Ethiopian Woyanne-backed Somali government forces have launched an offensive against insurgents after simultaneous attacks in the capital, Mogadishu.
At least six Ethiopian Woyanne bases in the city were targeted on Tuesday night by Islamists. Three civilians have died.
Correspondents say rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and machine guns were used in the attacks.
The attacks came after Ethiopia’s prime minister dictator said his forces are unable to withdraw from the conflict in Somalia.
Meles Zenawi said he had expected to withdraw his soldiers earlier in the year, once the Islamists had been driven out of Mogadishu.
But he said not enough peacekeepers had arrived and divisions within the Somali government had left it unable to replace the Ethiopians.
Their presence is unpopular in Mogadishu. Earlier this month, insurgents dragged the bodies of Ethiopian troops through the city.
Hunt
The BBC’s Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says Ethiopian Woyanne lorries and tanks can be seen patrolling the streets.
Those civilians that have not fled the city are remaining indoors, he says.
The attacks took place simultaneously at about 1930 local time on Tuesday night.
At least six Ethiopian Woyanne army bases came under fire:
* In the north of the city at two former factories and at Ex-Control intersection
* In the south of the city at the football stadium and an army camp
* In the central Bakara market district where there are bases along the main road.
About three civilian bodies have been found on Wednesday morning around one of former factories.
The dead civilians are said to have been on a bus that was caught in retaliatory fire from Ethiopian troops.
Mogadishu city council spokesman Mohamed Muhyadin has told the BBC there was another attack at midnight.
Militias in Somali army uniforms attacked a building housing government soldiers near Mogadishu International Airport.
One soldier was killed in the attack, he said. The number of Ethiopian Woyanne casualities are not known.
Correspondents say troops have been sent to the area near the airport to hunt down the insurgents.
‘Encouraged’
The UN refugee agency says 60% of Mogadishu residents have left their homes, including 200,000 this month, following the latest clashes between insurgents and the Ethiopian-backed government.
Our correspondent says the insurgents say they have been encouraged by the admission by Mr Meles that his forces were becoming bogged down in Somalia.
On an Islamist website, the insurgents said they were winning the struggle, and called for further attacks on the Ethiopian Woyanne forces.
Only 1,600 Ugandan peacekeepers have arrived, from a planned 8,000-strong African Union force.
Somalia has not had a functioning national government since President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
KEBRIDEHAR, Ethiopia: Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers have abused civilians, committing arson and rape, in a southeastern area where they are fighting rebels, but there have been some improvements in aid delivery, residents said.
Ethiopia’s prime minister dictator, however, denies there is a humanitarian crisis in the Ogaden and his government has denied its soldiers have committed abuses. A top United Nations relief official who visited the region Tuesday said much more remains to be done.
A thin, pensive 30-year-old man, who asked not to be identified out of fear, told The Associated Press about two incidents on Friday in which the army burned two villages, Lebiga and Korelitsa, to the ground, killing one man.
The army, the man said, was killing his neighbors “like goats.”
Officials in the area said they had heard similar reports. They also asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The man also described rapes — some of them gang rapes — and public hangings in the region and said that villagers had been told not to speak to international observers. Officials in the area also said villagers had been told not to speak to outsiders, and that also was mentioned in a September report by a U.N. fact-finding mission.
Another man, 26, who also asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, accused the government of withholding food in order to punish fighters and supporters of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a separatist movement that in April attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration field in the region, killing 74 people. In May, the Ethiopian military began counterinsurgency operations, which has stymied trade and some food aid.
On Tuesday, the region appeared calm. Government soldiers dotted the flat, arid landscape and towns of Jijiga and Kebridehar, though there was no evidence of any significant military operations. Women — some wearing scarves of hot pink — fluttered through the streets. Men in Jijiga walked along the main promenade.
But when questioned, residents were reticent. One man in Kebridehar said he believed the streets were full of military intelligence officers.
In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi dismissed a question in parliament about a pending crisis in the Ogaden.
“Whatever some international media and some organizations said about the Ogaden, it’s absolutely a lie that there’s a humanitarian crisis in the Ogaden,” Meles told parliament on Tuesday. “Some people from the U.N. actually wanted to see for themselves what was going on in the Ogaden and I told them to go see from themselves what was actually there.”
John Holmes, the U.N.’s humanitarian chief, on Wednesday described the humanitarian situation in the Ogaden as “potentially serious.”
“I didn’t get the impression that we are in a catastrophic situation now,” Holmes told journalists, adding, however, “there’s an awful lot of challenges still to address.”
Those challenges included opening up transport and trade, expanding food distribution and addressing human rights concerns, he said.
Holmes said he discussed these issues Wednesday with top Ethiopian Woyanne officials, including Meles.
About human rights, he said Meles, “responded seriously. He takes the issue seriously.”
Holmes said he heard many secondhand reports of human rights abuses and said that “they come from numerous and sufficiently varied sources to be taken seriously.” He did not give details.
In recent months, Ethiopia Woyanne has expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Dutch branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres from Ogaden. But in recent weeks the government has allowed 19 non-governmental organizations to return to work in the Ogaden.
The U.N. fact-finding mission said in September that the situation in the Ogaden had deteriorated rapidly and called for an independent investigation into the humanitarian issues there.
