At a Minnesota market, tales of a hidden Ethiopian war
Ridwan Hassan Sahid, 17-years-old, shows scars on her neck caused by near death-by-strangulation by Ethiopian soldiers in July, 2007. Photo by Doug McGill.
The first time I heard Fatima tell her story, I answered in the natural way.
“They killed my husband,” she said.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said.
“And they killed my son,” she said.
“Oh, I’m so sorry for your losses,” I said.
“And they killed my brothers and some of my brothers’ children,” she said, staring at me with eyes that seemed quite without hope and yet that also seemed to ask me, with astonishing tenacity, ‘Are you really listening, do you really understand?’”
I didn’t know what to say to Fatima at this point, as my repeated condolences seemed pointless. So instead I stood up a bit straighter, I took a deep breath, and felt my feet on the ground. I looked back at Fatima with eyes that said that I was willing to stand there and to listen for as long as she wanted.
“And they have killed many of my uncles,” Fatima said.
The Ogaden War
At the Village Market in Minneapolis, the major social hub for Somali-speaking Ethiopian refugees living in the Twin Cities, endless stories like Fatima’s are being urgently swapped every day. They are tales of evil that is so profound it would be unkind of me to suddenly start describing those crimes in detail right now.
You might well not believe the stories anyway. And even if you believed them, you might not believe that such unimaginable crimes could be happening in the world right now, in a little-known corner of Africa called the Ogaden of Ethiopia.
Where are the TV news teams parachuting into refugee camps? Where is the definitive account of the Ethiopian government’s mass destruction of the people and culture of the Ogaden?
Bare Feet
Here is more of Fatima’s story (she like the other witnesses in this story offered only their first names, fearing reprisal against their relatives in Ethiopia if they are identified):
“One day the soldiers came and started shooting, they killed my husband in front of me. Then they tortured and beat me in the same place they killed my husband. On that same day the soldiers also confiscated my home and all of my property and all of my money, leaving me homeless and destitute.”
Fatima is a devout Muslim woman who wears a veil and will not shake a man’s hand except through the cloth of her robe. But after telling me this story she stretched out her legs and took off her shoes, to show me her bare feet which are twisted and deformed, from the beatings she said. Today, she limps with a cane.
We in Minnesota have a special role in telling about the Ogaden crisis, because Minnesota is home to the largest diaspora population of Ogaden refugees in the world. Some 5,000 Somali Ethiopians have fled to Minnesota in recent years, fleeing precisely the crimes against humanity that Fatima and others describe.
Matching Details
Last week, I walked through the Village Market and spoke with a dozen Somali-speaking immigrants from the Ogaden region. This is what is happening in the Ogaden today, they said:
• People are thrown alive into bonfires by Ethiopian soldiers;
• Men and women are strangled to death by soldiers who wrap a wire around their necks and pull the wire on either side;
• Innocent goat herders are rounded up by Ethiopian soldiers and lynched from trees;
• Young girls are snatched from their homes by Ethiopian soldiers, put in prisons and gang-raped day after day, their dead bodies finally tossed like garbage on the street.
One Ogadeni Minnesotan said to me: “We could tell you stories like this all day and night for a week, and at the end we still would not have told you all the stories of all the killing and suffering that is happening in the Ogaden today.”
A single crazy person, or a small group of organized zealots, could orchestrate lies and propaganda about such horrors being committed on a genocidal scale. But how could it happen that the first 12 people that you meet at the Village Mall all tell the same types of stories over and over, with the details matching perfectly?
An American Ally
All of these horrific crimes and tortures are, the Minnesota Ogadenis say, committed by uniformed Ethiopian soldiers. Ethiopia is an official ally of the U.S. and receives millions of dollars in U.S. tax-funded military aid every year.
The Ogaden is a Texas-sized patch of land in Ethiopia that is inhabited by some four million Muslim, Somali-speaking citizens, most of them nomadic pastoralists.
The sparse grassland and shrubland of the Ogaden has been a battlefield for years between Ethiopia and Somalia, with each of those two nations often acting as proxies for global superpowers including Britain, the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
In 1956, when Britain left the Horn of Africa, it set up decades of conflict by handing over the Ogaden, which is populated by ethnic Somalis who are Muslims, to Ethiopia which is mainly ethnic Oromo and Amhara, and Christian. A war was fought over control of the Ogaden between Ethiopia and Somalia in 1977-1978.
