Chief of Cabinet of the Minister, Chairman of the Horn of Africa Standing Committee on Somalia, Special Envoy of the President of the Transitional Government/ Prime Minister of the FDRE and Head of Mission in PRC."

How can a former TPLF soldier and an ex-Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs employee be tasked with investigating the very crimes that this ministry, the TPLF cadre, and the clique in Addis Ababa are accused of?

We, the Ogaden Editorial Board, do not know of any biochemistry training that could give Mr. Yohannes expertise in investigating the type of gross human rights violations and genocide that the Ethiopian regime is accused of in the HRW report published back in June this year.

We do not know of any objectivity scale that would confer credibility of independency on a former TPLF soldier such as Mr. Yohannes. We, further, have no idea how crass the Ethiopian regime is to present a former employee of the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an ‘independent' expert who can refute the facts supported among other things by satellite imagery that was provided by the HRW back in June.

What we do know for a fact is the very expertise that Mr. Yohannes' GeoSAS company claims to have is the only piece of technology that could either corroborate what was presented in the HRW report or refute it conclusively. The fact Mr. Yohannes did not present evidence from the satellites he claims to employ in his company's consulting engagements is proof enough that he had nothing to bring to the fore to refute the irrefutable, genocidal findings detailed in the HRW report.

Accusing the HRW of using ‘flawed methodology and unsubstantiated allegation' is one thing, but using only victim interview as an investigative methodology with the presence of the very individuals and TPLF militias that were accused of having carried out genocide in Ogaden is nothing short of a badly executed public relations stunt on behalf of the TPLF regime.

The world community should not only forcefully act on the HRW report, but it should also prosecute individuals such as Yohannes who not only condone the genocidal policies of the TPLF regime, but also act as propaganda mouthpieces for such a despicable regime.


editorial@ogaden.com
Ogaden Online Editorial
Nov 27, 2008

EPRDF failed Ethiopia but accused the international community of double standards

“In fact, despite the number of terrorist atrocities world-wide, and despite the resolutions of the General Assembly, some in the international community still appear to fail to understand the realities of terrorism. We would repeat: they are quite simple. Terrorism (to paraphrase the OAU/AU’s Convention on Prevention and Combating of Terrorism) is any violation of a state’s criminal laws which may endanger the life, physical integrity or freedom of, or cause serious injury, or death to, any person, any number of group of persons or damage public or private property, resources, or heritage of the state, in order to intimidate, frighten or coerce any government body or the general public, disrupt any public service or create general insurrection in a State”.

The above paragraph is an excerpt from an article titled “Terrorism, double standards and the international community” written by the Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. aiga

Surely if we stick to the above definition, Ethiopian government qualifies perfectly to be a terrorist state. However, despite its proven track record of grave human right violations, EPRDF-led Ethiopian government remains a close ally of the world’s super powers, particularly the US, exposing the inconsistency and the double standard of the latter. This relationship exemplifies how terrible many leaders in the developed world have abandoned the fundamental values of the countries they represent and betrayed their electorates.

This is the government that, in 2005 with no hope left of winning the election, shot dead more than 200 civilians in Addis Ababa, simply for protesting against the announced result of an election they believed to be rigged. This took place just less than two years after the Gambella massacre in which many hundreds of unarmed populations perished at the hands of the government. Imagine if this has happened in Zimbabwe or Sudan! How EPRDF treats its political rivals? Tamrat Layne has been in jail for more than a decade now, accused of corruption. What happened to Siye Abraha and Bitew Belay after TPLF split in 2001. They were too charged with corruption and power abuse. While I’m not defending them, few might doubt (if any) that the charges were politically motivated and the state power was horrendously abused, not least in the case of Siye. Again compare this how the international community would have criticised and condemned had this been in Zimbabwe.

Thousands have disappeared in the Oromo and Somali regions while Amharas were beaten into submission earlier in the process. War mongers lie, innocent people die. Can we count the number of innocent civilians killed cold-bloodedly by the state security forces? Yet EPRDF/TPLF enjoys an unqualified support of the western countries laying bare the very double standard Ethiopian government is accusing them of.

In the article, the ministry mentioned the assassination attempt of Dr. Abdulmajid Hussien who was a minister at the time. For argument sake, let’s say that Alitihad, ONL or ONLF was behind it – though hard to believe given the location of the incident and the timing. Whoever committed, the action was a crime and must be treated as such. But discuss with every Ethiopian Somalis and you hear loads of Abdulmajids killed by the government forces inhumanely in front of the public. They hardly miss to mention Mirad Layli (Gode woreda), Muhumed Omar Tube, Dek Mohamud Arab (Kabridahar woreda), Abdullahi Taflow, Abshir Abdi (Members of the local council), Muktar Adan, and many other civil servants executed publicly, not because of what they committed (they were not even suspects), but to terrorize the people.

Don’t we know what is going on in Somalia and Ogaden now? In Somalia, it has been reported that more than ten thousand died and about two-third of Mogadishu population have been displaced. Ethiopian forces involved in the conflict are accused of indiscriminate shelling (of civilian populated areas), use of banned weapons, gang rape and heavy looting. The situation is much worse in the Ogaden. Collective punishment, extrajudicial killings, torture, forced displacement, mass arrest without due process and rape are common in the region. As widely reported and at last shown digitally by Human Rights Watch villages were destroyed. To hit where it hurts most, at the peak of the 1 in 100 years drought, woredas have been blockaded to starve and pastoralists denied access to drinking water. To realise the effectiveness of these inhumane treatments and ensure that no one was spared (from the punishment), another unprecedented measure was introduced. Compensation (blood money) of USD 15000 was imposed to be paid by the local people for any one – military or local militias – killed by ONLF. It is not secret that the food aid is used as an effective political weapon. Imagine how many stories would have been made if Sudan would have expelled one aid organisation from Dafur. EPRDF have ordered many such organisations to leave the country with no consequence from the international community.

It is definitely impossible to list the atrocities committed by the security forces, but I emphasized Ogaden because of the depth and magnitude of the problem. I’m empathizing, and in no way undermining or denying, the physical and emotional pain millions of Ethiopian individuals in other parts of the country feel.

Where in the constitution are these collective punishments approved? If the attempt of Dr. Abdulmajid’s life is sufficient for one organisation to be a terrorist, where in the ladder of the list will EPRDF qualify?

Indeed EPRDF and particularly the TPLF seem to have forgotten their recent history. Their cynical mendacity and actions have wiped away the social reality that brought them to power. They have mistakenly clung to the belief that they could maintain the power, they so desperately want to keep, by terrorising the people. Little wonder such approach has not delivered a peace to its predecessors. The only way to end the starvation and civil wars with which Ethiopia is associated with is to end the denial of the rights that fuels them and to ensure that all people’s rights are equally protected.

The early anticipation, that EPRDF would be a harbinger of peace, justice, equality, democracy and economic salvation has been proven wrong. They have shown no sign of wanting to do this and it is increasingly becoming clear that it is finished now. As a ruling entity, it is in office but practically not in power. The system is paralysed, deeply disorganised and perhaps permanently damaged. Individual members do as they wish; pursuing their interests. Since EPRDF came to power, it failed to remain true to its promises. It has exploited our ethnic difference to divide us further and bring misery and endless conflicts. Yet unfortunately, many countries treat them as partners, especially in the fight against terrorism. Many Ethiopians found it difficult to fathom out how raping and strangling innocent girls and women in the remote Ogaden region could contribute positively to the war on terror. How can punishing, torturing, starving and killing the poverty-stricken pastoralists in the desert Ogaden weaken terror organisations?

