Tales of horror from Ogaden

By Lucie Peytermann

Bosaso, Somalia, September 07, 2007 - Tales of rape and murder from Ogaden refugees fleeing across Somalia offer a glimpse of the violence wracking the hermetic rebel Ethiopian region.

Fardosa’s eyes seem to have frozen wide open since her ordeal.

"A group of Ethiopians came to my house in early August and four soldiers took me into my bedroom and assaulted me," says the thin young woman, cradling a nine-month-old baby.

For a dollar a day, she rents a small hut in Tula Absame, a refugee camp in the northern Somali port of Bosasso where an increasing number of people fleeing unrest in Ethiopia’s Somali-ethnic Ogaden region are flocking.

The dire living conditions in Tula Absame and the scorching heat are no deterrent for the hundreds of Ogaden refugees preparing for the perilous boat journey across the Gulf of Aden to seek a better life in\ Yemen or elsewhere.

Ethiopian forces have launched a major crackdown in the vast Ogaden region.

Their main target is the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a rebel group formed two decades ago to seek independence in response to what it says has been systematic marginalization from Addis Ababa.

But ONLF claims and reports by humanitarian organisations have raised fears that widespread collective punishment and reprisals against civilians are under way in Ogaden, a region under tight Ethiopian army lockdown.

"Two of my brothers who were ONLF members were hanged from a tree," says Fardosa. "It’s worse than hell what is happening in Ethiopia." Osman Hassan Ahmed, a 27-year-old from the eastern Ogaden town of Werder arrived in Bosaso on September 1.

"My tea shop was closed (by the army) in February and I was accused of funding the ONLF... In early July I was arrested with two friends and managed to escape thanks to relatives in the army... but my two friends were hanged."

"What is happening...is a form of genocide, it’s a systematic destruction of crops and livestock. There is a total closure of economic development in Ogaden," Osman explains.

The haggard-looking young man knows that more suffering awaits during the gruelling crossing to Yemen on boats where smugglers have been known to starve and beat their passengers for days.

"I’m planning to travel to Yemen. The deadly voyage is just about luck, I’ve seen my two friends hanged and thought I’d be the next. I’ve escaped the angel of death quite a few times and I hope to escape again," he says.

The slew of Ogaden refugees washed up in Bosasso express dismay at the world’s indifference to their plight and their region.

" Darfur gets all the world attention but Ogaden is the same...It’s unfortunate and sad that the world has turned a blind eye on what is happening there," says Abdi Ahmed Abdillah.

The 31-year-old farmer says he fled the village of Koos in July with his wife and three children. He had to leave two other children behind.

"In my lifetime, I’ve never seen such massive displacement of civilians by the Ethiopian government, it’s new," he says.

Ethiopian forces launched their sweep of Ogaden following an April ONLF attack on a Chinese oil venture that left 77 people dead, including several Chinese workers.

The refugees charge that Addis Ababa is targeting civilians and their livelihood in a bid to undermine support for the ONLF.

"I was a livestock farmer, I had cows but the government took all of them, accusing me of being affiliated to ONLF," says Abdillah, who denies any rebel affiliation.

"I felt threatened...I heard about relatives who were mutilated...One of my aunts was gang-raped and hanged from a tree by Ethiopian forces," he says.

He explains that violence in the Ogaden for years was confined to skirmishes between the rebels and government forces. "The past year, it has became worse...Now, the source of livelihood of civilians is being targeted."

Jama Ali Aden has a similar story.

He left his home in Werder district in early August after Ethiopian troops raided neighboring villages.

"I witnessed the army burning the village of Arawelo," says Aden, who fled to Puntland with his camels, which he sold to pay for the crossing.

"Over the past six months, we’ve experienced a new tactic of indiscriminate punishment from the government to take revenge on the ONLF," he says.

Hawa, a 43-year-old woman from Gabo-Gabo in eastern Ogaden, says anybody could fall victim to the Ethiopian crackdown.

"All the males were rounded up and detained, we could hear their screams being tortured. I was so traumatized I decided to flee," she says.

Hawa says that the risks of the crossing are dwarfed by those of simply staying in her home region.

"I’m much happier in my hut here. There’s no sense of security and peace in Ethiopia...You are never sure when the soldiers will come."

Humanitarian organizations have recently complained that Ethiopian troops and authorities have prevented them from pursuing their activities in Ogaden, raising fears that a major crisis was looming in the region.

A United Nations (UN) fact-finding mission is currently in Ethiopia in a bid to determine the impact of the violence on the civilian population.

Source: AFP