Negligence and Denial of Human Rights – the Case of the Afar Refugees in the Horn of Africa
The Afars, the people who inhabit parts of Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea, are the least known outside the Horn of Africa. The Afar Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) would like to bring to the World attention the concern of Afar refugees in the Horn of Africa.
The first known wave of the Afar refugees occurred during the colonial time. The French and the Italians waged war to establish colonial sphere of influence by occupying parts of the Afar region displacing thousands of local people to the hinterland. The clans attached to anti-colonial struggles were banned from entering into occupied colonial territory. Therewith, the displaced were denied access to markets and other socioeconomic privileges.
Afars have also been victims at post colonial era but mainly due to the emergence of new states with communistic and ethnocentric approaches, which in turn caused intra-state and inter-state armed conflicts. Major displacements of Afar communities took place in (1977-1978) due to Ethio-Somali war, the civil war in Djibouti (1991-1994), Ethio-Eritrean war (1998-2000). In addition to recurrent drought and outbreak of different epidemics, the Afar civilians were caught between the cross-fires of the states and many liberation fronts.
Despite immense human right abuses and sufferings related to aforementioned crisis no reports are obtainable and the attempt to alleviate the condition has been almost non-existent. Consequently, thousands of refugees are living more than twenty years in a gruelling circumstance in Yemen (mostly refugees from Eritrea and Ethiopia), in Ethiopia (mostly refugees from Djibouti and Eritrea) and Djibouti (refugees from Ethiopia and Eritrea). In the above mentioned countries the refugees lack access to basic legal protection, health care and education supports.
AFAR HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION calls up on UNHCR and other humanitarian organisation to revisit the case of neglected Afar refugees in the Horn of Africa!
We call up on Horn of African states to facilitate the returning process to those displaced!
Bethlehem Shiferaw’s path to becoming a vice-president at ONCAP private equity firm started at a UNICEF internship in Nairobi. While helping the organization aid children in southern Sudan, Shiferaw was disheartened to see successful programs suffer when funding dried up. “I realized very quickly that the real power and ability to influence lay with individuals who controlled the flow of capital,” she said. Today Shiferaw identifies, negotiates and manages millions of dollars worth of investments for ONCAP, a firm that invests in businesses across North America. She believes that private equity investment is the most effective way to achieve sustainable development in developing African nations like Ethiopia, where she has roots… Continue reading >>
In three different corners of the world – China, Egypt and Ethiopia – three Canadian citizens languish in prison. Each has very likely been tortured. Each is at very real risk of being tortured again. None faces any prospect of gaining their freedom soon. All seem to have been forgotten. Each deserves more from their government.
Huseyin Celil has been in prison in China since the end of June 2006. His wife and four children in Burlington have endured anxious fear for his safety ever since. Celil is an ethnic Uighur. In the far western reaches of China a decades-old campaign of brutal repression against the Uighur people has intensified in recent years. Torture, unjust imprisonment and other abuses abound. Celil thought he had escaped to safety. But he was surreptitiously arrested and sent back to China while visiting with his wife’s family in nearby Uzbekistan. He has known nothing but injustice ever since. Last year, after a blatantly unfair trial, he was sentenced to a life term in prison. He believes that the Uighur people’s rights should be respected. He has been convicted of being a “splitist”, a Chinese government euphemism for terrorist.
In Egypt it is Mohamed el-Attar. El-Attar was arrested in Egypt on Jan. 1, 2007. He was charged with being a spy for Israel and in April was sentenced to a 15-year prison term. In open court during his trial he professed his innocence and insisted he had only confessed after being tortured with electric shocks and forced to drink his urine. Notably, El-Attar is gay and he has converted to Christianity. Gay men and Christians are often on the receiving end of human rights abuse in Egypt. Recent media raises worrying concerns about his current health and state of mind.
Bashir Makhtal has been imprisoned in Ethiopia for a year, but his exact whereabouts and fate are unknown. He was arrested at the Kenya-Somalia border and then, while awaiting legal proceedings in Kenya was suddenly and secretly flown to Somalia and then on to Ethiopia where he has disappeared into prison. He has had no legal representation. It appears that he has been brought before a military court, but his family has been given no news of why that was or what the result has been. Prisoners held in secretive detention are particularly vulnerable to torture and abuse, be it in Ethiopia or anywhere. His crime? No one knows. He has been an outspoken supporter of his ethnic group, the beleaguered Ogaden people of Ethiopia. Like the Uighurs in China, the Ogaden people have suffered decades of relentless persecution in Ethiopia.
