Puntland transfers Somali civilians over to Ethiopian milita

[Hiiraan boy]

GAROWE, Somalia Apr 23 (Garowe Online) - Authorities in the semiautonomous Puntland State of Somalia have secretly transferred Somali citizens over to the Ethiopian military in recent months, Garowe Online has learned.

Well-placed sources in the regional capital, Garowe, said that at least 10 men from the Puntland cities of Garowe and Galkayo were handed over to Ethiopian military officers in the Somali Regional State.

The detainees are all being held and questioned at a prison in Wardheer, a town in the Somali-speaking region of eastern Ethiopia.

The inside sources confirmed to Garowe Online that two religious men are among the detainees.

The Puntland administration has close ties to Addis Ababa but this is the first time that the self-governing region secretly detained and transferred Somali civilians over to Ethiopian authorities.

There was no reason given for the transfer but our sources believe that the individuals in question were detained and handed over to Ethiopia on suspicion of having links with the ousted Islamic Courts movement or with Ethiopian rebel groups.

Rights groups have repeatedly condemned the Ethiopian government’s poor human rights record, especially after reports of mass detentions in Ethiopian jails surfaced earlier this month. [ Full story]

Puntland was created in 1998 as part of federal Somalia. The region’s first leader, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, is the current president of the Somali transitional federal government.

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

I am sure these guys were innocent and had nothing to do with AIAI or the ICU.