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Human
Rights Violations In the Ogaden by Ethiopia 1991 To 1996
The
abuse of the Human Rights of the Ogaden people by Ethiopia was
started by Menilik during the19th century and is well recorded.
The Ethiopians have always used forceful measures in order to
pacify the Ogadenis. In those pacification measures no consideration
was given to the elderly, children or women. The following extracts
give a vivid account of the methods used by Ethiopia in her
efforts to subjugate the Ogaden people:
Harar immediately
became the springboard of further expansion into Somali territory,
and a raid by the Abyssinians on 15th December 1887 was reported
by colonel E. V. Stace, British Consul for the Somali Coast,
in a letter addressed to British Agent and Consul General in
Cairo, dated 4 January 1888:
'Mekonen,
Dejajmaj or governor of the Province of Harar, lately made a
raid on the Somali to the east of Harar, advanced as far as
Darimi and captured a large number of women and children and
animals (Fitzgibbon, 1982:22).
In her
book, The Government of Ethiopia Mary Perham stated:
'ln 1889
an Ethiopian expedition penetrated far to the south of Harar
and stripped the country bare of stock and horses. ' Returning
from a reconnaissance trip in 1891, the Swayne brothers reported
that the Somalis had been raided on a number of occasions and
that 'great anxiety is felt'....(Fitzgibbon, 1982:23).
In a memorandum
prepared for the British Foreign Office by Mr. P. Bertie in
1893, it stated:
The Abyssinians
of Harar are constantly raiding the Ogaden country and the Somalis
under our protection. Colonel Stace has several times written
to Ras Mekonnen on the subject; and Captain Swayne who, in the
course of his shooting expedition, went to Harar on a visit
to Mekonnen, was told to present unofficially to the Ras the
injury inflicted on British interests by Abyssinian aggressions
on Somali territory; but our later information shows that they
are encroaching more and more into territories occupied by the
Somalis under our protection and oppressing the people (Fitzgibbon,
1982:23).
Donaldson
Smith, an American, who visited a village called Sesabane, south
of Milmil in l894, and who addressed the Royal Geographical
Society on 6 January 1896, said:
You may
imagine my chagrin when I heard, a few days afterwards, that
they had just been raided by the Abyssinians under Mekonnen.
Their animals have all been driven off, the boys and girls taken
as slaves, and the elder people killed or mutilated (Fitzgibbon,
1982:23).
Dr. Smith
also reported that the Gallas (Oromos) were subjected to the
same inhuman treatment as the Somalis, and he indignantly exclaimed:
We earnestly
wish they (the Abyssinians) as savages bearing arms against
other poor defenceless Africans should have such a drubbing
that they could not forget it and try to extend their sway further.
Let these good people who take an interest in uncivilized nations
cast a thought on black neighbours of the Abyssinians who are
in the worst plight (Fitzgibbon, 1982:23).
Sir Albert
Pease, after a visit in 1897 said:
We (British)
have prevented them (Somalis) from acquiring arms and ammunition
and having deprived them of all means of self-defence have left
them at the mercy of raiding Abyssinians who have no other employment
than that of making raids on Gallas and Somalis (Fitzggibon,
1982: 24).
During
the Haille Sellasse period similar patterns of reprisals and
pacification acts of violence against peaceful civilians were
committed. For example in September 1948 in Jigjiga and else
where uprisings were ruthlessly put down, the Ethiopian police
shooting 25 persons in Jigjiga alone (Fitzggibon: 42). In 1961
the Ethiopian Imperial army bombarded the towns of Aisha', Dhagahbur
and Qalafo, killing hundreds of civilians. In 1963 at the village
of Tuuk kalkal:
Hunting
underground resistance leaders, government forces invaded the
village. In addition to their customary killing and looting,
the Ethiopian soldiers singled out two of their victims, cut
their heads off, and paraded them in their hometown (Qabridaharre)
to intimidate and terrorize the population. Abdi Barqab and
Ibrahim Amey.... (Keynan, 1990: 9).
During
the Mengistu Period the abuse of Human Rights intensified. Mengistu
importing arms and ideology from the Soviet Union implemented
the Stalinist doctrine to deal with the Ogaden Nationalism.
Mengistu was advised to uproot the Ogadenians from their territory
and culture they identified with, with a view to settling them
elsewhere in small groups or decimating them altogether, under
the guise of the evil scheme of "resettlement of drought-stricken
victims". There is evidence that the Ethiopian army adopted
the monstrous Stalinist policy towards the Ogaden (ACR, 1982:A5).
These policies coupled with the reprisals and bombardments by
Ethiopia forcefully drove one million Ogadenis from their homeland
to become refugees in the neighbouring countries. Those left
behind were tormented, humiliated and starved by oppressive
policies and problems of famine (Keynan, 1990:9-10).
3. HUMAN
RIGHTS ABUSES BY CURRENT REGIME
In 1991
the Mengistu regime was toppled and the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary
Democratic Party (EPRDF), headed by Meles Zenawi took power.
The new regime presented a charter that widely recognized Human
Rights Principles, including the Right of Self-determination
of all Nations under Ethiopia's rule. In 1995 a constitution
was also presented with the above principles.
The people
in Ogadenia who were for a long time under martial law and totally
marginalized in all aspects in Ethiopia, starting organizing
publicly and participating in the political process. Members
of the Liberation Fronts formerly clandestine and their supporters
became public. At the end of the transitional period, the political
organizations, the elected members of Parliament, the elders
and the people started expressing their views about the future
of Ogadenia. Their views were not consistent with that held
by the ruling party in Ethiopia (see BBC dispatches of February
l994 and April about the - Harar meeting Ogadenia Elders and
the then President Meles Zenawi, the Third Session of the Ogadenian
Parliament in Jigjiga, and the Godey meeting between The Elders
and Zenawi). Starting from that period, the Human Rights situation
in the Ogaden deteriorated.
Despite
all the above legislations consistent with the Universal Human
Rights principles and International Law, the plight of the Ogadenian
people has not changed. The Ogaden Human Rights Committee (OHRC)
has conducted extensive investigation of the Human Rights situation
in the Ogaden and has found gross violations by the current
regime ruling Ethiopia. Some cases are presented below and a
list of the cases currently confirmed by the committee is attached.
If you wish full and detailed report, please contact:
Ogaden Human Rights Committee (OHRC)
P.O.Box 649
7400 AP Deventer
The Netherlands
Or
Ogaden Human Rights Committee (OHRC)
2660 Southvale Crs
Unit 338
Ottawa, ON
K1B 4W5
Canada
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