In 1984, a separatist militia, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), was formed to pursue autonomy or independence for the Ogaden by violence if necessary. In 2007, the ONLF attacked a Chinese-run oil facility in the Ogaden, killing Ethiopian soldiers as well as more than 70 Chinese and Ethiopian civilians.
Sealed Off
In response, Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, launched a brutal counter-insurgency against the “terrorist” ONLF in the Ogaden. The recent atrocities against ethnic Somalis in the Ogaden have been a part of that campaign, with entire villages being wiped out on the mere suspicion of harboring ONLF fighters. Families and friends of ONLF soldiers are often killed or terrorized and family members tortured to give up information on their relatives.
Here is the testimony of a man named Hassan at the Village Market:
“I was in my home. One night Ethiopian soldiers broke down the door and took me to a military camp in Dhagahbur and beat me. I didn’t commit any crime and none of my family members are in the ONLF. They used the butt of their guns to hit me anywhere on my body where they thought it would hurt the most. I was put in jail just like this on three different occasions and placed in a tiny, dirty cell. I spent ten months in prison without ever being charged, without any explanation. Every day I was beaten and I suffered many cuts, sores and infections, but there was no hospital and I got no care.”
There has been virtually no major media coverage of the Ogaden crisis, and the U.S. and other governments have taken virtually no action. This is partly because the Ogaden has been sealed off to journalists and aid organizations, with the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders forced to abandon operations there in 2007.
But the Internet is teeming with detailed accounts of specific atrocities much like those described at the Village Market, and many YouTube videos graphically show the results of beatings, torture, killings, looting and rape.
"Still in Prison"
Based on interviews with refugees, thousands of whom have gathered in camps in northern Kenya, and other sources, some human rights groups have also been warning about the Ogaden crisis for several years. In 2008, Human Rights Watch published a 139-page report called “Collective Punishment” that documented “widespread and systematic atrocities” and “war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed by the Ethiopian military against Ogadeni citizens.
The report detailed “routine mass detentions,” “extrajudicial executions,” “rape of women in military custody,” and documented the destruction (sometimes by satellite photographs) of at least a dozen Ogaden villages. Yet the scale of village burnings and other crimes described in the report “is believed to be significantly larger” than those officially documented in the report, its authors warned.
Here is the testimony of a man named Abdulrahman at the Village Market:
“We talk to our friends and family back home, but we never feel safe, because we know that they could be captured, tortured or killed just for talking to us on the telephone. It is a kind of psychological torture we all still suffer in Minnesota. Also there are Ethiopian government collaborators who live here in Minneapolis, who tell the Ethiopian army if we criticize the government, and our family and friends in Ethiopia could be jailed or killed as a result. America is a free country but in this way we are not psychologically free. It is as if we were suffocating and still in prison.”
The atrocities in the Ogaden have even reached the U.S. Congress where Rep. Donald Payne (D-New Jersey), the chairman of the House Subcommitte on Africa, has repeatedly criticized Ethiopia for “deliberating targeting civilians” with “routine raping and hanging” innocent citizens in the Ogaden region. He says the Ogaden crisis is “by far one of the worst” human rights tragedies he has witnessed in his life.
New Intelligence
In October last year, Britain balked at committing foreign aid to Ethiopia after Douglas Alexander, the British international development secretary, discovered on a visit to the Ogaden that the crisis was far more severe than he had thought.
In the U.S., various think tanks and social justice groups have called for the U.S. government to similarly pressure Ethiopia. But the U.S., which regards Ethiopia as an ally in the Horn of Africa which helps to rout Islamist terrorists in neighboring Sudan and Somalia, has so far ignored these warnings and calls to action.
The Minnesota Ogadenis, through their constant cell phone conversations with relatives back home, are unearthing troves of new intelligence about the nature and extent of the Ogaden crisis. For example they report:
• A network of political prisons throughout the Ogaden. An enormous prison in the Ogaden capital city, Jijiga, has been known for years to house thousands of innocent civilians rounded up by the Ethiopian military on suspicion of knowing or harboring ONLF fighters. But the Minnesota Ogadenis say that prison quarters are attached to every military garrison throughout the occupied territory of Ogaden including in the cities of Dhagahbur, Aware, Kabridahar, Fiiq, Wardere, Gode, and Garbo. Many Minnesota Ogadenis have spent months or years in these prisons, or have relatives currently suffering there. They offer details about conditions in the prisons, the crimes routinely committed by the authorities against the prisoners, and the names of those who run the prisons.
