NAIROBI, 4 July 2007 (IRIN) – Residents of Mogadishu, who had returned to the Somali capital after fleeing recent fighting between government forces and insurgents, are leaving the city again amid continuing violence, local sources said.
“There has been an increase in the number of displaced who have returned to the camp in the past 30 days,” said Hawa Abdi, a doctor, whose 26-hectare compound, 20km south of Mogadishu, is home to thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs).
“There were about 12,000 people sheltering in the compound in May, but there are now double this figure,” she told IRIN on 4 July.
“The property next to mine is now being turned into an IDP camp and as I am speaking to you, I can see a new family putting up a temporary shelter,” Abdi said. “In May, people had been returning to Mogadishu but in June we saw people coming [instead] to the camp.”
An estimated 1,000 families returned to the area in June alone, she said.
Despite the violence, at least 123,000 of the 400,000 people who fled Mogadishu between February and June have returned to the city, according to UN estimates. Many are from regions close to Mogadishu, such as Lower and Middle Shabelle.
But speaking in the Ghanaian capital of Accra on 3 July, Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi downplayed suggestions that daily violence in Mogadishu and other areas was so serious that it might even threaten a planned national reconciliation conference in mid-July.
“I am optimistic security forces will be able to secure the capital city for the reconciliation conference,” he told Reuters.
Aid workers said insecurity and violence had limited the population’s ability to survive, restricted humanitarian operations and led to increases of between 50 and 100 percent in the prices of basic necessities such as transport, water, food and non-food items.
In a situation report issued on 29 June, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said despite a curfew in the city, grenade and bomb attacks as well as assassinations had continued.
According to OCHA, 16 explosions went off in the first two nights of the curfew and on 26 June, a roadside bomb in Bakara market killed five women. The next day, two Ethiopian soldiers were killed as a military convoy hit a roadside bomb.
Local residents said many people had been caught up in daily violence. “When there is an explosion, security forces respond by firing indiscriminately and arresting anyone they can find,” a source said.
Dr. Mehret Mandefro, a medical resident, is the founder of TruthAIDS, a group devoted to HIV prevention among women.
Dr. Mehret Mandefro, a medical resident, is the founder of TruthAIDS, a group devoted to HIV prevention among women.
Even after Dr. Mehret Mandefro had repeatedly warned them to always use a condom, girls and women would return to her office with sexually transmitted diseases. She was deeply disturbed and wondered how she could get through to them.
“When I would talk about the need to use condoms, I would see a lot of glazed looks,” she recalls.
Then she started talking to them about their relationships.
“I would ask, ‘Were you in love? Were you not?'” she recalls. “These girls can be very smart and savvy; they under-stand, for instance, they may be sleeping with men to find the love they didn’t get from their fathers.”
At 30, Mandefro is a resident in internal medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and the founder of TruthAIDS, a nonprofit whose mission is to combat HIV infection among women. She is also the subject of “Mehret,” an upcoming documentary.
While working as a resident, her re-search has included interviewing women and girls both in the clinic at Montefiore
and in schools. Her drive is to better understand the spread of HIV, especially among black women – whose rates of infection are increasing more dramatically than those of other groups, most commonly through heterosexual sex.
“[When we talk solely about the importance of using condoms,] we’re abstracting sex from relationships, and that’s not how people live their lives,” she says.
Her research suggests psychological issues related to self-esteem, as well as domestic violence and cultural attitudes, factor into many females’ inability to protect themselves against HIV and other STDs.
“Society still favors male sexual autonomy over women’s,” says Mandefro, who is single and lives in East Harlem. “In many communities, you’re ‘bad,’ as a girl, if you carry a condom.”
The ultimate goal of her research
– which she will field-test next year as a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania – is to create school curriculums and media campaigns to build girls’ and women’s self-esteem.
“I want to see what we can do to change the power dynamics in relationships,” she says, “to make girls feel more comfortable, whether carrying condoms, talking about sex or confronting domestic violence.”
Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and raised on the outskirts of Washington, Mandefro also has conducted re-search and worked with patients in Africa. “I never let go of my Ethiopian identity, and I still feel obligated to try to change things there,” she says.
Her family fled Ethiopia when a Communist regime came to power and tried to assassinate her father, Ayalew Mandefro, at the time the country’s minister of defense.