John Holmes (UN Humanitarian Coordinator), after visiting the region admitted (with channel 4 interview) that there were issues he couldn’t say publicly and failed to criticise, even mildly, the government for its misdeeds. Similarly, many aid workers and diplomats feared to speak out. Now let’s hope that the unfair criticism of the article (of the Ministry) against Ambassador David Shinn and Prof. Ken Menkhaus will not silence them.

For Ethiopians, solutions seem far into the future but the questions are how much long can this continue and how long will it be before we rise and face the challenges? In conclusion, in their hour of need our brothers and sisters in Ogaden need our help, let’s stand by them.

Tadesse Mesfin
Geneva
Switzerland
Tadesse2001@live.co.uk

ETHIOPIA: Thousands displaced by floods in Somali region (IRIN)

ADDIS ABABA, 18 November 2008 (IRIN) - At least 52,000 people have abandoned their homes in Ethiopia's Somali region after the Wade Shabelle and Genale rivers burst their banks following heavy rains.

"Heavy rains pounded western highlands and six woredas [administrative wards] in the Somali region, causing floods," Ramadan Haji Ahmed, head of the government's disaster prevention department in the region, said.

"The rain lasted six days from 2 November," he told IRIN.

The six woredas were in Gode, Afeder and Liben zones. Ramadan said 36,888 people were displaced and three killed in the worst-affected woreda, Kelafo, in Gode.

"The flood hit 14 kebeles [smallest administrative wards] and 85 villages in Kelafo," Ramadan said. "It washed away crops on 164 hectares."

Crops were also destroyed in West Emi woreda of Afder zone. "The Wabe Shebelle River burst its banks and flooded 17 kebeles in West Emi," Ramadan added. "Thanks to early warnings, the villagers fled to nearby mountains. The flood damaged crops on 3,200 hectares."

At least 10,740 displaced people have been registered in Dolo Odo woreda of Liben zone. "Dolo Odo was flooded after the overflow of Genale river," Ramadan said. "The roads from Dolo Odo to Filtu and Negele are also blocked."

Floods cut off the road linking Degahabur town with Gode zone after the Dirkot River burst its banks.

"We brought 30 vehicles of aid from Dire Dawa central warehouse but we could not continue to Gode due to the damaged road," Ramadan said. "We are now preparing to use another road."

However, he feared the continued heavy rains would hamper relief efforts.

"Meteorology reports show there will not be heavy rain in the next three days," he said. "If there is any heavy rain, the only choice is an airlift."

The Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau in the region has begun dispatching relief food and was preparing to distribute non-food items.

"All affected woredas need emergency relief," Ramadan said. "We have not yet released any appeal, but it will be ready as soon as we get a complete assessment of the situation."

In 2007, flooding left 135,000 people displaced across Ethiopia. In August, flash floods in Gambella regional state displaced about 20,000 people.

More Blowback from the War on Terror: By Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel, published in Salon

The U.S.-backed Ethiopian military has secreted away scores of "suspects" – including pregnant women and children – and fueled anti-American rancor in Africa.

Ishmael, a 37-year-old shepherd from the Ogaden region in Ethiopia, looked at me with tears in his eyes. Ethiopian forces – who had already killed his mother, father, brothers and sisters – murdered his wife days after they were married. They then slaughtered his goats, beat him unconscious, and slashed his shoulder to the bone, he said.

In December 2006, Ishmael crossed through Somalia into Kenya, heading for the nearest refugee camp in search of medical care. But when he didn't have enough money to pay a 1,000 shilling ($15) bribe, the Kenyan police bundled him into a car and took him to Nairobi. Less than a month later, he was herded onto an airplane with some 30 others, flown to Somalia and handed over to the Ethiopian military – the same forces that he previously fled.

Ishmael is a victim of a 2007 rendition program in the Horn of Africa, involving Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and the United States. There are at least 90 more victims like him. Most have since been sent home. A few – including a Canadian and nine who assert Kenyan nationality – remain in detention even now. The whereabouts of 22 others – including several Somalis, Ethiopian Ogadenis, and Eritreans – remain unknown.

In late 2006, the Bush administration backed a full-scale Ethiopian military offensive that ousted the Islamist authorities from Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. The fighting caused thousands of Somalis, including some who were suspected of terrorist links, to flee across the Kenya border.

Kenyan authorities arrested at least 150 men, women and children from more than 18 countries – including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada – in operations near the Somali border, and held them for weeks without charge in Nairobi. In January and February 2007, the Kenyan government then unlawfully put dozens of these individuals – with no notice to families, lawyers or the detainees themselves – on flights to Somalia, where they were handed over to the Ethiopian military. Ethiopian forces also arrested an unknown number of people in Somalia.

Those rendered were later transported to detention centers in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and other parts of Ethiopia, where they effectively disappeared. Denied access to their embassies, their families and international humanitarian organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the detainees were even denied phone calls home. Several detainees have said that they were housed in solitary cells, some as small as two meters by two meters, with their hands cuffed in painful positions behind their backs and their feet bound together any time they were in their cells.

An unknown number of them – likely dozens – were questioned by the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in Addis Ababa. From February to May 2007, Ethiopian security officers daily transported detainees – including several pregnant women – to a villa where US officials interrogated them about suspected terrorist links. At night the Ethiopian officers returned the detainees to their cells.

For the most part, detainees were sent home soon after their interrogation by US agents ended. Of those known to have been interrogated by US officials, just eight Kenyans remain. (A ninth Kenyan in Addis Ababa was rendered to Ethiopia in August 2007, after US interrogations reportedly stopped.) These men, who have not been subjected to any interrogation since May 2007, would likely have been repatriated long ago but for the Kenyan government’s longstanding refusal to acknowledge their claims to Kenyan citizenship or to take steps to secure their release.

Recently I spoke by telephone to several of the still-detained Kenyans. They described water-soaked mattresses, insufficient food and inadequate healthcare. Two said they have trouble walking, following beatings by Ethiopian officials, and a third said he can no longer use his left hand.

“I can’t sleep here. I miss my family. Please, I need you to help us to go home,” one detainee pleaded with me.

In mid-August 2008, Kenyan authorities visited these men for the first time. The officials reportedly told the detainees they would be home within a few weeks. But more than a month and a half has passed with no apparent follow-up.

In addition to working with the US, the Ethiopians used the rendition program for their own ends. For years, the Ethiopian military has been trying to quell domestic Ogadeni and Oromo insurgencies that receive support from neighboring countries, such as Ethiopia's archrival, Eritrea. The multinational rendition program provided them a convenient means to continue this internal battle – and get their hands, with US and Kenyan support, on those with suspected insurgent links.

Ishmael was one of their victims.

The questions his Ethiopian interrogators asked were nonstop, and always the same: "Are you al-Qaida? Are you an Ogadeni rebel? Are you part of the Somali insurgency?" Each time he said no, he was beaten, sometimes to the point of unconsciousness. When he resisted answering, they targeted his testicles.

Then, in February 2008 – some 14 months after his original arrest – the Ethiopians decided Ishmael was no longer worth the trouble. They dumped him, along with 27 others, just over the Somali border. The men were met by a Somali officer who told him that he was very sorry, that their arrest was a mistake and that they were all innocent.

Now Ishmael is back in the refugee camp, limping and urinating blood. He is still waiting for the healthcare he came searching for nearly two years ago.

