By Derek Kilner, VOA
An Ethiopian rebel group has accused the government of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region of detaining Ethiopians and handing them over to Ethiopian Woyanne security forces. The Ethiopian government Woyanne denies the accusation that follows similar reports of increased security cooperation between Ethiopia Woyanne and Puntland. Derek Kilner reports for VOA’s East Africa bureau in Nairobi.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front, which is waging an insurgency in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia that borders Puntland, said Puntland officials detained several Ethiopians from Ogaden on May 1, handing at least five over to Ethiopian Woyanne officials.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front says the incident was part of a broader security agreement between Puntland and Ethiopia Woyanne to send Ethiopians suspected of involvement with the rebels into Ethiopia Woyanne custody.
The May 1 incident follows a trip by Puntland’s president Adde Muse to Ethiopia Woyanne last month and has been reported in the Somali media in recent days. But Bereket Simon, [propaganda] advisor to Ethiopian Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi, denies the existence of an agreement with Puntland.
“Basically, we cooperate with regional governments in many respects,” Simon said. “Of course, fighting terrorism is a common agenda for all of us because terrorism is a menace in this part of the world. But we have no deals that infringe on the rights of citizens. So basically, it is a wild accusation.”
Last month, the Ogaden National Liberation Front said two of its members were arrested by Puntland authorities and delivered to Ethiopian Woyanne officials. The rebels say such actions violate international law, because the detainees face a substantial risk of torture or execution by the Ethiopian government Woyanne.
Puntland officials have denied those claims. VOA was unable to reach Puntland officials for comment on the rebel’s recent accusations.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front has been operating for more than two decades in Ethiopia’s Ogaden, an ethnically Somali region that has been contested in the past by the governments of Ethiopia and Somalia.
Many Ethiopians displaced by the conflict have fled across the border to Puntland, and Ethiopia Woyanne says members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front have organized operations from Puntland.
Puntland has warm relations with Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, whose president, Abdullahi Yusuf, is a former president of Puntland and has supported Yusuf’s cooperation with the Ethiopian government Woyanne. But Puntland has generally avoided the conflict that has wracked southern Somalia, and the extradition of Ethiopian citizens is seen as a new development.
Ethiopian Woyanne troops have occupied Somalia since December 2006, when they backed Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government in wresting control of the capital Mogadishu from the Islamic Courts Union. But since then, a variety of Islamist and clan-based groups have been waging a growing insurgency against the Ethiopian Woyanne presence.
9 thoughts on “Puntland returns Ethiopians to face torture”
Again Job well done Puntaland, we can’t have this crimnals roam around in somolia freely. Next is Elias kifele, I would have to grab him by his ear, and hand him over to Ethiopian Authority.
Every ethiopian today is terorist except tplf’s foolishnes… I would like to ask mr GONDERE and the likes if they are naturaly blind or they were paid to be blind?
TO Gondere
YOUR Woyanne nazi criminals are a kill machine.they crossed to the next country to satisfy their killing crave.but your brothers Woyanne (scume of the of the earth),you think are inocent.the day will come when peace loving ppl will eradicate your type of parasite.
Gondere: if you knew what is happening to Gonder city, you would not have said what you have said.
Gondere, you are stupid
Woyanne cadre Gondere are you from new tegray, confiscated land from Gonder, now you are surrounded enemy count your days to go to hell. You are not Gondere and don’t use it use your own kimalam name tigre.
Religion, culture, language, geography, and race are no more unifying factors than money and power.
The people of Ogaden, Puntland and Somalia are related to each other by geography, culture, religion, and language. At their current situations, the people of Puntland are luckier than the people of Ogaden and Somalia because they are semi-independent while the people of Ogaden and Somalia are the oppressed and subjugated slaves of the Woyanne regime with no voices of their own.
Language, religion, and geography have been the main unifying factors of a divided nation in some parts of the world; however, in Somalia, Ogaden, and Puntland, language, religion, and geography have been dividing factors rather than unifying ones.
The visit of Puntland’s President Adde Muse to Ethiopia has changed the relationships between Ogaden, Puntland, and Somalia when he signed a secret agreement with Dictator Meles Seitanawi to hand over any Ogadens persons found living in Puntland to the Meles death squads. This shows the Muslim religion is weak in unifying its people for a common cause to liberate Somalia and the Ogaden people from the oppressive Woyanne regime.
How come Puntland, a Muslim region, hands over some Muslim Ogadens living with their Muslim Puntland’s brothers and sisters to a Christian Dictator Meles Seitanawi for a simple reason that they are Ethiopian Muslims living in their region, Ogaden? Here we see the same patterns between Christianity and Islam: when the Muslim Sudanese burned down the Gondar farmers’ villages, the Christian army of Meles Seitanawi handed the villagers to the Sudanese government. In both cases, we can infer that neither religion, geography, nor language is a unifying factor as it used to be in the old days; however, now in our times, money and power are the best unifying factors rather than religion, language, geography, culture, and race.
When President Adde Muse made an agreement with that powerful dictator Meles Seitanawi to hand over any Ethiopian Muslims found in Puntland to the Ethiopian authorities, his Muslim religion, his Arabic language, his culture, the geography or the location of Puntland did not play a measure part to be sympathetic to his Muslim Ethiopian brothers and sisters and did not prevent him from handing over those poor Ethiopian Muslims found in Puntland to the Meles Political gangs.
To betray his Muslim brothers and sisters, we do not know how much money President Adde Muse has accepted from that wealthy Dictator Meles Seitanawi, or Meles might have promised him that he would be the next President of Somali if he continues to cooperate with Meles by handing over those Ethiopian Muslims to Meles Seitanawi.
Next time, who knows, the President of Puntland may sell Puntland itself to the Woyanne regime as Meles has sold some of the Gondar lands to the Sudanese government. Nevertheless, when the Woyanne army gets out of Somalia, the love affair between President Adde Muse of Puntland and the Dictator Meles Seitanawi will come to an end; by then the people of Somalia and the people of Ogaden may have obtained their independence from the Woyanne regime, and the Meles’ government may have come to an end. Then we people in the diaspora will return home to serve our country and share that memorable day with the rest of the Ethiopian people. During that day, the ER commentators will reveal their real identities – their true names – to us their friends without fear of being persecuted or humiliated, and I cannot wait for that glorious day to come. Will it happen? I hope it will.
As we former diaspora people are returning home in a hurry, in a hurry the Meles people will go abroad to replace us – to become the second diaspora people, but we will never let them escape without facing justice for all the crimes they have committed for almost 20 years.
AssaB,the prolem is not they are muslim or not ,they speke the same languages with different colonial history,the ogaden and the puntland nown as MANGERTENS the ethnic group of the Meles dog Abdulahi Yusuf,and more they are both Darods,you have to andertand in the same family you can have one reactionary,and one rivo.To give anather example you can read the article of Gonderew in the start,Wayane ere killing Gonder people,and one so called ere supporting the dictators who sold the land of gonder just to have support from another killer of sudan.All for dirty many and power.
Dear Arbagugu,
You are right “…in the same family you can have one reactionary and one rivo.” There is also an Amharic saying: “yenat hod zingurgur naw.” A mother doesn’t always give birth to children that have the same character, the same color, the same height, and the same intelligence. The same thing can be true with the people of Puntland, Ogaden, and Somalia. They may have the same religion, culture, language, but their thinking goes where the money or the power is. If we are on this earth just for money and power only, then we are the most pitiful creatures in the whole universe!