• Burning people alive in Garbo, Ethiopia. The torture and killing methods used by the Ethiopian military against the Ogadenis changes over time, with new methods evolving that are ever-more cruel and perverse. For a time, strangling people with rope or wire, with two soldiers pulling on either side, was widely reported. Burying children alive has been reported, as has the sodomization of young boys. Sources in the Ogaden told the Minnesota Ogadenis that this past July, Ethiopian soldiers killed six Ogadenis by throwing them alive into a bonfire.
• Attacking nomads outside of town markets. Most Ogadeni towns have markets where nomads bring their livestock to sell, after which they buy food and clothing before returning to their grazing lands. According to Minnesota Ogadenis, these nomads frequently are attacked by Ethiopian soldiers who lie in wait for them outside of town where they steal their food, clothing and provisions and often kill the nomads while doing so.
Comfort Enough
At one point during my day at the Village Market, a few of us gathered in an office space at the market. Fatima was there along with four other women in veils, and a half-dozen Ogadeni men as well who told me their stories.
We sat on chairs in a circle. As I was listening to another person in the group, I saw Fatima suddenly cover her face with her hands and put her head down towards her lap. Everyone stopped talking.
No one in the group made a move towards Fatima to comfort her. Rather, they allowed her the dignity of her own suffering. Anyway the comfort was simply the supportive presence of the group itself, and everyone knew that was enough.
If was not enough, it was in any case all the comfort there was.
Within a few seconds, Fatima straightened up, daubed her eyes, and everyone continued telling their inconceivable, impossible, true stories of the Ogaden.
Douglas McGill is a former staff reporter for The New York Times and bureau chief for Bloomberg News. To reach Doug McGill: doug@mcgillreport.org. And visit The McGill Report at www.mcgillreport.org.
Douglas McGill has reported for the New York Times and Bloomberg News--and now the Daily Planet. To reach Doug McGill: doug@mcgillreport.org. And visit The McGill Report at www.mcgillreport.org.
Comments
Abdi
I am a muslim and somali Ethiopian and it is very hard to understand what you are talking about. None of my family members in Ogaden have been targetted by Ethiopian army. In fact, two of my friends have been killed by the ONLF genociders who try to kill all non-Ogaden clan somalis in ethiopia.
Just in case you don't know, the somali populated region in ethiopia is not only for teh ogaden clan. some of these ogadens think they are better than all other somalis in ethiopia. the ONLF tells them to wage war and kill somalis and other ethiopians. if they fail or if their terrorist membership is exposed, the ONLF tells them to flee out of ethiopia and go to america/europe. NOTICE THAT UNLIKE MOST REGULAR REFUGEES WHO SHELTER IN NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES, THE GOLD DIGGING OGADEN REFUGEES TRAVEL THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY TO MINNESOTA WHERE THEY IS BETTER ECONOMIC SITUATION COMPARED TO NEIGHBORING KENYA/SOMALILAND/SUDAN. Anyway these pro-ONLF folks only want to be economic asylum but the ONLF tries to create nonstop war in the region so that more ogaden people flee and so that development is low. The ONLF terrorists are the killers and genocidals in the region.
If you are wondering why most western governments don't pressure ethiopia, it is because they know ONLF terrorists are the agressors and killers.
Well, You also seem to have many errors in your article.
#1. when you described ethiopia you said "which is mainly ethnic Amhara and Christian".....well you are wrong my friend. Ethiopia is NOT mainly amhara because amhara represent only 26% of Ethiopia. also the largest group in ethiopia is the OROMO, who are around 35%. Just look at any census or country profile at BBC, CIA or anywhere my friend.