While still an undergraduate at Harvard, where she majored in anthropol
ogy, Mandefro spent summers in her homeland, as well as in Botswana, South Africa and Nairobi, Kenya.
In Botswana she worked as a liaison between Harvard scientists and local health care providers to help distribute medication. In Addis Ababa she conducted research on the stigma HIV-infected women faced.
Her work in Africa cemented her decision to attend Harvard Medical School, and later earn a Masters of Science in public health as a Fulbright scholar at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
In London she struck a friendship with fellow Fulbright scholar and “funky New York filmmaker” Emily Abt, whose interests in health and public policy jibed with Mandefro’s.
The documentary, scheduled for independent release in the fall, follows Mandefro’s work and the stories of two HIV-infected women who had received treatment in Montefiore’s clinic, Chevelle Wilson and Tara Stanley.
Wilson, 40, of East Tremont Ave. in the Bronx, credits Mandefro with helping her secure employment as a public speaker for Love Heals, the Alison Gertz Foundation for AIDS Education, and for helping her tell her story on film.
“I feel in my heart it’s going to be a powerful film and open up a lot of people’s eyes,” said Wilson. “HIV/AIDS is not going anywhere, but it’s up to us to stop the spread of it.”
While she is off to the next stage of her career in Philadelphia, her patients will miss her.
“She’s a beautiful person, a caring person,” said Félix Colón, 53, of Highbridge, the Bronx, who came to her for sciatica.
“I couldn’t sleep at night, I had so much pain. Now I can sleep better and walk better. She’s like my angel. God is sending her to another place, so maybe they need her more there. But I will miss her.”
She has just accepted a seat on the New York City Department of Health’s HIV Community Advisory Board, which will bring her back to the city once a month or so.
“Oh, I’ll be back,” she says with a smile.
For additional information visit www.truthaids.org/index.php or www.purelandpictures.com.
(New York, July 4, 2007) – The Ethiopian [Woyanne] military has forcibly displaced thousands of civilians in the country’s eastern Somali region in recent weeks while escalating its campaign against a separatist insurgency movement, Human Rights Watch said today. Both the government and rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) must protect civilians and ensure their access to humanitarian relief.
In Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region, also known as the Ogaden or Region 5, the Ethiopian [Woyanne regime] military attacks on villages have displaced civilians in the Wardheer, Qorahey and Dhagahbur zones, even in areas where there is no known ONLF presence.
“Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops are destroying villages and property, confiscating livestock and forcing civilians to relocate,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director of Human Rights Watch. “Whatever the military strategy behind them, these abuses violate the laws of war.”
Eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops burned or ordered civilians to vacate at least a dozen villages around the towns of Dhagahbur (Degehabur), Qabridahare (Kebre Dehar) and Wardheer. In Wardheer zone, many of the residents of villages located within a 100-kilometer radius of Wardheer town have been forced to relocate to other towns because of attacks on their villages, orders from the Ethiopian military or – less frequently – fighting between the Ethiopian army and the ONLF. Villages around Shilaabo, in Qorahey zone, and around Dhagahbur and Qabridahare towns have also been affected by the Ethiopian army campaign.
Witnesses described Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops burning homes and property, including the recent harvest and other food stocks intended for the civilian population, confiscating livestock and, in a few cases, firing upon and killing fleeing civilians. Ethiopian security forces are also responsible for arbitrary detentions in the larger towns, particularly of family members of suspected ONLF members.
In Dhagahbur, at least 20 families who were suspected to have relatives in the ONLF had their camels confiscated. On June 18, in Labiga village, south of Dhagahbur town, Ethiopian forces allegedly killed 21 villagers who resisted when Ethiopian forces tried to take their livestock.
The Ethiopian [Woyanne] authorities have also imposed a trade blockade on the region since June, with few goods (including food) permitted into the area, which depends on commercial traffic from neighboring northern Somalia, particularly the coastal towns of Hargeysa and Bosaso. The attacks on villages and the economic blockade may be part of a strategy to force thousands of people from rural areas to larger towns and deny the ONLF a support base.
ONLF forces have also been responsible for serious abuses. An April attack on Obole, an oil field in northern Somali region, reportedly killed dozens of civilians, including nine Chinese oil workers, and at least 28 civilians working on a farm in nearby Sandhore village.
