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»Is Somali Region (Ogaden) the GUANTANIAMO of Ethiopia? By Muna Hassan
Is Somali Region (Ogaden) the GUANTANIAMO of Ethiopia?
Muna Hassan mouna_has@yahoo.co.uk)

Despite many national and international bodies including UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, Sir John Holmes, warning of dire humanitarian catastrophe in Somali region, Ethiopian government has intensified its campaign of mass killing, widespread detention, torture, rape and food and medical blockade. The recent expulsions from Ethiopia of the international NGOs and their staff including International Committee of the Red Cross and MSF, has further damaged the ability of the international community to monitor events in Somali Region, and has had a chilling effect on the remaining few aid agencies.

The operation is concentrated in Dhagahbur, Fik, Qorrahay, Wardher and Gode zones. Jijiga has also seen more than its fair share from this infamous terror campaign. By killing its victims inhumanely and in front of young children, elderly and vulnerable community sectors, the government has succeeded to inflict a far-reaching psychological terror. It is not secret that local civilians are forced to fight against the insurgents with little or, as the case is mostly, no relevant training. Surprisingly, these militias are required to bring their small arms and the other necessary logistics must be provided by their clan members.

Forcing communities to dig their graves and select the victims (randomly) who are to be buried alive is a new technique which has no parallel both in history and indeed in cruelty. The damaging impact of raping girls as young as ten before their parents, brothers, sisters and all sort of close and distant relatives, in a conservative pastoralist society is immeasurable. Forced displacement, relocation and burning villages are still common though increased in number. Surely, the government is hell-bent on making life in that region difficult and wants its harms felt in the worst and most painful manner. It is intentionally stoking fear, and creating an atmosphere full of uncertainties. This climate of fear has eroded the willingness of local populations to speak openly about the severity of the situation. In addition to the loss of lives and properties, the current harsh security measures which the government has been undertaking lately forced tens of thousands to seek refuge elsewhere mainly in Somalia and to a lesser degree in Kenya.

Paradoxically, the government desperately wants to repair its badly damaged reputation and image at least internationally. Therefore, in parallel with these atrocities, the government has recently tried unsuccessfully to carry out an ambitious and unrealistic programme in which it designed to deflect international criticism. It has invited journalists to visit some parts of the region and see certain projects. The regional administrator Abdullahi Hassan aka “Lugbur” accompanied the journalists to Gode – an attempt designed to control and restrict their movements. On Friday January the 19th the Administrator held a press conference in Gode. Mr. Hassan inadvertently and perhaps out of ignorance acknowledged the depth of the atrocities his government inflicts on the defenceless communities in the region. He admitted that the government has arrested many American and European citizens of Ethnic Somalis accusing them of supporting ONLF. However, he failed to give the exact number of the detainees as well as when they had been detained.

Mr. Hassan likened the region to Guantanamo in which the US keeps terror suspects indefinitely. In the press conference he said "We don't care whether they see (their diplomatic representatives) or not," comparing the situation to the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, where nearly 300 inmates are being held without charge or access to consuls. Truly the region shares certain point with Guantanamo. They are both outside the national law boundaries but that is where the similarity ends. Unlike Guantanamo (where there are foreign suspects), the detainees held in Somali Region are all Ethiopian citizens of ethnic Somalis. The regional chief administrator’s claim that they had detained many US and EU citizens supporting ONLF is absolutely baseless lie. Head of the regional security sector Mr. Abdi Mohamud Omar (Abdi Iley) had contradicted the regional chief administrator. Peter Heinlein of VOA reported that when pressed for details, security chief Abdi said Mohamed Farah Hassan is the only one he knows of.

But again the detainee here is a disabled man who visited his family in Jijiga. Contrary to what Abdi, the regional security chief says, he was arrested from Bade Hotel where he stayed with wife. Simply one of Abdi’s friends whom the detainee had quarrelled in Minneapolis had accused him when he saw him in Jijiga – it is a well known fact and such behaviour is so common in the region. The friend of the regional security head can be identified as Mohamed Yosuf Aided also known as Fulus. Mr. Aided who is also American citizen is now head of the Regional Water Bureau. Whatever the cost, we have to challenge the untruths and set the record straight.

Despite the fact that most of the detainees in the regional capital Jijiga have been acquitted by the courts, they have still been held in the jails. This also distinguishes the region from Guantanamo. Geographically, Guantanamo is not in America while Somali Region is in Ethiopia.

We all know how unwise the region is governed. The most undisciplined individuals have been selected by the federal government to run it. Abdi Iley (one of the most powerful individuals in the regional administration) is a perfect example. His unpopular interview with EEGGA.com which he intended to slander Farah Mo’allin (a Kenyan Somali MP) is sufficient to expose the kind of people we have there. It is humiliating, and indeed disheartening experience from which we can learn an invaluable lesson.

With so much at stake, the chances of the government devising lasting solution alternatives are very remote. The clan-based ONLF tactics are neither realistic nor viable. So what other alternatives we are left with. There are many, we just need to discuss among ourselves inclusively, select our able and intellectuals to design the way forward and support the outcome morally and physically. Only then will we be able to break the cycle, unite our division-fatigue society and be proud to be Somalis. We brothers and sisters, we share everything – be it blood, culture, religion, and land.

Where are our boys? Aren’t they equal with others biologically? What are their deficiencies? Are they qualified to trade insults only? Whom are we waiting then?

Muna Hassan (mouna_has@yahoo.co.uk)
Southampton
England
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