Group
accuses Ethiopia of war crimes in Ogaden.
(Nairobi, June 12,
2008 Ceegaag Online)
Ethiopia's government is
committing war crimes in its military campaign against
rebels in the Ogaden region, a rights group charged Thursday
in a report that complained the U.S. and other Western
governments have remained silent about abuses.
New York-based Human
Rights Watch said Ethiopian troops are beating and
strangling civilians, staging public executions and burning
villages in Ogaden. It said the allegations were based on
more than 100 eyewitness accounts.
An Ethiopian official
denied the charges.
Washington looks to
Ethiopia for help in the fight against Islamic extremists in
East Africa, where al-Qaida has claimed responsibility for
several attacks, including the 1998 bombings of the U.S.
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people.
Ethiopia is helping the U.N.-backed government in
neighboring Somalia against Muslim insurgents.
Ethnic Somalis have been
fighting for more than a decade seeking greater autonomy in
the desolate Ogaden, which is being explored for oil and
gas. Ethiopian forces stepped up operations after rebels
attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration field in April 2007,
killing 74 people.
"The Ethiopian army's
answer to the rebels has been to viciously attack civilians
in the Ogaden," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director for
Human Rights Watch.
The group also said the
rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front has violated
humanitarian law by conducting the oil attack and by setting
land mines along roads. Ethiopia accuses the rebels of being
financed by its archenemy, Eritrea.
Bereket Simon, special
adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, denied all
allegations in the report.
"It's not true," he
said. "It's the same old fabrication."
Asked whether an
internal investigation was planned, he said: "How can we
investigate lies and innuendoes? How can we try to disprove
lies by investigating?"
Gagnon chided Ethiopia's
leading donors, including the United States, Britai and the
European Union, accusing them of ignoring what is happening
in Ogaden.
"These widespread and
systematic atrocities amount to crimes against humanity,"
she said. "Yet Ethiopia's major donors, Washington, London
and Brussels, seem to be maintaining a conspiracy of silence
around the crimes."
Gagnon said Western
governments and institutions give at least $2 billion in aid
to Ethiopia every year.
"Influential states use
many excuses, such as lack of information and strategic
priorities, to downplay the grave human rights concerns in
Somali Region," she said. "But crimes against humanity can't
be swept under the carpet."
Source: AP
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