Almost everyone I spoke with assumed – whether true or not – that the United States backed the arbitrary arrest and unlawful rendition of men like Ishmael and the still-detained Kenyans. Almost everyone assumed that the Ethiopians operate with America's blessing. Their stories have circulated, fueling anger and resentment. As one man, whose childhood friend became one of the rendition victims, told me, "Now when I go to the mosque, I pray to God to punish the Americans."

To be sure, the United States is not the main culprit when the Kenyans unlawfully render suspects or the Ethiopians torture them. But when US officials interrogate rendition victims who are being held incommunicado, the United States becomes complicit in the abuse. The U.S. is funding the Ethiopian military, supporting its activities in Somalia and training Kenyan security forces in counterterrorism – so as US-backed military and police forces in the region brutalize their domestic opponents in the name of fighting terrorism, the United States is often blamed.

The United States could change those perceptions by demanding higher standards of its foreign partners and cutting off aid to abusers. It otherwise risks fueling the very problem – anti-American militancy – that it seeks to solve. For starters, the US could demand the release or fair trial of any rendition victims still stuck in Ethiopian custody.

At the end of our interview, Ishmael looked at me with sad eyes. "I have suffered three times," he told me. "I lost my family; I was beaten and tortured, and then I was arrested and tortured again. Now I have nothing to lose."

Somali Region, Ethiopia: Thousands of IDPs in Search of Food and Water

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is currently witnessing a deteriorating humanitarian situation around the town of Wardher, in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Internally displaced people (IDPs) are gathering in the thousands on the town’s outskirts, purportedly in search of food and water. An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people are currently living in squalid conditions; under makeshift shelters, with limited access to water, no sanitation, and the carcasses of dead animals around them.

In response, MSF is providing medical care to both IDPs and town inhabitants from our easily accessible clinic, located in Wardher town. These services are extended to the wider communities within the Wardher and Danood districts through mobile clinics. Activities include a nutritional program to treat malnourished children under five years, incorporating ambulatory therapeutic feeding and inpatient care for complicated severe cases. MSF is further working closely with all relevant actors, including other nongovernmental organizations and government bodies, to assess the situation in order to respond to the growing needs of people in the area. Preparations are under way for improving access to drinking water and sanitation, along with vaccinations against measles and raising health awareness through community health workers recruited from within the camps.

Many of the IDPs, traditionally nomadic people, are saying that in the areas they usually inhabit there is currently not enough food or water to survive. Further, many report the death of large numbers of livestock, on which they depend for food and livelihood. This year’s drought seems to have pushed these already vulnerable people, suffering from protracted conflict and minimal resources, even further into despair.

MSF in the Somali Region
MSF provides primary healthcare in two locations in the Somali Region of Ethiopia: Degahbur and Wardher town. In recent months, the team in Degahbur have admitted an increasing number of children under five into their program—although recently the number has stabilized. The situation there is of concern, but is not comparable to what we now see in Wardher. Working in just two locations in Ogaden, it is impossible for MSF to comment on the nutritional situation regionally. We continue to run emergency nutritional interventions and ongoing healthcare projects throughout the south and north of the country.

Nomads blame Ethiopian military for starvation: By Channel 4

A goat herder in the Ogaden desert. Herdsmen say that their children have died from eating poisonous buds from trees for lack of anything else to eat

Jonathan Rugman in Jijiga

Ethiopia has been accused of deliberately underestimating the scale of a deadly drought facing millions of its people, some of whom are being deprived of emergency food aid by the country’s military.

The humanitarian crisis, caused by three years of failed rains, currently affects about 4.6 million people, though the official number could jump to as high as 6.7 million this week.

United Nations agencies say that the real number at risk is above 8 million, an estimate disputed hotly by Addis Ababa, which is insisting on publishing a much lower figure.

“The figure has risen very substantially, maybe even doubled,” said Sir John Holmes, the UN’s emergency relief co-ordinator, who visited Ethiopia earlier this month. “Any government doesn’t want to be perceived as always in the position of receiving aid.”
Related Links

The crisis is at its most worrying in the vast deserts of the Ogaden region, where the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says in a confidential alert to donors that it is receiving “increasing reports of hunger-related mortality”. About two million people are at risk until the main rains fall next spring – if they fall at all. The Ogaden is Ethiopia’s biggest and most remote state.

Nomadic tribes there are resorting to eating dead leaves and cactus fruit to survive the worst drought since the famines of 1984-85, when an estimated one million Ethiopians died.

A twenty-mile trek on foot into the bush revealed mediaeval mud-hut villages, where ethnic Somali herdsmen say that their children have died after eating poisonous buds from trees, for lack of anything else to eat. Others say that they depend on camel milk and meat because cattle, sheep and goats have perished in their thousands.

“I am ill and hungry,” said one man, removing his shirt to reveal his rib cage visible through taut skin. “Because of the drought we have nothing to eat. The only people who receive food are the military forces.”

The UN has raised about 60 per cent of $325 million (£181 million) it is seeking in emergency relief for Ethiopia and says that it is suffering a shortfall of about 300,000 tonnes of aid.

The WFP has told donors that it blames Ethiopia’s “delays in recognising the extent of need” for causing the rapid depletion of existing food stocks. But a Channel 4 News investigation tonight claims that the army has withheld food from villages in the Ogaden deliberately as part of a “scorched earth” policy against separatist rebels of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).

Herdsmen in villages almost completely cut off from the outside world said that many of their animals had been killed by Ethiopian soldiers, who also deprived them of water.

“We walk for eight hours to collect water,” said Abdi, a villager about three hours from Jijiga, the regional capital. “Then the military take the water from us. They say the rebels pass through our villages and that we give them supplies. But what can we give? We are dying of hunger. We have nothing to give to our own children.”

The UN says that it has negotiated with the Ethiopian army for the military’s role in food distribution to be kept to a minimum. “If there is a situation where food is taken by the military, we protest,” said Mohammed Diab, the WFP’s Ethiopia director.

However, a confidential investigation by USAid, the US Government’s disaster relief agency, complained in March that “literally hundreds of areas . . . have neither been assessed nor received any food assistance”, with “populations we met terrorised by the inability to access food”.

“This situation would be shameful in any other country,” the report concludes. “The US Government cannot in good conscience allow the food operation to continue in its current manifestation.” The US is spending more than £230 million on food aid for Ethiopia this year but is hamstrung from being too critical in public; Washington sees Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, as an ally in the War on Terror after Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia in 2005, which ousted an Islamist administration from power.

Britain has doubled its annual aid to Ethiopia in the last three years to £130 million, including £15 million this summer through the UN’s Humanitarian Response Fund, while Save the Children (SCF) is halfway through a campaign to raise £10 million for the country. Two SCF workers were expelled from the Ogaden last year amid allegations – rejected by SCF – that they had diverted food to ONLF rebels. The British charity abandoned a full-scale feeding programme, fearing supplies could be diverted.

UN aid chief wants more access to Ethiopia's conflict zone

KEBRI DEHAR, Ethiopia (AFP) — UN humanitarian chief John Holmes on Tuesday urged Ethiopia to grant aid groups access to conflict zones in the southern Ogaden region where the army is battling a rebel group.

Ethiopian military launched a crackdown last year on the region after the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) attacked a Chinese-run oil venture, killing 77 people.

Aid workers say the military operation has caused a humanitarian crisis, displacing hundreds of thousands of people, many of them fleeing to lawless neighbouring Somalia.

