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US African Policy Making to Focus on Ogaden

By: Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
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[ Posted On: 2007-08-20 ]

As the interminable war in Somalia entered its worst stage, the Abyssinian regime supported by the Clinton administration in the 90s proved to be the most comprehensive US failure throughout Africa, becoming the thorniest regional security problem in the Horn of Africa area. The failure is urgently and dramatically perceived in Washington to where converge the numerous messages about the rise of the Islamists in Southern Somalia, when tyrant Zenawi’s uncivilized, criminal Tigray Abyssinian thugs spread terror among civilians in Ogaden.

At this very moment, a delegation of the Kinijit Amhara tribal party arrives in Washington; they want to convince that the Tigray dictator Meles Zenawi provoked the imminent disintegration of Abyssinia, that they fallaciously call ‘Ethiopia’, and that they can rule better in his stead; ultimately, they pretend they can save East Africa’s most obsolete and dysfunctional entity! Yet, their ‘Ethiopia’ is one the world’s most prominently Failed States.

What is the Kinijit people background? What are their credentials?

They hired some policy advisers, Marketing specialists, PR spin doctors; they launched a multitude of websites. Almost every Amhara in America has offered his/her name to be held as responsible for a Kinijit website! What for?

In their websites and leaflets, they published a wonderful bunch of texts compiled by political analysts who did their best to supposedly show that the Amharas changed, the Kinijit people represent the Amharas, and the Amharas can guarantee the purpose of Democracy in the Horn of Africa region.

But the intelligent scribes, who were paid to write these brilliant texts, had no idea about Africa – let alone ‘Ethiopia’. That is why they wrote texts that can be uttered by many trustworthy Democrats, Liberals or Conservatives in …. Denmark! These texts could certainly become the contents of a brochure published by the Foreign Ministry of Sweden, Slovenia or Portugal, namely mono-ethnic democratic countries where the quasi-totality of the population consists in a single ethnic group.

But these texts are the worst possible horror for a multi-ethnic country like the Abyssinian tyranny where the Amharas account for less than 20% of the entire population. And the Kinijit guys do not even name the major ethnic groups of the country they aspire to rule!

Where did they learn this “Democracy" of theirs"? Did they study it in the years of Mengistu Haile Mariam’s communist rule or at the times of the Haile Selassie tribal – royal, feudal and anachronistic tyranny?

The visiting Kinijit Amharas are not to be invited anywhere; perhaps a crash course of Political Science at Harvard would help. Until they graduate, US most urgent interlocutor is the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the Ogaden Human Rights Committee (OHRC).

The former proved to be a force of tolerance and reason; although they see their people massacred at the hands of murderous Meles Zenawi’s thugs, they did not contact, and they did not cooperate with the Somali Islamists who could easily provide them with thousands of guns that would help terminate the Tigray occupation of Ogaden.

The latter published an analytical Report on Human Rights Violations in Ogaden that every US diplomat, administrator and statesman should carefully read and react accordingly.

We republish here integrally from the Report’s Main Part the chapter on Torture and Ill-Treatment as practiced throughout Ogaden.

Ogaden is the Top Priority for US Africa policy making; the polished but fake Amharas, and every other pseudo-democratic ‘angel’, can wait for a while.

Torture and Ill-Treatment

Torture Methods

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

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

- Gang raping of women and child molestation

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

- Knocking detainee’s head into detention walls

- Victims are burned with cigarettes

- Deprivation of sleep and food

- Death threats, with charged guns pointed at the head

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

- Forcing detainees to drink urine or salty water

- Suspending from the roof upside down

- Denial of sanitary visits

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

Article 2 of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment states that: "Each State party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture."

Common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 prohibits torture during internal armed conflict. States are also required to bring those responsible for torture to justice and to give redress and compensation to those who have been tortured.

Article 18(1) of the Ethiopian Constitution states that: “No person shall be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

However, in the Ogaden, there is neither arrest nor interrogation without torture.

Usually, Ethiopian armed and security forces systematically torture suspected ONLF members to extract confessions or information about ONLF. A number of people were tortured to death. The OHRC has examined a large number of torture survivors; some of them were disabled, while others bore scars of torture on their bodies.

The following testimonies were collected from victims of torture, who gave their testimonies on condition of anonymity. The real names of the victims have been withheld in order to protect them and their families from reprisals.

Warfa, Pastoralist, "2003, I was arrested by members of Ethiopian armed forces. They took me to a military barracks in Qabridaharre. They accused me of sympathising with the ONLF. I was in detention for 10 months without trial."

"During my detention, I was tortured severely by military interrogators. My hands and legs were tied tightly with a rope and was beaten indiscriminately, as a consequence of which I have sustained severe damages and injuries. You can see scars of torture on all my body."

Wa’ays, Trader, "I was arrested in July 2004 and detained at Jigjiga Police Station, and then was transferred to Garabcase military barracks. They arrested me because they accused me of being a supporter for what they called anti peace elements. I was held incommunicado for three months. I told them that I have nothing to do with the anti peace elements and I am not guilty of any crime whatsoever. "

"I was subjected to extensive torture in the form of indiscriminate beatings with heavy sticks, iron bars, and threats of shooting me to death. They told me that I would not be released until I confessed or gave the information they wanted."

"My health deteriorated and I was suffering from external and internal injuries. No medical treatment was given to me. You can see scars covering all my body. I was released after six months of detention without trial. As you know there is no release without paying extortion money. I was released on bail and had to report to police every week. I am not still a free man."

In Qabridaharre, on April 18th 2007, Ethiopian Armed forces extensively tortured Guled Mohamoud.

On April 14th 2007, in Sagag, Ethiopian armed forces crippled Fadumo Deq by torture.

On September 09th 2007, in Jigjiga, Ethiopian security forces arrested and detained in notorious Habaana (Havana) prison Samsam Farah, an expecting mother. She has been accused of sympathizing with the ONLF. According to her family members she has been constantly interrogated under torture. On February 25th 2007, she gave birth in her detention cell without medical care.

In Madax-Maroodi, on June 10th 2006, Ms. Hinda Awil Kenadid was detained for suspected sympathy for ONLF. She was extensively tortured and is suffering the effects of the torture.

Ms. Sawda Moalin Haybe was detained by Ethiopian armed forces, on April 13th 2006, in Iimey-Bari. She was accused of being member of Ogaden National Liberation Front. According to her family and other released detainees she was badly tortured. She did not get any medical treatment for her injuries. And she is in a poor state of health. One member of her family told Ogaden Human Rights Committee’s researcher, “She is being interrogated under torture on a daily basis. They want to extract information and make her to confess at any cost."

A number of women were detained in Dhagaxbuur, on March 06th 2006. They were accused of being members of Ogaden Women's Democratic Association (OWDA). Among them were: Halimo Mohamed Koshin, a 7-month pregnant mother. She has been tortured until she aborted. Ubah Addani with her newborn baby, Roda Budul and Nimo Abdisamad.

(See Mass Killings, Torture and Disappearances in the Ogaden ref: OHRC/08/96, Ogaden: No Rights, No Democracy ref: OHRC/08/97, Ogaden: An Endless Human Tragedy ref: OHRC/12/98, Ogaden: Graveyard of Rights ref: OHRC/10/99, Ogaden: Downtrodden and Disenfranchised People ref: OHRC/D15/04 and Mass Killings in the Ogaden: Daily Atrocities against Civilians by the Ethiopian Armed Forces ref:OHRC/AR/06).

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis - is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 49, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages.

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