On May 28, ONLF fighters allegedly targeted two large gatherings in Jigjiga and Dhagahbur with hand grenades. The blasts, and the crowd stampedes that followed, killed 17 people and wounded dozens, including the regional president of Somali region. Most of those who died in these two simultaneous attacks were civilians, including a 17 year-old school boy and a number of women. The ONLF denied responsibility for the attacks, but have a record of targeting civilian officials and clan leaders who refuse to support the insurgency.
“Civilians in Somali region are trapped between the warring parties,” said Takirambudde. “The Ethiopian government appears to be pursuing an illegal strategy of collective punishment of the civilian population, and the ONLF has targeted civilians for attack.”
Human Rights Watch called on both the Ethiopian [Woyanne] government and the ONLF to ensure that civilians and civilian property are protected from targeted or indiscriminate attacks and independent international aid agencies have full, unhindered access to civilians in need of humanitarian assistance.
International humanitarian law, or the laws of war, requires that all warring parties distinguish between military and civilians, protect civilians and their property and take all feasible steps to minimize the harm of military operations on civilians.
Collective punishments – or the punishment of one or more individuals for the acts of others – is also prohibited by international humanitarian law. Hostage taking, which is the holding or use of a person to compel a third party to act or refrain from acting, is also prohibited. Detaining the family member of a combatant to compel the combatant to surrender would thus be unlawful.
Moreover, starvation as a method of warfare is prohibited. It is thus unlawful to destroy or otherwise render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. Parties to an internal armed conflict must allow humanitarian relief to reach civilian populations suffering undue hardship owing to a lack of foodstuffs and medical supplies essential for their survival.
International humanitarian law also prohibits the forced displacement of the civilian population for reasons connected to the conflict – except when done for the “security of the civilians involved” or for “imperative military reasons.” These prohibitions are applicable to both governments and insurgents.
Background
Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region, known as Region 5 or the Ogaden, is the site of a long-running, low-intensity armed conflict between the Ethiopian government and the ONLF.
The ONLF fought against the Derg, the military dictatorship of Menghistu Haile Mariam, but was not allied to the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the guerrilla movement led by Ethiopia’s current prime minister, Meles Zenawi. In 1992, the ONLF won control of the government of Ethiopia’s newly formed Somali region, becoming the only party not allied to the TPLF to score such a success. However, the ONLF’s open advocacy of secession for Somali region and its frosty relations with the ruling party led to its ouster from government in 1995.
The ONLF then reverted to waging armed attacks against the Ethiopian government, which has continued in the intervening years. For more than a decade, a heavy Ethiopian military presence in the region has been accompanied by widespread reports of human rights abuses committed by both sides. Those reports have generally been difficult to confirm because of the Ethiopian military’s effective closure of the region to independent research and reporting.
The escalating Ethiopian military campaign is likely catalyzed by several recent high-profile ONLF attacks in the region, including the April attack on the Chinese oil site at Obole and the May attacks on Jigjiga and Dhagahbur. In a June 9 news conference, Meles stated that the Ethiopian military was launching a “political and military operation to try to contain the activities of the ONLF.”
The current campaign in Somali region is also linked to Ethiopian military operations in south-central Somalia. One motive for Ethiopia’s ouster of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in December 2006 may have been to cut the links between the ONLF, the ruling Islamic Courts and Eritrea, including arms and logistical supply lines from Eritrea and Somalia to the ONLF in Ethiopia’s eastern region.
July 3, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — A joint Sudanese-Ethiopian committee would start today to hand over agricultural lands to residents of more than 17 Sudanese villages located in eastern Atbara River along the Ethiopia-Sudan border.
The agricultural lands remained a source of dispute for more than 100 years.
Governor of Al-Gadarif State, in eastern Sudan, Abdelrahman al-Khidir told Akhir Lahzah that this step came as an implementation of 1971 agreement which stated re-demarcation of the border between the two countries.
He added that technical arrangements have been finished and a committee of seven experts from each side would give the Sudanese farmers their lands, pointing out that his government is ready to append these farmers with the current agricultural season.
He said that with the end of the committee’s work which might last for a week, the lands would be back to their owners.
He explained that they have formed 17 cooperative societies in addition to other previous societies in order to support the farmers within the framework of the agricultural campaign on one hand and to consolidate the Sudanese land on the other.