"There are still some areas (in Ogaden) where access is more limited because conflict is more active. That's where we want to press (the governement) for more free access," he told reporters during a fact-finding mission to the country.

"We need to be allowed to work freely, do our assessments freely and be able to release data."

But he conceded that aid agencies had unfettered access in one Ogaden region, Kebri Dehar. "It's a lot better than it was when I was here last year."

But he criticised inadequate civilian and human rights protection in Ogaden, a barren, impoverished region where the discovery of gas and oil has brought new hopes of wealth as well as new causes of conflict.

"We haven't had a satisfaction that I would like on that and I have raised that question with the government," he said.

Ethiopia has denied as exaggerated charges by aid groups that military operation has hampered delivery of aid to the region.

Holmes is on a three-day visit to Ethiopia, where 4.6 million people need emergency assistance and eight million others need immediate food relief due a severe drought, according to the UN humanitarian office (OCHA).

Amnesty International on Ugaas Muxumed Qani

Ugaas (clan leader) Abdirahman Mohamed Qani, chief of the Tolomoge group of the Ogaden clan has been detained without charge since 13 July, together with 12 others. They are at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. Read the full amnesty document (PDF) here

The Tale of Two Canadians

by Mohamed A. Suleiman
Saturday, August 16, 2008

Recently, there have been two high profile cases of Canadians incarcerated in foreign countries. The cases of Brenda Martin, who was detained by Mexican authorities in February 2006 on charges of money laundering, and Bashir Makhtal, who was detained at the Somali-Kenyan border in January 2007 and flown to Ethiopia on what is clearly a case of extraordinary rendition, grabbed the attention of Canadians throughout the country.

The way that the Canadian government handled the incarceration of these two citizens heightened concerns among all Canadians about the ability of the government to protect its citizens in the global village. In both cases, the government got involved only after the media reported on the plight of the two individuals.

In the case of Brenda Martin, the government initially ignored pleas from family and friends and reluctantly intervened only after the CTV News Program W-Five aired Brenda’s plight. Canadians from all walks of life were shocked by the horrendous condition under which Brenda was being held. Without judging her guilt or innocence, Canadians who were outraged by her suffering called upon their government to do whatever they could to get her out of the miserable situation that she was in.

Several things worked toward Brenda Martin’s advantage. She happened to be a mainstream Canadian. Her family and friends therefore escalated her case’s profile and pressed the government for action. This was coupled with the fact that the government came under fire from critics and the opposition parties who demanded that the government take an active role in ending Ms. Martin’s plight.

In fact, former Prime Minister, Paul Martin, got involved and expressed his concern to the Mexican authorities.

Eventually, the federal government used its influence and started intervention at the highest possible levels. Fortunately, Brenda Martin is free today and, despite her horrendous ordeal, is home in Canada with her loved ones.

In the case of Bashir Makhtal, the government also ignored pleas from family and friends and reluctantly started low level contacts with his Ethiopian captors only after the popular CBC News Program “The Current” broke the news of his incarceration to Canadians.

It appears that several things worked against Bashir Makhtal. He happened to be a new Canadian, a person of African origin, and a Muslim. He also happened to belong to a community of recent immigrants who have no political or economic clout in the Canadian landscape.

Paul Dewar, NDP Foreign Affairs Critic " Bashir Makhtal is a person of color and a new Canadian"

Paul Dewar, an NDP MP for Ottawa Centre who is one of the few politicians who voiced their concerns about Mr. Makhtal’s incarceration in Ethiopia told a CBC reporter a few weeks ago that the difference between Brenda Martin’s case and that of Bashir Makhtal is the fact that: “Mr. Makhtal is a person of color and a new Canadian”.

There is another element to the equation that complicates Bashir Makhtal’s case that no one seems to want to talk about. It is the fact that Bashir Makhtal is a Muslim. And judging from the Canadian government’s track record on protecting its Muslim Canadians in the post 9/11 era, there appears to a double standard in the way even the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is interpreted or enforced.

We all know how the Canadian government and its institutions that were trusted with safeguarding the rights of its citizens colluded with the United States authorities in the infamous rendition of Maher Arar to the torture chambers in Syria. We also know the case of the young Omar Khadar and the fact that Canada now enjoys the dubious distinction of being the only western democracy that has a detainee in Quantanamo Bay.

While Brenda Martin’s freedom from the Mexican jail could largely be credited to the political action that was started by her family and friends and supported by ordinary Canadians, the continuing incarceration of Bashir Makhtal in the gallows of the filthy Guantanamo Bay style dungeon in the Ethiopia proper is largely due to the inaction of the Somali and Muslim community.

This inaction, apathy, or complacency on the part of the Muslim community is not without its root causes, however.

Canadian Muslims are disillusioned about their status as citizens in the post 9/11 era. The government’s handling of the cases of Maher Arar, Omar Khadar, and now Bashir Makhtal continues only to add to their disillusionment.

While some in the mainstream media are quick and eager to blasphemise and smear the image of Muslims, the Muslim community is rendered helpless by the fact that the so-called “security certificate” is felt to be hanging over the neck of each one of its members. Therefore, they could not talk, write, or organize simply because their efforts and/or actions could be construed in such a way that it may put them in harms way.

It is plainly obvious that there is a double standard in the way that even something as basic and universal as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is exercised or interpreted.

The Harper government’s inefficacious and arrogant attitude towards the plight of Bashir Makhtal adds insult to the injury. It is a stark reminder that the conservative government continues to harbor anti-Islamic and anti-immigrant tendencies.

How else could we explain the fact that Bashir Makhtal is languishing in a dungeon in a country that receives one hundred million dollars annually in foreign aid from the Canadian government?

It defies logic that the federal government could not use its leverage with the Ethiopian authorities, if nothing else, to press Ethiopia to respect the universal principles of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Anything short of that would mean that the federal government is once again colluding with a foreign entity to deny one of its citizens the due process with which the justice system of this nation is founded.

Canadians should be concerned about their safety and security in the global village and should demand more from their government. Muslim Canadians in particular should not be paralyzed by the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy. They should be vocal, demand equal treatment under the law, and take their rightful position in this uniquely multicultural country of ours.

Bashir Makhtal’s life is in a real danger. He was forced to appear in a kangaroo military court and confess to some serious charges that could result in summary execution. The Ethiopian government’s dismal human rights record makes this scenario that much too real.

A group of concerned Canadian citizens has started lobbying the federal government on behalf of Mr. Makhtal. They are committed to bring the plight of this Canadian citizen to the forefront so that his case should be afforded the attention that it deserves.

Canadians from all walks of life should come together and rally behind this group and should bring Mr. Makhtal home just as they did bring Brenda Martin home from Mexico. Anything less than that will perpetuate the existing perceptions.

Why I Write About Ethiopia

By Douglas McGill , TC Daily Planet
August 12, 2008
ROCHESTER, MN—“Why the hell are you messing with my country’s political affairs?” goes a typical e-mail from the dozens I’ve received this summer from readers living in Ethiopia, from immigrants living in Minnesota, and from throughout the Ethiopian diaspora.

And this was among the milder messages to ping my inbox.

To a degree I’ve never before experienced as a journalist, articles I’m publishing about human rights abuses in Ethiopia—based on interviews with Ethiopian immigrants living here in Minnesota—have triggered profusely grateful e-mails, and yet also a torrent of messages scorching me with bitter denunciations, extremely pungent abuse and amorphous threats.

“You are only spreading hate,” an Ethiopian reader snapped after reading an article about the Ethiopian army wiping out entire villages in the country’s Ogaden region. On Ethiopian web sites around the Internet, my articles are bashed as often as they’re lauded.