The mission also said that recent fighting in the region had led to a worsening humanitarian situation and a doubling of the price of food. It also called for a substantial increase in emergency food aid to the impoverished region where rebels have been fighting for increased autonomy for more than a decade.
Simon Mechale, director of the Ethiopian government’s Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Agency, said on Tuesday that his talks with people in the region provided a more optimistic picture.
“From what I have seen so far, I did not see any amazing or disturbing thing,” he said.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front is fighting to overthrow the government for what it says are human rights abuses and to establish greater autonomy in the region being heavily explored for oil and gas. The government accuses the rebels of being terrorists funded by its archenemy Eritrea.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said on Wednesday there was international anxiety at a possible humanitarian crisis and accusations of rights abuses in Ethiopia’s Ogaden region.
Holmes went to the remote eastern region on Tuesday, the most high profile visit since Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels killed 74 people in an attack on an oil exploration field in April, provoking a government offensive.
Both sides say they have killed hundreds of the others’ fighters since then, and aid agencies say people in the region are suffering severe food and medical needs.
“There is the possibility of a very serious humanitarian crisis in the region as a consequence of the security situation,” Holmes said in carefully chosen words on a highly sensitive subject for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government.
“What I was trying to do was symbolise by my visit the extent of international concern about the situation there and the depths of our concern to avert a serious humanitarian crisis there in the future.”
The Ogaden crisis has been largely overshadowed by other hot-spots in the region, including neighbouring Somalia and Sudan’s Darfur region.
Holmes reiterated calls for investigations into accusations of rights abuses. The ONLF says troops have been terrorising the people, while the government says it is the rebels, whom it calls terrorists backed by arch-enemy Eritrea, who are guilty.
“They are clearly serious allegations and they are coming from not just one source,” Holmes told a news conference.
“They need to be looked at carefully, they need to be taken seriously and, if possible, they need to be investigated openly and independently.”
Holmes said he had recommend such an investigation during meetings with officials including Meles.
“I did bring it up with the prime minister, he takes the issues seriously. He also recognises the damage that can be done with a counter-insurgency campaign,” he said.
“He said he would continue to take it seriously and make sure that didn’t happen as far as he could.”
Age: 19
Occupation: Representing her country
Height: 180
Mihret grew up in Teferikela, a small town in the southern region of Ethiopia.
She has just completed high school and will enter university after fulfilling her role as Miss Ethiopia.
She enjoys: horse riding, cycling, running, reading, dancing the different traditional dances of Ethiopia and listening to modern local music.
Her favourite food is Kitfd (minced spicy beef). Her dream is to travel and become a supermodel. Mihret’s most interesting project was feeding a hyena from mouth to mouth.
Favourite motto is “Tomorrow is another day”, “today’s achievement is not an end, we need to continue to work tomorrow too”.
A Canadian citizen who has been detained in Ethiopia for the past 10 months without being charged is suing the government there and its officials for “violations of international law, assault, battery, false arrest and false imprisonment.”
The statement of claim, which was filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice late last week, names Workineh Gebeyehu, the head of the Ethiopian police, and Taadese Masaret, the head of the prison where Bashir Makhtal is being detained.
The suit claims that Ethiopia “is illegally holding” Makhtal and is “subjecting him to torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment.” According to the statement of claim, Makhtal has been held “incommunicado” for more than nine months, and he has not been charged with any offence. Nor has he been brought before a court of law.
His rights to legal counsel and adequate access to the consular protection of Canada have also been denied, the suit says.
“He has been denied his fundamental rights under international, Ethiopian and Canadian law,” according to the suit.
The suit adds Makhtal was also “subject to frequent interrogations during which he has been subjected to torture and cruel and inhumane treatment. He was also forced to videotape a false confession under the coercion of the Ethiopian authorities. The false confession was broadcast on the television in Ethiopia.”
The suit also alleges that Makhtal’s family, many of whom remain in Ethiopia, have been detained, arrested and subjected to torture and coercion to force them to implicate him.
None of the allegations in the lawsuit has been proven in a court of law.
Officials at the Ethiopian embassy were served yesterday afternoon with the lawsuit, but they were not available for comment.
Makhtal’s lawyer, Lorne Waldman, his cousin, Said Maktal, and Amnesty International held a news conference in Ottawa yesterday detailing the $1.5 million civil suit.
But it is not clear whether the Ontario Superior Court of Justice will hear the case because of the State Immunity Act, which shields sovereign states from liability here. Waldman, however, said he will try to convince the court that because Makhtal is a Canadian citizen and is still being psychologically tortured he should be able to hold Ethiopia accountable in a Canadian court of law.
Makhtal was rendered to Ethiopia in January after being detained for three weeks in Nairobi by Kenyan officials.
According to the lawsuit, Makhtal had been travelling in Somalia, selling used clothes, when the Ethiopian Army invaded that country. He has been held in the Central Investigation Detention Centre in Addis Ababa ever since.
It is believed Makhtal was of interest to the Ethiopian government because of his grandfather’s connection to the Ogaden separatist movement.
But there has been no evidence of Makhtal belonging to that or any of the warring factions in Ethiopia, his family says.
Ethiopia under the incompetent, repressive regime of Woyanne ranks 105th among 108 countries in human development, according to a recent report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Read the full report here.
