Tales of Horror from Ogaden...........

[adanboy]

By Lucie Peytermann
Friday, September 07, 2007

Tales of rape and murder from Ogaden refugees fleeing across Somalia offer a glimpse of the violence wracking the hermetic rebel Ethiopian region.

Fardosa’s eyes seem to have frozen wide open since her ordeal.

"A group of Ethiopians came to my house in early August and four soldiers took me into my bedroom and assaulted me," says the thin young woman, cradling a nine-month-old baby.

For a dollar a day, she rents a small hut in Tula Absame, a refugee camp in the northern Somali port of Bosasso where an increasing number of people fleeing unrest in Ethiopia’s Somali-ethnic Ogaden region are flocking.

The dire living conditions in Tula Absame and the scorching heat are no deterrent for the hundreds of Ogaden refugees preparing for the perilous boat journey across the Gulf of Aden to seek a better life in\ Yemen or elsewhere.

Ethiopian forces have launched a major crackdown in the vast Ogaden region.

Their main target is the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a rebel group formed two decades ago to seek independence in response to what it says has been systematic marginalisation from Addis Ababa.

But ONLF claims and reports by humanitarian organisations have raised fears that widespread collective punishment and reprisals against civilians are under way in Ogaden, a region under tight Ethiopian army lockdown.

"Two of my brothers who were ONLF members were hanged from a tree," says Fardosa. "It’s worse than hell what is happening in Ethiopia." Osman Hassan Ahmed, a 27-year-old from the eastern Ogaden town of Werder arrived in Bosaso on September 1.

"My tea shop was closed (by the army) in February and I was accused of funding the ONLF... In early July I was arrested with two friends and managed to escape thanks to relatives in the army... but my two friends were hanged."

"What is happening...is a form of genocide, it’s a systematic destruction of crops and livestock. There is a total closure of economic development in Ogaden," Osman explains.

The haggard-looking young man knows that more suffering awaits during the gruelling crossing to Yemen on boats where smugglers have been known to starve and beat their passengers for days.

"I’m planning to travel to Yemen. The deadly voyage is just about luck, I’ve seen my two friends hanged and thought I’d be the next. I’ve escaped the angel of death quite a few times and I hope to escape again," he says.

The slew of Ogaden refugees washed up in Bosasso express dismay at the world’s indifference to their plight and their region.

"Darfur gets all the world attention but Ogaden is the same...It’s unfortunate and sad that the world has turned a blind eye on what is happening there," says Abdi Ahmed Abdillah.

The 31-year-old farmer says he fled the village of Koos in July with his wife and three children. He had to leave two other children behind.

"In my lifetime, I’ve never seen such massive displacement of civilians by the Ethiopian government, it’s new," he says.

Ethiopian forces launched their sweep of Ogaden following an April ONLF attack on a Chinese oil venture that left 77 people dead, including several Chinese workers.

The refugees charge that Addis Ababa is targeting civilians and their livelihood in a bid to undermine support for the ONLF.

"I was a livestock farmer, I had cows but the government took all of them, accusing me of being affiliated to ONLF," says Abdillah, who denies any rebel affiliation.

"I felt threatened...I heard about relatives who were mutilated...One of my aunts was gang-raped and hanged from a tree by Ethiopian forces," he says.

He explains that violence in the Ogaden for years was confined to skirmishes between the rebels and government forces. "The past year, it has became worse...Now, the source of livelihood of civilians is being targeted."

Jama Ali Aden has a similar story.

He left his home in Werder district in early August after Ethiopian troops raided neighbouring villages.

"I witnessed the army burning the village of Arawelo," says Aden, who fled to Puntland with his camels, which he sold to pay for the crossing.

"Over the past six months, we’ve experienced a new tactic of indiscriminate punishment from the government to take revenge on the ONLF," he says.

Hawa, a 43-year-old woman from Gabo-Gabo in eastern Ogaden, says anybody could fall victim to the Ethiopian crackdown.

"All the males were rounded up and detained, we could hear their screams being tortured. I was so traumatised I decided to flee," she says.

Hawa says that the risks of the crossing are dwarfed by those of simply staying in her home region.

"I’m much happier in my hut here. There’s no sense of security and peace in Ethiopia...You are never sure when the soldiers will come."

Humanitarian organisations have recently complained that Ethiopian troops and authorities have prevented them from pursuing their activities in Ogaden, raising fears that a major crisis was looming in the region.

A United Nations (UN) fact-finding mission is currently in Ethiopia in a bid to determine the impact of the violence on the civilian population.

Source: AFP, Sept 07, 2007

[*jr]

adanboy,

sxb since you are an export on how to defeat the enemy, why don't you go to Ugandenia and help your folk?

I'm calling you an expert because you said so yourself:

You wrote: "its easy to chase traitors..they dont put up much fight..
here how it goes..2 member of Muqaawama are sent to moqdishu neighbourhood,they take the local youngsters with them promising them the captured guns...around 20-30 tfg "soldiers" with 3-4 technicals are usually stationed there...it takes only less than 10 fighters to knock them off..most of them give up or surrender quickly..they dont get killed ,but they are told if they arecaptured again they are done...thats how it goes everytime."

[AbdiWahab252]

*jr,

His airfare, $1,800 and travel expenses, $500 = $2300 can help out in the fight.

[adanboy]

Abdi u are right,.its many ways to fight and to help your people in need this jr* dummys IQ must be alarming low

[Ina Baxar]

Again that's one of the other reasons I support having normal relations with Israel.
I am pissed off by the daily struggle of our palestinian brothers , but cutting communications channels with Israel would equate refusing ALSO to talk to Majeertenia .
Majeertenia of course having facilitated the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia disregarding the Ethiopian horrific human rights record when it comes to the struggle of our Ogadeen brothers

[adanboy]

Jr ,why do you think its wrong for the somali people to fight back and to resist oppression and atrocity against them?

[adanboy]

Now forget about the terrorism fairytale,only used to legitimate violence against poor peacefull people by organised institutions and worldpowers..Here the reality on the ground in somalia..there is genocide taken place daily,there are massive rape ,there is atrocity commited against innocent somali people ,there are liveliyhood and basic human rights violated and taken away....the somali people are victims..WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO SAY WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND OURSELFS FROM THESE EVIL CRIMINALS???

[*jr]

adanboy,

Sxb I do support arm struggle against an occupation if, and only IF, it can achieve some type of success. But it's different when you use terror to kill your own people to achieve certain political goals, as is the case in Somalia. With regard to Ogadenia, I do sympathize with them, but the ONLF guerilla warfare tactics are harming their own people; local Ogaden nomads are harassed, driven out of their land, jailed and harshly interrogated, or even killed. Of course you need to grab the headlines from time to time in order to put your struggle in the world stage, however, at this stage, I can’t see a way the ONLF can defeat the Ethiopian army. It would be logic that if you don’t have the means to defeat the occupation you are in for a long haul. With very little guerilla force, and very little money coming from the diaspora, this struggle has no end in sight.

So what is the solution? I think there are other ways to fight an occupation when you don’t have the means to defeat it militarily. Maybe its time for some soul-searching from the ONLF leadership, because you just can’t continue on the same failed tactics.

[Somali2003]

The Ogaden need to realize that they need access to the ocean to sustain this war. They need to learn how to swim and build ships that can import weapons and mercanaries. The Biafara Secession was crashed mainly it was a landlocked island. Millions of Biafarians were killed by the Federal Nigeria, so if you Ogaadeen beasts want to stop the systematic genocide of your people, you must stop the war and wait Somalia to get back to its feet. I am tired of you ONLF pursuing unrealistic goals of independence and Clan State.