To admirers, my writings make me a “hero,” a “journalist of integrity” and “a voice for the voiceless.” But to others I’m a “very sad,” “naïve” and “mediocre” journalist who is “fed by propaganda” churned out by bitter Ethiopian refugees. To detractors my pieces are “nonsense,” “rubbish” and “eye-gouging lies.”

To my detractors my pieces are “nonsense,” “rubbish” and “eye-gouging lies.”

Sometimes, it’s scary to scan my inbox.

“I was shocked when I read your article,” one e-mailer wrote. “You will be held accountable for your lies.” And I’ve read Web site comments in which readers from various Ethiopian ethnic groups, responding to my articles, attack each other using language so violent that I won’t repeat it here.

How to respond to all this? On the one hand, I completely reject the notes that use language simply to slash, bash or stab another person as if with machetes, clubs and spears. These aren’t conversations, but armed assaults.

On the other hand, behind the frustrated tone in many of the notes, I discern eminently sensible and fair questions. These come from people who’ve grown cynical after decades of manipulation by their governments and by both the U.S. and Ethiopian media, and they deserve sincere answers.

Answers to questions such as: All right, why the hell do I mess with Ethiopia’s domestic affairs, anyway?

After all, I am not Ethiopian. I don’t speak any of Ethiopia’s six or seven major languages, or its several dozen smaller ones. I’m fascinated by the country’s complex history, politics and culture, but I’ve only traveled there once, in 2004, on a reporting trip, and stayed for less than a week.

Plus, as my aggrieved readers take pains to tell me, my own country is hardly a shining paragon when it comes to human rights.

So what gives me—a citizen of the nation that brought us the Iraq war, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Haditha and other atrocities—the slightest right to parade Ethiopia’s human rights crimes before the world?

To those who’ve written to me in the spirit of a mutually respectful conversation, as opposed to a broken-bottle brawl, I’ll try to explain.


All right, why the hell do I mess with Ethiopia’s domestic affairs, anyway?

Basically, I believe that writing about human rights in Ethiopia, even while I remain living in Minnesota, is potentially useful and journalistically defensible for three main reasons.

First, Minnesota and Ethiopia are intricately linked by our cultures, histories, economics and politics. I don’t accept that they are distant or unrelated in any significant way. For example, take the simple fact that for the past several decades, Ethiopians have been immigrating to Minnesota to escape persecution by their own government. What is that if not a profound relationship?

Some 20,000 Ethiopian immigrants now live in the state, which has one of the largest and most politically active Ethiopian diasporas in the world.

So my articles, in a sense, simply report on what I see and hear right here in my home state of Minnesota. I talk to Ethiopian immigrants about what they are hearing from their friends and loved ones back home. Honestly, I not only hear stories about human rights abuses in Ethiopia in these interviews, but I feel the deep trauma that has followed immigrants all the way to Minnesota, as they rebuild their lives.

As for accounts of Ethiopian government oppression that I gather, I try to verify them through multiple interviews, through global e-mails and telephone calls, Internet research, and so on.

At the national level, too, America and Ethiopia are profoundly linked. For example, many of the same emailers who lecture me to “mind my own country’s business,” also take pains to remind me, correctly, that America is a major foreign aid donor to Ethiopia—including military aid to help build, support and train an army that enforces violent policies against Ethiopian citizens. This implicates every American citizen, I would argue, very directly in Ethiopian government policies that increase suffering.

Our two countries are also closely connected economically. Many U.S. corporations—including Mobil, Starbucks, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, Hilton Hotels, Eveready Batteries, and Ernst & Young—do business in Ethiopia. Ethiopian tourism benefits from American visitors, and the country’s main export, coffee, rests largely on sales to the gigantic U.S. coffee market.

I am a human rights journalist. By this I simply mean that I subscribe to the idea of human rights, that all human beings have the right to live free from abuse, cruelty and oppression.

With our two countries interdependent in so many ways, how could anyone sustain the argument for journalistic quarantine to my home state?

Second, I am a human rights journalist. By this I simply mean that I subscribe to the idea of human rights, that all human beings have the right to live free from abuse, cruelty and oppression. I try to create journalism that contributes to the support and expansion of global human rights.

I believe the development of human rights is one of the rare bright spots in recent human history. It offers precious evidence of mankind’s moral progress, against a great deal of evidence supporting the opposite view.

One way that journalists can help sustain human rights progress, I believe, is by morally engaging with people who live in countries at great distances from their own. Theoretically, this should be more possible than ever today, with so many new technological means to communicate across borders.

To a large degree, I view my journalism about Ethiopia as an effort to define, develop and refine the skills of global moral engagement.

But all that sounds very abstract.

The most important reason that I write stories about human rights abuses in Ethiopia isn’t about theories of interdependence or human rights.

As a journalist, I just feel it’s my job.

Douglas McGill has reported for the New York Times and Bloomberg News—and now the Daily Planet.

To reach Douglas McGill: doug@mcgillreport.org


And visit The McGill Report

TPLF Obliterating NGOs in the Ogaden –Two more NGOs’ Licences Revoked

We have, on several occasions, stated how it is becoming increasingly difficult for international aid organizations to work in the Ogaden, and as a result they are opting to create partnerships with grass-roots, local Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) who have long and better experience in reaching out the intended beneficiaries. On the other hand, we noted how the TPLF led regime has been busy in implementing policies hostile to NGOs in the past years. As, similar to other nationalities, Ogaden people continue to suffer at the hands of brutal Woyyane oppression, TPLF and its stooges are committed to harass NGOs operating in this part of the world. On August 07, 2008 the so called Regional President Abdullahi Hassan better known as Lugbuur has through a letter commanded the suspension of two local NGOs’ licenses.

The two NGOs, Alnejah Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Organization (ARRDO) and Hope for the Horn (HFH) are among the first and few in the region with some community projects in various areas in the Ogaden. I am not writing this article to defend any wrong-doing by these NGOs like the claimed corruption, unethical conduct, attitudinal problems, mismanagement etc. They can commit errors but it is outrageous and shameful the way their license is suspended.

First of all, according to current constitution, it is the mandate of Ministry of Justice to grant NGOs with licences and only this ministry can revoke or suspend these licences. As a matter of decentralization, the ministry also gives directives to the Disaster Preparedness, and Prevention Agency (DPPA) on how to deal with some issues regarding local organizations. Apparently, the action of Lugbuur is violating the current regime’s own constitution and instead of warning Lugbuur, Deputy Prime Minister, Addisu Leggese who was touring Jigjiga last week with other ministers has applauded for criminals like Lugbuur for massacring the Ogaden people.

Before suspending any NGOs license there must be a clear legal procedure beginning with investigation of allegations. Only with solid evidence can action be taken by either the DPPA, the Ministry, or generally by the Federal Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission all of which are Institutions used by TPLF as they wish. Even after this investigation it does not imply NGO’s license is automatically suspended if found guilty or culpable. Rather their Code of Conduct states other options such as issuing a warning, or targeting the person responsible for the wrong-doing depending on the scale of the breach.

Lugbuur’s move is not the first of its kind. He is just doing the dirty job of TPLF. Whenever they want to play such games they order him to pretend as if he is the ruler of the region while he is not more than a puppet. Otherwise it is not he; rather it is the TPLF cadre sitting next to him that dictates the daily affairs. It is the same history when he ordered several International NGOs like ICRC and MSF-Swiss to cease operations in the Ogaden. At that time, in an interview with the media, he denied any federal interference, while he later confessed to one of his relatives that he was given orders to expel the ICRC and he did so without knowing the reason behind.