These cases are ugly reminders of very serious global human rights concerns, including torture, the rights of minorities, unfair trials, impunity, religious discrimination, and persecution on grounds of sexual orientation. Each starkly underscores that these far-off tragedies can and do play out very close to home.
We have been down this road many times in recent years. Several of the cases are well-known to Canadians such as Maher Arar and William Sampson, tortured in Syria and Saudi Arabia, and Zahra Kazemi, tortured to death in Iran. A judicial inquiry is currently looking into the torture of three other Canadians, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El-Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, in Syria and Egypt.
Of course it is beyond Canada’s power or ability to ensure that Canadians will be protected from abuses of this sort. There are simply still too many lawless corners of our world when it comes to human rights. That said, what faces these three men now is in large part a legacy of long-standing international failure to craft a global human rights order in which countries like China, Egypt and Ethiopia would face meaningful and concerted pressure from other states, including Canada, to adopt the long-needed reforms that would eradicate torture, combat discrimination and improve the quality of justice.
But even in that very imperfect world surely Canada must do anything and everything possible to protect Canadians who end up ensnared in situations of grave injustice. A key message that emerged from the public inquiry into Maher Arar’s case is that the government’s response to cases of Canadian citizens at risk of torture abroad has often been inadequate. Among other recommendations, Justice Dennis O’Connor, who headed that inquiry, urged that when torture is on the line, the Minister of Foreign Affairs should personally play a central role in guiding Canada’s response. He stressed that there must be as much transparency and political accountability as possible in such cases.
There was a period of intense government interest in Celil’s case, but that appears to have faded since his conviction. It is difficult to ascertain how active the government has been on behalf of Makhtal or El-Attar. The Egyptian lawyer who represented El-Attar at his trial worries that El-Attar has been abandoned by Canadian officials. Makhtal’s family in Canada has not been able to meet with any senior Canadian government officials.
While it came far too late, in Maher Arar’s case a prime ministerial envoy was eventually dispatched to Syria. Canada’s Foreign Minister took up his case with his Syrian counterpart and with the head of the Arab League. Those efforts undoubtedly helped secure Arar’s release.
It is time for serious and high-profile government action on these cases. There is very real reason to believe that these three men have all been tortured abroad. They must not be forgotten at home.
Alex Neve is secretary general of Amnesty International Canada. Chris MacLeod is a lawyer representing Huseyin Celil, and Lorne Waldman is a lawyer for Bashir Makhtal.
(UNDP) The situation in Borena zone (western Ethiopia) with regard to animal health, food security and water for human and animal consumption is deteriorating on a daily basis. The extended dry season follows insufficient rainfall during the hagaya rain (October-December) and conditions have been exacerbated by overstocking of livestock and encroachment of land by farms and bush trees. Coping mechanisms are stretched to breaking point and pastoralist communities, children, the elderly and people living with HIV/AIDS are particularly vulnerable to livelihood and health risks.
While conditions in Borena do not currently fall under classification of a full scale drought there is a risk that poor performance of the upcoming ganna rains will have a serious impact upon human health, animal welfare and livelihoods in the region. Prompt and coordinated intervention by government and humanitarian partners could limit the impact upon human life, health and livelihoods in the region. Priority needs are water for human and livestock consumption, animal feed provision to mother cows and calves and animal health services. Specific programmaticinterventions include; water tankering, water rationing, refilling reservoirs and cisterns serving communities and schools and de-worming. Emerging priority action areas include; contingency planning for the anticipated poorly performing ganna rains, assessment of health risks associated with extended dry season and support to address health related issues with particular focus on vulnerable groups and improved coordination and information sharing between federal, regional and zonal authorities, UN agencies and humanitarian partners.
Assessment missions by UN agencies and humanitarian partners have begun to document the early signs and direct consequences of the extended dry season for water availability, animal health and food security in the region. According to woreda officials in Arero, limited availability of water for animal consumption is contributing to poor health of livestock and reported cases of livestock diseases including; Anthrax, black leg, bloody diarrhea and FMD. The number of reported livestock death is increasing on a daily basis. The Sub-Regional office WFP has registered 4,660 livestock deaths since mid-February. Access to food supplies from local markets is becoming increasingly difficult due to increased prices. Recent reports from the zone indicate that the price of maize has trebled from 100 to 300 Birr per quintal.