#2. You seem to think that since many ogaden people in minnesota said something, it must be true. Well, who can blame you? You heard it again and again so it appears true. Asylum 101, once people of one group immigrate to another country, more of that same group will immigrate to the same area (i.e. minnesota).... most of the Ogaden clan support ONLF, but most of us somali-ethiopians don't support the ONLF terrorists. If you talk with more ogadenis, you are most likely to find the same stories again and again. why? peaceful ogaden people shelter inside ethiopia when the ONLF terrorists start war. But the pro-ONLF ogadens flee out of ethiopia when ONLF starts war. This is POLITICS 101. so these pro-ONLF ogadens who flee out of ethiopia are the ones you are likely to find in your western/american neighborhood so that your website can "report" about their side of the story. But don't worry, you are not the only american who "reports" the bias stories of the fleeing pro-ONLF ogaden folks because other western/americans like "human rights groups" also wait outside the borders of ethiopia to "report" the stories of pro-ONLF ogaden "refugees."
#3.if you were not repeating the propaganda of pro-ONLF ogadens, you would know that it is the ONLF that is killing people, raping women, burning villages etc. http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article31655 It says ONLF has been "accused by local Somalis of laying mines, burning villages, attacking development projects and intimidating Somalis who do not support its cause."
#4. you also seem to ignore that The ogaden war has become a proxy war between ethiopia and eritrea. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6588981.stm
#5. You gave a al Jazeera news link to abuses by Ethiopian army on Ogaden people. You don't seem to know much about the al jazeera issue. The al Jazeera is an Arab agency and the arabs have a history of trying to divide christians and muslims in ethiopia. The QATAR government -owned media AL JAZEERA started reporting about ogaden with the help of ONLF rebels escorts. If you follow BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7359470.stm You would know that Ethiopian embassy in QATAR was closed by addis ababa after it found out the pro-Eritrea Qatar government started spreading anti-ethiopia and pro-ONFL propaganda on al jazeera.
#6.one would like to know why you put the word terrorist under quotation mark when referring to ONLF. do you think ONLF are peaceful people? you would not doubt the terrorism of ONLF if you were one of the 74 civilians massacred by the ONLF in 2007. You would not doubt it if you were one of the hundreds of other somalis and ethiopian civilians massacred by the ONLF terrorists http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/pha100207.htm
#7. about fatima, all of us should feel sorry for her. but there are thousands of other FATIMAS in ethiopia who were victims of the ONLF terrorists. there are many innocent people who lost their whole legs or arms by ONLF bombing. there are people who lost their mothers and fathers because of ONLF massacres. at the end of the day, there should be a ceasefire. in 1960s america when black liberation army or other militants were attacking civilians and police, the american government clamped down. obviously outlaws and terrorists must face justice. the reality is if ONLF DID NOT START A WAR, there would not be all of this suffering on both sides. so the ONLF needs to stop the war. in 1960s america, a combination of justice (imprisoning militants in america) and economic development (improving american standard of living) has led to the gradual improvement of conditions. in ethiopia, the same thing has to happen and the ONLF terrorists must face justice. unfortunately, ethiopia is not rich like america and ONLF terrorists also blowup development projects in Ogaden region of ethiopia. so it will be a long and dirty war for many more years. You will have many chances to write more of these articles but for your own moral and ethics, let us hope that you try to avoid spreading pro-ONLF propaganda like this funny article.
Thank you
Thank you for this bold reporting, Doug. Whenever we become aware of atrocities like these, we become witnesses, if even secondhand, and therefore bear some responsibility. What is the Obama administration's stand on this terrible situation? What can we do as citizens to stop this. Ginny, Rochester
A Big Thank You
The proof of genocide taking place in Ogadenia is clear , and yet the world community gives a blind eye to the suffering of the ogaden somali people. even our African fellows don't really care . if the did the ogadenia region of ethiopia wouldn't be the war zone . just little understanding what genocide is Deliberately inflicting condition of life calculated to destroy the people of Ogadenia region, including the deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the people’s physical survival such as clean water, food , clothing , shelter or medical services, the deprivation of the mean to sustain life in the Ogaden region , the Ethiopian government imposed through confiscation of harvests, blocked of the foodstuff, and also the thousands of innocent civilians detention in the Ethiopian prisoners.The genocide denial is among the surest indicators of further genocide , the perpetrators of genocide always try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witness , they deny that they committed any crimes and often blame what happened on the victims. The Ethiopian dictator regime prohibited all the international media entering the Ogaden region just cover up their dirty business. Well THANK YOU MR Doug McGill FOR YOUR WONDERFUL REPORT .the wisdom of demacorcy and free press do come in heavy price in some countries .
corrupted story
how mucdid the pay u to tekl us this hollywood story
This is true statementa
I am sure every Ethiopian soldier have right to kill anyone he want and repe every famele indiscriminately.