Sarcastically, one wonders how Lugbuur and his fellow stooges can accuse others of corruption while they have stolen hundreds of millions of public money during their three and half years in the puppet administration. Where did really all these money go? Where did all those ambitious projects designed over qat-chewing cessions end up? We –the people- do not know, far worse we cannot seek answers. Right now the people bother neither about transparency nor accountability, checks and controls. Only if we were left alone for our lives!!!

This latest development comes as the people are in one of their most critical time to survive. The two affected NGOs have been working in partnership with many international donor organizations such as United Nations (UNICEF, WFP, WHO), OXFAM, ICCO, Muslim Aid, Christian Aid, MSF, Save the Children, Muslim Hands etc and with this threat of terminating ongoing projects as well as future ones, many beneficiaries whose only hope of survival was these NGOs will definitely be left out to a grim fate, not to mention the hundreds of employees and their families who suddenly face income insecurity.
Our people are made powerless and voiceless and it is not ironic to turn to the international community for help for they can influence TPLF’s policies if they really want to. Nevertheless, it only makes us more heartbroken to see the international community’s response to this crisis not being on par with the gravity of the problem.

A True Story of an Ogaden Woman

The following is a real story of an Ogadeni woman. She is only one of the many unfortunate women in this region and if Victor Hugo of the nineteenth century was present in the Ogaden right now he would have written dozens, perhaps hundreds of Les Miserables about them!

It is about 01:30 pm local time and it is an unusually windy day in a dusty and dry village in one of Ogadens remotest areas. The temperature seems unforgivingly higher and the sun appears to have moved closer to the earth. The dry season has persisted longer than expected but people never give up looking at the barren sky; day in day out they pray for clouds of hope, clouds of rain. People and animals, and all other living things are competing for survival. Most importantly they are competing for scarce water and shade. Under an old acacia tree, lies a woman in her late fifties on a worn out mattress. She is a woman with a miserable life but with strong faith in God and that is why her smile is full of life and she repeats Alhamdulillaah. I Thank You Allah.

Ardo used to lead a normal nomadic life in one of the remotest and driest areas in the Ogaden. She had a large family consisting of 13 children and husband. They were not rich but compared to their community they were well off for they had a large number of camel herds and about hundred and fifty shoats and the children would at normal times consume milk at least two times a day. As a mother of more than a dozen of children, she had a busy life from taking care of the children, looking after some herds, managing the economy of the household, traveling long distances to the nearest town to sell animal products and buy needed items etc. She is well known in her locality by her hard work and strong sprit that keeps her rolling like a storm. All in al,l she was the engine of her large family.

Throughout her life, Ardo had came across many sad days as she struggled to make ends meet in the troubled land of Ogaden but none was as darker as the day she woke up without being able to see things! It was typical Jiilaal day where the violent temperature could be felt early in the morning. One night, she just came back from the nearby town where she sold two of her best goats to cope with the unforgiving dry season at which time survival of human beings is the biggest objective of every pastoralist in the area. After a long and tiresome journey by foot, she fell asleep late at that night after serving food to her family who depends on her for almost everything. Apart from the fatigue she remembers she had a severe headache which resembles migrin and locally known as Dhanjaf. Imagine if you suddenly wake up without your sense of sight! She could not believe her eyes! Shocked by the incident, she tried to verify that she is awake and not dreaming. She rubbed and rubbed her eyes with her fingers, she tried to reach and touch and feel things that were surrounding her. Yes she could feel things and hear the noise of the livestock just outside her traditional house –aqal Soomaali. But still she could not SEE!!!

After all her efforts were dashed by an undeniable fact, that she became blind, it was finally time to seek help. She called the names of some of her children. Her eldest daughter was the first to arrive at her mother’s side. When she learned what happened to her mother she could not help stop crying for the whole day. Indeed this was the saddest day on earth for the whole family. Her younger brother knew that something had to be done to save his mother’s sight. The first possible and less costly thing they would try was to call someone who could heal their beloved mother traditionally, but this proved to no avail. Sooner it was obvious that Ardo had to be checked by an eye specialist doctor.

The nearest hospital in the area lies in Godey, about 450 km from their vicinity and even if they can reach there, the Hospital is the best example of the extreme underdevelopment in the region as it lacks even the most basic equipment and supplies, it has no surgical ward or surgeon. People arriving in critical need of surgery are therefore unlikely to survive. In the Hospital, there is only one doctor –himself being medical practitioner –and no eye care center. By the way there is no a single Ophthalmology center in the whole Ogaden Region (or Somali Region –whatever you call it) and those who can afford the costs travel either to Dire Dawa or to neighboring Somalia for ophthalmologic and other treatments.

After some preparations Ardo and her family decided that she should travel to Dire Dawa where she had a sister whom she could rely on when traveling for medication. So her only hope was to contact her sister so that her sister could arrange accommodation and doctor appointments. Despite droughts and poor livestock market prices, they were forced to sell the best of her shoats and some camels to get enough cash for the costly journey and treatment. Two of her children followed her to Dire Dawa. Finally it was time to meet an Ophthalmologist but unfortunately, it was too late to help Ardo!!! After a long investigation the doctor finally informed Ardo through an interpreter that nothing could be done to restore her sight because the optic nerves of both eyes were dead!!! The only thing Ardo could say was Innaa Lillaahi wa Innaa Ilayhi Raaji’uun –We belong to Allah, and to Him we return.

Though her sister promised her to care for her, Ardo decided to go back to her isolated and remote home, yes nothing like home. Since she lost her sight Ardo’s life was complicated by insecurity and vulnerability. As if this was not enough, Ardo’s tragedy was to continue as those who would help her were themselves victims of natural and man made disasters. The last time she heard about her man was when he was imprisoned with four other men for an unknown reason and since then no one knows if he is alive or not! The eldest of her boys was arrested by Puntland army in Gaalkacyo and handed him over to the Ethiopian Army in Wardheer. Also his whereabouts is unknown to her. The second boy who was attending education in Jigjiga is now mentally ill and because of this he is chained by relatives in fear of harming himself or others. The only Mental Hospital is Amanuel Hospital in Addis Ababa –more than a thousand km distance. The latest and perhaps the worst tragedy Ardo heard is that of her daughter (who was the most helpful to her) who has passed away because of pregnancy complications, like her younger sister, when she was about to give birth to her third child. Her smile and content would make you think as if she is the happiest being in this universe in spite of losing the most important things in life: her sight, her family, her wealth (livestock) etc.
This is just a summary of the story but one thing is clear: There are thousand Ardos in the Ogaden whose lives could have been saved by a simple clinic or health post. However, TPLF’s war against civilians, economic blockade, expulsion of NGOs, lack of Basic health and other infrastructure facilities, recurrent droughts, media black-out, etc complicate the fate of Ogadeni ordinary people like Ardo.

NGOs’ Increasing Obstacles in the Ogaden and The Silence of the International Community.

