Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Will Travel to Ethiopia and Belgium First Week of December
In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Secretary will attend a meeting with leaders from the African Great Lakes states (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda) to discuss issues of regional peace and security on December 5. Secretary Rice also will engage in consultations on current developments in Somalia and on implementation of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with cabinet ministers from east African countries as well as senior representatives of the African Union and United Nations. She also will hold bilateral meetings with the Government of Ethiopia.
Secretary Rice will arrive in Brussels on December 6 to attend foreign ministerial sessions on December 7 among NATO’s 26 Allies. This includes a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, which is likely to discuss Afghanistan, Kosovo, the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty regime, and the upcoming NATO Summit in Bucharest. She will participate in a meeting of the 26 Allies with NATO’s seven Mediterranean Dialogue partners (Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Israel, Jordan, and Tunisia) and a session of the NATO-Russia Council. There will also be a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission. She will also take part in a transatlantic dinner bringing together EU and NATO foreign ministers.
KEBRIDEHAR, Ethiopia — In the desert stretches of eastern Ethiopia, locals accuse soldiers fighting an insurgency of burning villages to the ground, committing gang rape and killing people “like goats.”
The allegations have drawn the attention of international human rights campaigners to this remote corner of a key U.S. ally.
Ethiopia’s prime minister dictator says his troops are fighting against a separatist movement in the region known as the Ogaden, and he denies that soldiers have committed such atrocities.
“This is a counterinsurgency. I am not going to tell you there hasn’t been anyone beaten up. I am absolutely confident that there has not been any widespread violation of human rights,” Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told journalists Wednesday.
But a thin, pensive 30-year-old man, who spoke on condition of anonymity this week because of fear of reprisals, told The Associated Press that the army had burned two villages — Lebiga and Korelitsa — to the ground November 23, killing one man.
The army, the man said, was killing his neighbors “like goats.”
Officials in the area, which covers nearly 80,000 square miles, said they had heard similar reports. They also asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The 30-year-old man described gang rapes and public hangings, and said 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.
A 26-year-old man, who also asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, accused the government of withholding food to punish fighters and supporters of the Ogaden National Liberation Front.
For more than a decade, the ethnic Somali rebels have been fighting for greater autonomy in the region, which is being heavily explored for oil and gas. In April, they attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration field in the region, killing 74 people. The Ethiopian military began counterinsurgency operations in May.
The ONLF accuses the government of human rights abuses; the government accuses the rebels of being terrorists funded by its archenemy, Eritrea.
The U.S. looks to Ethiopia Woyanne to help fight the war on terror in East Africa, where al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for several attacks, including the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people.
But working with Ethiopia Woyanne against terror means an alliance with a country accused of violating human and political rights. Last year, the Ethiopian Woyanne government acknowledged its security forces killed 193 civilians protesting a disputed election but insisted excessive force was not used.
Earlier this year, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the Ethiopian Woyanne army of blocking aid, burning homes and displacing thousands of civilians in the Ogaden region.
Ethiopia Woyanne 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.
In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, the prime minister dictator told journalists Wednesday that human rights abuses and a humanitarian crisis, “didn’t exist. Doesn’t exist. Will not exist” in the Ogaden.
Meles, a former rebel, said that he would not repeat the measures taken against him by previous regimes and his government will not commit “widespread human rights violations.”
“We know firsthand how to fight an insurgency and how to avoid stupid mistakes,” Meles said.
John Holmes, the U.N.’s humanitarian chief, visited the region Tuesday and on Wednesday described the humanitarian situation there as “potentially serious.”
He said that he had talked with Meles and other Ethiopian officials about opening up transport and trade, expanding food distribution and addressing human rights concerns. He said Meles took the human rights “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.
The U.N. fact-finding mission said in September that the situation in the Ogaden had deteriorated rapidly and called for an independent investigation.
The mission also said that recent fighting in the region had led to a worsening humanitarian situation and called for a substantial increase in emergency food aid.
Anti-poverty activists Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie who have faced several court delays to date, are scheduled to hear the verdict on treason related charges tomorrow FrIday, November 30th. If found guilty, they could face life imprisonment or death sentences.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Said Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of CIVICUS and Chair of Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP). “Sadly, these two activists are being tried for their commitment to bettering the lives of the people of Ethiopia. We all stand in solidarity with them” he added.
Daniel and Netsanet, both coordinators of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) in Ethiopia, are the last two accused in the high profile Ethiopian treason trial that originally charged 131 politicians, journalists, organisations and civil society leaders. They have been detained since November 2005, on allegations of conspiracy to overthrow the government, specifically, “outrage against the constitution and constitutional order.”
Originally scheduled to give the verdict on October 8th, the High Court in Addis Ababa delayed it until November 22nd when again they delayed on the grounds one of the judges was ill in hospital.
For more information or interviews, please contact:
Julie Middleton, Programme Communications Associate
Civil Society Watch, CIVICUS Tel: 27 11 833-5959, ext. 123 [email protected]
Ciara O’Sullivan, GCAP Media Coordinator at Tel: +34 679 594 809, [email protected]
For more information on CIVICUS: www.civicus.org
For more information on GCAP Stand Up and Speak Out on 17 October: www.whiteband.org
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.”