Furthermore the governor called for dealing with the border issue with a good spirit between the two countries, adding that people should look at the border issue as an area of integration not of conflicts.
He explained that the final operation of border re-demarcating which might conclude after the autumn season would put an end for all kinds of security breaches and instability situation in the area.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Ethiopia’s World 5000m and 10,000 champion Tirunesh Dibaba just loves travelling to Paris and it is not because of the delicious brassieres or the breathtaking sight of the Eiffel Tower!
The Ethiopian will be one of the star attractions at the Friday’s Meeting Gaz de France Paris Saint-Denis (6 July), the second of six meetings of the IAAF Golden League 2007.
“I love France and the city of Paris,” Dibaba confirms. “I have a very good feeling even when the name of the country is called out.”
Dibaba’s affection towards France and the French capital in particular comes as no surprise. Nearly four years ago, the-then 17-year old became the youngest ever individual gold medallist in the history of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics when sneaking a surprise 5000m title in front of a capacity home crowd in the Stade de France.
Eighteen months later and competing at the Hippodrome race course, she became only the second woman in history to win the short and long course double at the 33rd IAAF World Cross Country Championships in St. Etienne/St. Galmier, in central France.
And in last year’s Meeting Gaz de France Saint-Denis, the 21-year-old out sprinted compatriot Meseret Defar in the 5000m as she drew first blood in what turned out to be an intense rivalry between the two Ethiopians in the summer track season.
“I have run a lot of races in the last four years, but I will always remember the 5000m race (at the World Champs) in Paris four years ago,” commented Dibaba. “It was probably the happiest moment of my life.”
With all the fond memories neatly tucked away, Dibaba will line up for the 5000m race in Paris on Friday (6) with the knowledge that she has some catching up to do in the track season.
Affected by Mombasa
“I have not been the same since running in Mombasa,” she says of her tiresome silver-medal effort behind Dutchwoman Lornah Kiplagat in the World Cross Country Championships last March. “Many other Ethiopian athletes were either injured or out of shape immediately, but I started feeling the effects only in the last month. I feel very tired and exhausted after training.”
Leg injury
The effects of Mombasa’s heat and humidity did not seem to affect the World Indoor 5000m record holder as she stormed to a now-defunct world leading 14:35.67 in the Reebok New York Grand Prix in June.
“I gave everything I had in that race,” she says. “I returned home with a leg injury and have not been able to do well in training. I have been advised by coaches not to run until Osaka, but I have to test myself in competition.”
Happy for Defar
While Dibaba has been nursing an injury, her compatriot and arch-rival Meseret Defar has smashed World records or set World bests in two of the three races she has in the outdoor season.
“I clapped and cheered her after watching the Oslo race,” says Dibaba. “It was a good race and even the second placed runner (Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot) improved the previous record. It was fantastic and I want to congratulate Meseret for the victory.”
Would she have wanted to run with Defar in that race so that she too could become a part of record-breaking history?
“I do not think the outcome would have been the same if I had been part of that race,” says Dibaba. “It’s very difficult to say that Meseret would have run solely against the clock if I had been in that race.”
Dibaba had also planned her own World record assault in Paris, but says the effort could prove difficult after her injury problems this summer.
“I do not think I am in the sort of shape to chase a World record especially now that Meseret has broken it by a large margin,” she says. “I want to focus on winning in Paris.”
Osaka 5000m/10,000m double
Unlike her compatriots who will continue to run in major European meetings and the All-African Games in Algiers, Algeria, Dibaba has opted to compete only in Paris and then skip the remainder of the track season before the World Championships in Osaka in August.
“I have to recover from the injury and then prepare for Osaka,” she says. “I am planning to defend both my 5000m and 10000m titles in Osaka.”
Because she is the defending champion in both events, Dibaba will automatically qualify without the need of achieving qualifying standards for both competitions. She has raced extensively over the shorter distance since her impressive double two years ago, but how will she make up for lack of competition over the 10,000m?
“I have not competed over the 10,000m since Helsinki,” says Dibaba who has run only two races over the distance in her career. “After Paris, I will rest a bit, treat my injury, and then hopefully train for the 10,000m.”
