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Ogaden:
Downtrodden and Disenfranchised People
January
22th, 2004 Executive Summary OHRC/D15/04
In
recent years, the OHRC has been increasingly alarmed by the
scale and magnitude of human rights violations in the Ogaden,
despite the presence of some International Humanitarian Organisations
in the area, such as; ICRC, ACF, MSF…etc.
Since, OHRC's last report, Ogaden: Graveyard of Rights, August
23rd, 1999, the human rights situation in the region has deteriorated
dramatically.
While drought and war are primary causes of human sufferings,
the Ethiopian government's poor human rights record has exacerbated
the situation.
In 2000, the Ogaden has been hit by a severe drought, which
caused a mass starvation and breakout of epidemics related to
malnutrition and bad sanitation. In the worst drought-stricken
areas, thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of animals
starved to death.
The 1998-2000 Ethio-Eritrean war, which claimed 100.000 lives
is over but the sufferings of thousands of young Somalis from
the Ogaden, who were forced into military conscription to fight
beside Ethiopian forces, is far from over. Many of them are
missing in action, while many others maimed in the war and then
discharged from the army without compensation or disability
benefits.
This Report is based on strenuous field research carried out
by Ogaden Human Rights Committee's researchers throughout the
Ogaden.
The report documents human rights violations in the Ogaden,
including illegal imprisonment without charges or trial, enforced
disappearances, torture, extrajudicial executions, abduction,
forced labour, hostage-taking, abusive dismissals, ethnic discrimination
and religious persecution carried out by the Ethiopian government.
The OHRC has documented so far: 1835 extra judicial killings;
2643 disappearance cases; 1566 rape and child molestation cases;
12362 cases of unlawful private property confiscation; and demolition
of 8485 houses owned by innocent civilians. These violations
took place between the years 1992 and 2003.
Victims of human rights abuses and their relatives have been
warned not to speak of their experiences to anyone, especially
to International Humanitarian Organisations, which operate in
some parts of the region, or else they would be severely punished.
So, the victims and their relatives are too afraid to tell their
ordeal.
However, many victims and their families gave their testimonies
on condition that their real names should not be used, while
others who are not in danger accepted their real names to be
used. Their graphic accounts of misery, fear and brutalities
are included in this report.
The first part of the report gives a historical background overview
of how the Ogaden region was annexed and became a part of the
empire-state of Ethiopia, with a chronological presentation
of key dates in the region's history. The second part provides
a detailed documentation of the specific human rights violations
that the civilians in the Ogaden are subjected to on a daily
basis.
The report also touches on the issue of HIV/AIDS, which is increasingly
becoming an insidious scourge in the Ogaden, transmitted mainly
through the mass rapes of women in the region by the Ethiopian
security forces.
Elections, political instability and lack of democracy as well
as linguistic discrimination and cultural suppression are also
included in the report. Clan and ethnic conflicts, and the role
of the Ethiopian government in manipulating them to serve its
political agenda in the conflict areas are also underlined and
testimonies of concerned community elders were incorporated.
The last section of the report deals with the question of recurrent
drought, famines and other human rights violations of economic
nature as well as local humanitarian organizations, which were
banned by the Ethiopian government, in 2002.
Finally, the report presents annexes of a detailed listing of
the victims of human rights violations, which the Ogaden Human
Rights Committee have been able to compile, along with the dates
and names of the places where the violations took place.
Ogaden Human Rights Committee (OHRC)
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