Ethiopia’s TPLF regime –better known for slaying, starving, oppressing, and sabotaging its civilians – receives the largest international aid in the whole continent of Africa and therefore is dependent on foreign aid in the form of bilateral as well as multilateral agreements. A great portion of this aid is channeled by donor nations through Non-Governmental Organizations. The Distribution of NGO presence in Ethiopia’s different regions is very asymmetrical. Throughout the country there are millions suffering as a result of recurrent droughts followed by famine. However while the government does not care about its people the International NGOs who operate in Ethiopia seem to favor (or are forced by TPLF’s Relief Society Tigray -REST- to operate in Tigray) some regions over the others. Those who are willing to help people in remote areas like the Ogaden are forced to work in regions they would not choose otherwise. The few who dare to insist help the needy face obstructions and their staff is intimidated daily. The Ogaden whose people are self sufficient pastoralists were previously known to have been less aid-dependent compared to the rest of Ethiopia. However, government default, ongoing war against unarmed civilians, lack of international pressure, Harassing the few NGOs on the ground complicated the livelihoods of these civilians.

If the current government boasts of achieving an 11% annual growth and claim sustained development of the main sectors of the country, they know they are not talking about Ogaden because for them Ogaden is only a war zone where they do not bother investing in schools, clinics, veterinary health posts, roads etc. The only significant symbol of the government presence in the Ogaden is huge military personnel (some sources estimate almost half of Ethiopia’s military to be stationed in the Ogaden despite the many war frontiers Ethiopia has!!). This military is used to inflict the most imaginable harm on the people. They continue their daily mass killings of unarmed civilians (my maternal uncle was the last victim I heard. They killed him while he was milking his camel for his children!!!), they torture, arbitrarily arrest, blockade and destroy towns etc.

While they kill people meaninglessly, they are determined to obstruct anyone trying to lend the people a hand. All local NGOs are ordered to make food and other necessary items distributions through the so called Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Agency (DPPA) which is controlled by the army leaders. Eventually, food is used as a weapon and never reaches the intended beneficiaries. The local NGOs have no choice and they are well aware of the whereabouts of those who questioned such acts. They know the fate of Sulub and his fellow men from Ogaden Welfare and Development Organization (OWDA). Some local charity organizations have reported that their vehicles are forcefully used by the army against the law. Some government stooges even demand bribes otherwise will declare NGOs as Nabadiid which mean anti-peace!!!

The international NGOs are not spared by the obstacles of the Ethiopian government and the last victim is MSF-Switzerland who pulled out of their last operational post –Fiiq. Apparently, MSF endured a prolonged and repeated Ethiopian harassment but reached their limit when they feared for their staffs’ lives as was clearly stated by the organization’s and AFP reported:

Repeated administrative hurdles and intimidations towards MSF staff in the Fiiq area have prevented the organization from bringing urgently needed medical care to vulnerable populations. Despite agreements signed with federal authorities, MSF international staff members have not received necessary work permits and could only be on site for short periods.
“Over the six months of our intervention, our medical teams could only work for ten weeks in Fiiq town and five in the periphery of the town where the most important needs are,” said Hugues Robert, in charge of the MSF Ethiopia program in Geneva. “It significantly reduces the medical impact of our action.”

MSF is not the first to terminate operations in the Ogaden. MSF Belgium and International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) have also been accused of supporting rebel groups and their permission revoked against the international law –Ethiopia is a signatory to the International Humanitarian Law which gives ICRC among others unlimited access to war zones. This comes a time when Meles has waged war against Somalis in the Ogaden and the need for Independent NGOs is eminent more than ever. Meles and his fellow men such as Bereket Simon has openly boasted to have accumulated experience during their struggle against the Derg and will never allow NGOs to help people in need. Parallel to all these difficulties is the law drafted by the order of Meles to restrict NGO freedom. The controversial draft law enables the Government to fully control the activities of NGOs.

In addition to the genocide and economic blockade of this hapless region, Ethiopia has left no stone unturned to cover its atrocities in front of the international community. They clearly deny access to international media even those who are pro-TPLF. Despite this, the world were able to see as the chain of tragedies has been unfolding in Ogaden through the brave reporters of New York Times, The Daily Telegraph (both of whose reporters were illegally arrested by TPLF in Degah Bur and Godey respectively), Aljazeera, Los Angels Times, etc. The latest Amnesty International Report on Ogaden was supported by undeniable Sattellite Images of destroyed villages and towns whose population were also killed in the masses.

While all this is taking place the world is watching and doing nothing. The United Nations who in 2007 sent emergency assessment team who later that year came up with recommendations including the need for broader investigation by the UN has done nothing. We know how they were being silenced.The international community led by USA pursues the policy of look and see even though they all know that Ogaden is far worse than Darfur they won’t annoy their leaders who consider Meles as an important ally in what they call ‘war against terror.’ Instead of holding the TPLF thugs of their crimes, it is sad to see famous lobbyists DLA-Piper earning their salaries by sabotaging the highly awaited Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007 –a bill supporting human rights and democracy in Ethiopia that was put forward by responsible individuals and passed by the United States House of Representatives. But USA cannot claim to be the police of the World while they are defending such atrocities in the name of ‘war on terror’. I wonder how USA can voice against Robert Mugabe and Omar Al-Bashir while letting criminal Meles attend G8 summit. The world will witness the suffering of humanity if the policy of double standardness is not re-evaluated. We are all human beings and we deserve the same rights!!!

Ethiopia: Obstructions Lead MSF-Switzerland to Withdraw from FIIQ, Somali Region of Ethiopia.

Addis Ababa/Geneva, July 10, 2008 — Unable to respond to the medical needs of populations affected by internal conflict in Ethiopia’s Somali Region, the Swiss section of the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has decided to stop its activities and withdraw from the Fiiq area where it began an assistance program in December 2007.

Since April 2007, increasing violence and an economic blockade linked to the conflict between Ethiopian authorities and opposition movements has had critical repercussions on civilian populations, with the humanitarian and sanitary situation further worsened by drought. The mostly nomadic populations are faced with restrictions of movement that prevent them from relying on their traditional survival mechanisms and restrict their access to health care and food assistance.

Repeated administrative hurdles and intimidations towards MSF staff in the Fiiq area have prevented the organization from bringing urgently needed medical care to vulnerable populations. Despite agreements signed with federal authorities, MSF international staff members have not received necessary work permits and could only be on site for short periods.
“Over the six months of our intervention, our medical teams could only work for ten weeks in Fiiq town and five in the periphery of the town where the most important needs are,” said Hugues Robert, in charge of the MSF Ethiopia program in Geneva. “It significantly reduces the medical impact of our action.”

Only 84 children suffering from malnutrition have been taken care of, while severe malnutrition rates are up to 9 percent in some villages, according to MSF’s last rapid assessment in May. In addition, over the past six months, MSF mobile teams have only been able to give medical consultations to 677 patients in the most affected rural area around Fiiq, while many more patients would have been expected.

The authorities’ attitude towards humanitarian organizations has translated into recurrent arrests of MSF Switzerland staff without charge or explanation.
“We are unable to consistently carry out independent needs assessments and implement our activities where the needs are greatest,” said Hugues Robert. “Despite continuous attempts to improve the working relations with the authorities, our organization can only regret the absence of any room to bring independent and impartial assistance.”
At a time when there is an urgent need to increase the level of response, MSF Switzerland appeals to the Government of Ethiopia for a change in the general work conditions applicable to humanitarian organizations in the Somali Region of Ethiopia.

MSF-Switzerland has been working in Ethiopia since 1993 and has developed projects in South-Omo, Sekota, Damot Gale, and Gambella as well as responded to epidemics and nutritional needs of populations in Wollyta, Gurage, and Hadiya Zones.
Since December 2007, MSF-Switzerland has been supporting the health center in Fiiq and has been operating mobile clinics in the area.