The major death always happen rural erea, when Etheopian soldier met someone walking in rural they killed with out asking any question.
The biggest shock in this whole saga ....
The biggest shock in this whole saga is the fact that this whole campaign of extermination is done with the use of US provided armamment and training. This is wrong for America to do and they should act and I hope the current administraion is doing
correction correction correction!
The writer has limitted knowledge of ethiopian history and his representation of the power, religious and ethnic distribution is very flawed. I absolutlely oppose wht the current minority-ethnic governemnt of TPLF is doing in Ogaden. However, portraying ogaden as muslim region delibrately set up by the British to a Chrstian AMhara state is simply flawed. Muslims and chrstians are found almot in all regions of Ethiopia and past Ethiopian rulers were from every other ethnic group including Eritreans. Amharas were polticla active. But that was not a total dominaiton. So please do nto misinform the American public in the name of exposing hidden crimes, which in itself is not a bad motive.
Islamic ONLF rebels
The U.S., European Union and United Nations, all with regional headquarters in Ethiopia, have yet to condemned Ethiopia for any genocide in Ogaden region beacause there is no proof, other than standard Islamic ONLF propaganda of rape and lynching, for which you threw away all journalism rules to report. There is a humanitarian crisis in the region brought on by recurrent famine, and battle between government troops and brutal Islamic ONLF rebels who indiscriminately kill civilians, including the machine gunning of over 70 Chinese and Ethiopian oil workers asleep in their beds at night. These murderers, and anyone who harbor or support them, need to be vilfied, not praised.
Amazing how you also chose to omit U.S. news coverage that this same Minnesota ethnic Ogaden/Somali community is under high surveillance by FBI for sending their young men to train under Al khaida to blow themselves up in East Africa, and that some of these trained men have actually been arrested on their return to U.S....Where is that little tidbit?
War crimes
Who cares about Ogaden ?
Will any nation intervere and stop these madness?
Males Zenawi is out Hitler and the so called world seems to finance this Crimes against inocent Civilians and that is a fact.
Fabricated News
This is a totally fabricated news by ONLF elements in Minneapolis.They wanted to get the attention of some news hungry journalists around the globe by creating a false story. these guys are known for their lies.
Its in Fact a silent World
THIS Story is a heart breaking any way thats what Human suffer in this same planet we live.
May God Help them and break these silence of the world.
ogaden
I am an ogadeni life in great state of MN,and i am also a victam of ethiopian troops.most if not all the ogadenis are victams of horror committed by ethiopian solders.
People like fatima and report(collective panishment) said all what needs to be said and there is no shortage for ogadenis to tall similar stories for the years to come.
DOUG;accept my thank to you for talling our storeis
We owe a huge debt of
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Doug McGill for this sort of moving and incisive reporting. It is great to have him back at the Daily Planet. He's a wonderful writer and an equally wonderful human being.
Ogaden Crisis
I really bear witness that all the stories of Doughless Mcgill about ogaden issue is true,I am from Ogaden and what he reported and much more which he did not report are ongoing,such as placing a person's head on a rock and hitting another rock to the head. There are many people who beated merely they came from the neighbouring countries such Djibouti,Somalia and kenya as well. There is no bit lie in the story of Doughless,we all agree and feel that he is fell-informed by the people of Ogaden region of Ethiopia. I want to tell more about the victims by the Ethiopian Military if you give me a chance without adding anything lie.There are more things they(Soldiers)use by torturing the innocent civilians. People of Ogaden region applauded and highly astonished how well the report unvieled this situation of ogaden Region. There are more things people still willing to tell the world.I would like to say action is needed the sooner the better. Thanks for the Internet and google it helps much for the suffering people of everywhere in this World generally and Ogaden people particularly . If any state have a desire to stop the suffering and Chenocide that is ongoing Ogaden it should stop right row.
un beliveble story,not happened by ethiopian soliders
i read the story and am one of ethiopian know very well by this time even am living i USA.