Ever-rising popularity
Her period of no-competition before Osaka now means that athletics fans will have to wait until August for a repeat of another Defar vs. Dibaba battle. “On my part, I have no plans to avoid her in competition,” she says. “I think it is just coincidence that we have not met in competition this year.”
Another successful double in Osaka will put her among the all-time greats of female distance running and further expand her fan base in her home country.
“I feel that everyone in Ethiopia knows me,” she says. “It is a great sense of pride and joy for me. It is a big motivation that I am known and admired by many people in my country.”
I love sleeping
Dibaba remains humble and down-to-earth despite her celebrity status that rivals musicians, artists, and film actors in her country. After four years at the top and lots of public exposure, she maintains that her favourite place in the world is her bedroom and her favourite activity is sleeping.
“I love sleeping,” she says. “I only wake up for training. It is one of the reasons why I run well because my body is rested and ready to train.”
When she goes out of her house, Dibaba’s favourite destinations are Addis Ababa’s two amusement parks where she likes to accompany her two younger sisters on a rollercoaster ride.
“I like that a lot,” she smiles. “I have finished my childhood, but my sister Genzebe (a runner who finished fifth in the junior race in Mombasa) is still only a kid and loves to play. I have grown out of it, but Genzebe and my cousins drag me into the game.”
By Greg WilcoxHAILE GEBRSELASSIE has told organisers to have a big, fat cheque ready for when he runs in the 2008 Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon in January. The Ethiopian will take his place on the start line of the world’s richest ever marathon in a bid to claim the $1 million prize on offer for breaking the world record.
And he is confident he can pose a real threat to Paul Tergat’s time of two hours four minutes and 55 seconds on the fast Dubai course.
“The organisers had better be careful because if there is $1 million on offer then I am going to get it,” Gebrselassie said yesterday. “Tergat’s record will be broken, so why not here in Dubai?” he added. “The course here provides a really good opportunity for quick times. It’s very flat, it’s at sea level and the weather should be perfect so it is a good possibility. If I am in good shape then it could happen.”
The presence of Gebrselassie in the field is a stunning coup for the Dubai event. He will run only two marathons next year, the first here and the second at the Beijing Olympics. “Next year is a very important year for me as I have two priorities. First to break the world record, and second to win the Olympics. But the breaking of the world record is my top priority. So from tomorrow I will train hard for this marathon. That is one of my goals.”
In a country that has produced legendary names such as Abebe Bikila and Kenenisa Bekele and a countless number of other world-class distance runners, Gebrselassie is undoubtedly the true superstar. Arguably the greatest distance runner of all-time, he was keen to run marathons in his early twenties before breaking world records and winning Olympic gold medals at 5,000 and 10,000 metres.
To date, he has broken 24 world records – but times can only tell you so much. His true greatness is seen in his versatility. His fastest time at 1,500m (three minutes 33 seconds) suggests he could have been a world-beater at that distance had he wanted to, and since 2004 he has focused on the marathon.
Typically, the conversion has been a smooth one, with Gebrselassie winning three of his six starts over the 42 kilometre distance. “In the marathon you have to be patient and determined,” he said. “Running for over two hours is different from 10,000m around a track. In the track races you are running against people. In the marathon you run against the distance. The marathon is tougher as it taxes you hard mentally as well as physically. That’s where the extra challenge comes.”
Many critics say that at 34, Gebrselassie is getting too old to compete for much longer. But the great man, keen to keep on rewriting the record books, says he’s going to go on running at the highest level for as long as he keeps on improving. “I still feel young and all I am interested in is getting better,” he said. “I am thinking about racing at the London Olympics in 2012. I will only be 39 so won’t be that old as many Ethiopian athletes run well into their late thirties. As a runner I am never satisfied, I always want more – that’s normal.
“The most important thing is to win and to keep on achieving.”And such is his talent and determination it would be a brave person to bet against him doing that and picking up the $1 million bonus in Dubai next year.
HIT THE ROAD WITH HAILE
HE SAYS: “If you want to run the marathon it’s important that you train a lot – it’s a tough race. Your aim should be to increase your stamina and not your speed. And it’s ok to walk at times – so long as you feel comfortable and can compete the session. When it comes to competition don’t set off too fast as you should aim to run the second half quicker than the first. And remember you are racing against the distance and not other people.”