Death and poor health conditions of livestock, dwindling water supplies and ongoing human disease outbreaks are having a negative impact upon health, nutrition and wellbeing in the region. Poor animal health is affecting child nutrition levels due to zero milk production in some woredas. Health officials from the Regional Health Bureau, UNICEF and WHO are responding to outbreak of measles in some woredas of Guji zone including Dimtu Hamballa, Qarca and Oddo Shakkiso and in Abaya, Bule Hora, Dugda Dawa and Gelana woredas in Borena zone. WHO have recorded an increased incidence of malaria compared to recorded cases last season in
Abaya, Bule Hora, Dugda Dawa and Gelena woredas. Government, UN agencies and humanitarian partners are preparing for disease outbreaks associated with extended dry season periods and early onset of drought including; increase in water-borne diseases and pulmonary diseases. Children, the elderly and people living with HIV/AIDS are particularly vulnerable to infection and impact of livestock death on nutrition. Pastoralist communities are migrating to the west towards the border with the SNNPR and south-east in the direction of Welenso (Weliso) in search of water and grazing land for livestock. Schools are closing because of low, in some cases empty, water supplies and attendance rates have fallen by as much as 14 percent in Dire, Dhas, Dillo and Miyo.
Areas affected by the current crisis include; the lowland woredas of Borena zone (Arero, Dhas, Dillo, Miyo, Moyale, and parts of Teltele and Yabelo). Early reports from UN agencies and humanitarian partners suggest that conditions and vulnerability levels are similar in neighbouring areas as follows; Liben woreda of Guji zone, lowland woredas of Bale zone (Dawwe Sarari, Dawwe Qaccan, Laga Hidha/Beltu, Raytu, Meda Welabu) and some woredas of East Haraghe zone (Gola Oda, Mayyu, Midhaga, Chinaksen, Gursum-Borale, Babile-Darere Arba).
Fidele Sarasso, Humanitarian Coordinator [email protected] Tel.: 251-11-5444483
Vincent Lelei Head of Office, OCHA [email protected] Tel.: 251-11-5444248
Gregory Beals Senior Information Officer, OCHA [email protected] Tel.: 251-11-5444162
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Most of the U.N. peacekeepers on Eritrea’s border with Ethiopia have moved to Eritrea’s capital Asmara after the Red Sea state withdrew cooperation, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
The move effectively ends, at least for the time being, the work of the 1,700 troops and military observers who for the past seven years have been seeking to prevent Eritrea and Ethiopia Woyanne from resuming a border war they fought from 1998-2000.
The peacekeepers have been stationed in a 15.5-mile (25-km) buffer zone inside Eritrea. But Asmara turned against the mission because of U.N. inability to enforce rulings by an independent commission awarding chunks of Ethiopian Woyanne-held territory, including the town of Badme, to Eritrea.
The United Nations ordered the force last week to start moving to Asmara, saying Eritrea had cut off fuel and food supplies and prevented it moving to the Ethiopian side of the border. Eritrea denied it had done so.
“The majority of peacekeepers … and most of (the force’s) military observers are now relocated to Asmara,” U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas told a regular news briefing. The bulk of the troops are from India, Jordan and Kenya.
Montas said eight U.N. vehicles that had been blocked by Eritrean troops from collecting equipment from the former border deployment zone had returned to Asmara without it. But there had been no further obstacles on Wednesday, she said.
Remaining U.N. troops in the border area were packing up and transporting equipment and supplies, Montas said.
The United Nations has not revealed its plans for the force, known as UNMEE, once it is fully assembled in Asmara. Eritrea’s actions have angered the Security Council, which on January 30 renewed UNMEE’s mandate for six months.
Ethiopia Woyanne and Eritrea insist they will not resume a war that killed an estimated 70,000 people. But both have moved tens of thousands of troops to the border because of the dispute over the 620-mile (1,000-km) frontier.
Ethiopia Woyanne has called for talks on border demarcation and normalization of relations before it will pull back from areas assigned to Eritrea by the boundary commission.
But Eritrea’s U.N. Ambassador Araya Desta ruled out any talks with Addis Ababa until Ethiopia withdrew.
“When (the Ethiopians Woyannes) have gone out of the sovereign territories of Eritrea, then the question of normalization will come later,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
He also called on the Security Council to put pressure — including possible sanctions — on Ethiopia Woyanne to withdraw.
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Xavier Briand)