Source: Doctors Without Borders

Ginbot 20 - a sad day for Ogaden Somalis

Ginbot 20 – the 9th month of Ethiopian Calendar corresponding to 28th May G.C –is the day former Ethiopian dictator was overthrown and his regime fell apart. This day is a historic day for some parts of Ethiopia, particularly the Tigrayans who are since then enjoying relative development and freedom, but unfortunately not for so many Somalis who were also the victims of the Derg regime and still to date remain the target of neglect and collective punishment by Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) led government.

While there has been a tangible change in other parts of Ethiopia that is favored by TPLF, all Somalis everywhere in Ogaden continue to pay the price of being a SOMALI. They are not allowed to exercise the right to choose, they are massacred in the name of rebellion, their villages burned down, hundreds of thousands forced to flee into neighboring countries, the figure of internally displaced being much higher than that. In short, the situation is as dire or worse as it was eighteen years before. Despite all these hardships, TPLF and their cadres in Jigjiga and elsewhere in Ogaden are using this day as a propaganda tool and forcing people to come out for mass celebrations, as if they have changed the lives of the poor for the better!! They have employed a large number of spies to threaten the community. It is an open secret that anyone who does not participate activities intended to glorify this day will be considered a member of anti-peace elements, and as a result risks unlawful arrest and extreme torture.

Last year there was a huge loss of lives in Jigjiga and Dhagaxbur when simultaneous explosions hit crowds forced to attend Ginbot 20 event. Some of the casualties went to TPLF stooges including Abdulahi Hasan Lugbuur –a selfish and ignorant man claiming to be president of the people while he is only one of the real enemies. However, the majority of the victims were people from the street who were forced to attend the show. The TPLF blamed ONLF for the attack; but the leadership of the latter distanced itself from such acts. In addition, some people interviewed pointed out that they have every reason to suspect the regime in power of executing the plot to mislead the international community against ONLF. The TPLF and its cadres are using the same tactics to organize people forcefully for this year´s Ginbot celebration. Many, including business people, are going to be present to show their faces to the organizers only to avoid consequences of being absent. But as the memory of last year´s explosions is fresh in the minds of the people, everyone is afraid of getting there again. And some prefer to stay home and instead expect the worst case scenario: a prolonged jail (which they say is better than dying by an explosion!)

Tomorrow´s celebration of Derg´s downfall is about celebrating a change. Probably, we have nearly seen this change in Ogaden the first two or three years. But since then either it was the same or worse than the Derg era for Somalis in Ogaden. So, it is very ironic as well as surprising that Ginbot 20 is popular only in among Somalis and not widely celebrated across other parts of Ethiopia especially where there is a change worth of celebrating such as in Tigray region where the ruling TPLF comes from, and who instead prefer to celebrate the day TPLF was formed in 1975 (Hidar 30, 1967 Ethiopian Calendar). For the time being our minds are too busy to find a way out of this dark era but for sure, my people, our day will also come, hopefully soon.

Ogaden Should be a Top Priority for Condoleezza Rice

It was stated in a recent press release from State Department of the United States that the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice will visit Addis Ababa on December 5 to tackle conflicts in the region. She will attend a meeting with the leaders of the Great Lakes countries. According to the press statement “… also will engage in consultations on current developments in Somalia and on implementation of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with cabinet ministers from east African countries as well as senior representatives of the African Union and United Nations.” Ironically, the statement did not mention if she will raise the deteriorating situation in Ogaden, not to mention the totalitarianism rule exercised by minority TPLF on Ethiopias diverse nations; and Ethio-Eritrea conflict.

This visit comes at a time when the world is alarmed by what has been unfolding in the Ogaden; a moment when international aid and human rights organisations witnessed the brutality of the TPLF regime; when the international media has been reporting the atrocities ordered by the bloodthirsty dictator Zenawi, by a time when for the first time the dystopia of Ogaden has been brought to the attention of peace loving Congressmen in the United States who have lately increased their lobby, individually and collectively, for peace and democracy in Ogaden, and Ethiopia in general; a time when the UN’s Head of Humanitarian Affairs has seen the problem by his very eyes.

The Bush administration has many times expressed sympathy to oppressed nations in some parts of the world, whatever the reason may be. They insistently clamored over Darfur; expressed their concern over Tibet and supported the independence of Kosovo to mention a few. Nevertheless, it is a pity to see the double-standardness of this administration as they support some of the worst oppressors on earth who know they are deliberately obliterating entire innocent ethnic group and yet claim they are pushing for counterinsurgency to eradicate a notorious rebel. Double-standardness is hypocrisy, pretence, and insincerity.

It is an open secret that the regime in power in Ethiopia is one of the most brutal administrations Africa has ever seen. Yet it appreciates the support of the world supper powers. According to statistics, Ethiopia receives the largest aid money from the United States not to mention the huge military support it receives in the name of the so called War on Terror. This regime has many times violated its own constitution which promises for citizens the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

If Secretary Rice and her administration are really committed to promote the values and principles of democracy, she has to act against the dictatorial regime that massacred innocent civilians in the streets of Addis Ababa, and arrested many thousands who demanded a fair election. A regime that massacres its own people by claiming they are rebel sympathisers, a regime that creates a man made famine to the same people it should have protected. Moreover, it is quite contemptuous for the white house officials to back a dictator who has many times acted against their own interest in Africa. Look at his strategic ties with China which is more than the Ogaden gas exploration.

Probably, one good way to understand the deep rooted problem of Ogaden is to visit the area independently and read the faces of the victims directly! I say independently because I remember what happened to Jendayi Fraser when her visit was arranged by the oppressors. The US marines, for example have been to Ogaden independently to monitor what is going on in Ogaden. Their interest in the region grew after September 11. They have independently met with ONLF army on the ground and received their cooperation. The marines confirmed what they have seen was not a terrorist organisation as claimed by desperate TPLF; instead the marines described to their seniors the nature of ONLF as a liberation movement. Two US soldiers and their Ogadeni-American interpreter Mohamed Abdi have been arrested by TPLF army in a remote village in Ogaden. The marines were promptly released and transferred to United States embassy in Addis Ababa. However, the interpreter remained in custody and was later released on july 29 after spending more than two months in a military camp without being charged. More than once, the marines cooperated aid delivery to the Ogaden, particularly Godey zone. They philanthropically rehabilitated some schools in Jigjiga including the only high school in the region. The marines also offered some medical assistance to Karamara hospital. All this helped to revive the bad Image associated with the USA after 9/11.

Although the Ogaden people were hurt by Jenday Frazer’s comments that followed her visit to Godey when she said that there was merely allegations that are 'unsubstantiated' and there was no genocide that has and was taking place in Ogaden. People are now welcoming, though sceptical, the increased aid by USA (I doubt, if this aid will end up in the right hands –the intended beneficiaries) which came after the visit of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Henrietta Fore to Addis Ababa. We also hope that Dr Rice will be able to see which way the wind is blowing and will not be disillusioned by the so called War on Terror over basic human rights.

The most effective message, whether political, religious, or ethical or service – oriented is the one propagated by our life, otherwise every effort or resources injected into communicating the gospel and soul-winning will end up a wasteful venture. If Dr Rice is really coming to solve conflicts as stated in the press release, she should not simply ignore the Ogaden conlict and must not avoid telling her ally to live with the truth.
Eventually, while we feel sympathy to all the oppressed people be it Darfur or Palastine, it is a pity that the attention received by Ogaden now is not enough and much is expected by not only USA but also the United Nations, EU and the wider international community.