This story was fabericated by some bodies who have not interested to hear,lisen and see by thi time what ethiopia didfor her citzens and other africa countries like somlaia,rawanda,congo sudan and others either in humanterian acttions or peacekeeping process.
therefore it is better to dismeinate words which is belivebale by others.even you can serch thos who had doubt about the ethiopia government what he did for own citzens via differnet medias like website,tv,newspapers.
the ethiopia government soliders have their own ethical conducts and even they were asked if they do ilegal humanrightsvoilation like what other countries have.
therefore specialy this story came form individuals who have interset to gain some political or social welfare after coming from their countries not only in usa but alos in europe and other parts of the world.
hahaha
I am really sorry if what you say happened, but the fact that you try to cote someone saying that Ogaden is an occupied territory and your blatant ignoring of the atrocities committed by the ONLF and the fact that Ethiopia is a third world poor country which inturn forces it to use not so conventional mechanisms of your liking to stop the sick violence and terrorism activity perpetrated by ONLF, and respond in ways that the government can and will. In short, your biased article fosters more violence that exploring the true cause of the disaster. for instance you JUST CANT STOP using unmanned airial vehicles or so called predators just because it harmed, miamed or killed civilians, woman and children on the mountains of Afganistan and Pakistan because the terrorists as ONLF are hell bent on killing ya all. I am sorry for a single mistreatment by the Ethio gov. forces but as the government of USA, the Ethiopian gov is doing all it can to minimize such tragedies despite what ONLF DID DOES and WILL DO.
Thank you
THANK YOU DOUG McGILL. It is very shameful what ethiopian goverment is doing to their people.
Take what your hear with a grain of salt
I will not deny that the Ethiopian government is repressive to any group that challenges its rule. But that does not mean that all claims made by ONLF suppoters in Kenya ir Meaneapolis are true. It is unfortunate that western journalists become the propoganda arm of extremist groups and even jihadist elements.
True, war crime scenes sealed off in Ogaden, Oromia & Gambella
Great article reporter McGill. Continue your excellent job until the Prime Minster of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi faces trial for genocide, war crimes and the crimes against humanity in Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa region. Why have not the BBC and CNN documented these tragic wars? Where have their cameras been?? Why do US and British governments remain complict in the Ethiopian crimes? I think, these are crucial questions your article raises, which also all people who live under Ethiopian state-terrorism ask themselves everyday. These people feel abandoned and their pains unkown to the world. Other reporters must follow your suit.
Telling our stories makes you our hero reporter Doug McGill because there barely few journalists out there telling them!! This something deserves to be run as "breaking news" on major networks, but unfortunately they have not paid attention.
The Real tragedy in the Ogaden.
The quasi hitlerian,genocidal regime in Ethiopia led by the sisyphus of morons, a pseudo-intellectual, Malez zenawi, is hell bent on annihilating the people of the Ogaden and the whole world is done everything but cheer and celebrate the mass human right abuses that are continue unabated in this reclusive part of the world. Far from it, the west is bank rolling these mass casualties and flagrant disregard for any iota of international law commited by the ethiopian army.
The real tragedy though is the total silence by international media organisations that by either design or total lack of interest decided to cover up what is going on in the Ogaden. This is a time bomb that is waiting to explode. The world needs to do something and hold the ethiopians accountable.
Ethiopia's sole interest in the Ogaden is to exploit the regions vast natural gas and oil reserves. In its vampirish pursuit for wealth and self enriching ventures it will not stop at anything including the human rights violations that it is doing right now in the Ogaden.
Lastly, I would like to thank Mr. Douglas McGill for righting this story, It takes men of honour like him to stand up to the evils that are going in the world. It is good that he is informing the american people how their tax payer money is funding the sorry status quo in the Ogaden.
God bless.
very disheartening.
very disheartening.
Ogaden Crisis
Mr.Doug tanx for helping bring to light the plight of the victimized people of Ogaden.
In the comments section, Mr. Abdi is a typical Woyane (TPLF ) led government department spokesperson. What else do we expect reading their futile efforts to hide their heineous crime.
Why We Don’t Hear About the Conflict in the Ogaden
Ethiopia
By Will Connors
Yet with all the recent negative attention focused on Ethiopia, it is easy to forget that the country had been on the right track. In 2005, poverty was down, growth was up, the local press was flourishing, and the capital, Addis Ababa, was brimming with hope and excitement about upcoming elections.
When the results of those elections were made public, however, many felt that something was amiss. The opposition, enormously popular in the capital, came up suspiciously short. They called the elections fraudulent. Many election observers agreed. Protests took place throughout the country.
At this moment, with the international community watching, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his ruling party had a chance to show the world that it was indeed a burgeoning democracy. Instead, it took several steps backward and made Western leaders like Tony Blair, who'd appointed Zenawi to his Commission for Africa, look foolish.
During post-election demonstrations, at least 30,000 people were arrested, and more than 100 were killed. Snipers were used on protesters. All the top opposition leaders were arrested, as was the mayor-elect of Addis Ababa.
I, too, was arrested. At the time I was working for a regional African newspaper, and I had been caught taking photos of federal police beating young boys. For 12 hours I sat on a dirt floor in an old customs house, and, because I am American, I was largely ignored. The detained Ethiopians were beaten and forced to crawl over sharp rocks and hop up and down on bloodied feet. The lucky ones were released after a few weeks. Others were taken to rural prisons and not heard from for months.
The crackdown was remarkably effective. Fledgling newspapers were shut down, and their editors jailed along with the opposition leaders. Average Ethiopians once again became hesitant to speak out in public about anything potentially sensitive. Government agents are everywhere, friends would whisper to me when I tried to initiate conversations about politics.
Initially, I scoffed at their reluctance to talk and told them they were being dramatic. I did not understand that after this short period of euphoria and political engagement, Ethiopia had quickly sunk back into an era of repression and suspicion, an atmosphere of fear exactly like the ones that had defined the country's previous regimes, one socialist and one monarchic.
Just how naive I was in 2005 did not become clear, however, until this summer, when I began reporting on the region of Ethiopia known as the Ogaden.
The Ogaden is a hot and unforgiving landscape populated almost entirely by ethnically Somali pastoralists; it takes up a large swath of the Somali region of eastern Ethiopia. Depending on whom you ask, it has a population of 4 million or 7 million people.
Long ignored, the government has started to pay closer attention to the region in recent years, not only because of security concerns posed by rebel groups and Islamists from neighboring Somalia, but also because it has realized it has a valuable asset in the possible oil deposits there.
In April, an Ogadeni rebel group attacked a Chinese-run oil field and killed more than 70 Chinese and Ethiopian workers. After the attack, the Ethiopian military swooped in and vowed "to hunt down" the rebels. They began this effort by closing all roads into the region to commercial and humanitarian traffic, and then terrorizing the civilian population.
When three journalists from the New York Times traveled to the region to try to understand why the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a relatively unknown group, had lashed out so violently, they were detained by the Ethiopian military, threatened, had all their equipment confiscated, and were finally released without charge five days later.
Because I was contributing reporting to the Times, the Ethiopian government began to pay attention to me as well. I would later discover that my phone had been tapped months earlier, and there were rumors that I was being followed. While I knew I was under some kind of surveillance, I also knew that I had to begin reporting in earnest on the Ogaden, and so I sought out people who had fled that region and had ended up in Addis Ababa.
In Addis, there are several neighborhoods populated by ethnic Somalis, and one was made up almost entirely of internally displaced people from the Ogaden. I started spending time there, meeting secretly in living rooms with cautious, veiled women and angry men, young and old.
They would tell me their stories and show me their scars. One elderly woman even removed her hijab, exposing her shoulder and back, to show me the grotesque, deep scar hidden there. Ten months earlier, she had been stabbed with a bayonet by an Ethiopian soldier. "He asked me to stand up, and I guess I did this too slowly for him," she said, focusing her rheumy, blue-rimmed eyes on mine. "He meant to hit my face."
Every person I interviewed had a similar story. Their villages had been burned. Their men and women had been jailed, tortured, and raped. Many had been killed. One student I spoke with said, "There are only two options for us: Join the rebels or flee."
After a Times piece detailed these accusations, aid workers and officials within the government became more willing to speak about other things that were happening in the Ogaden, but none would comment on the record or meet publicly. They were afraid to jeopardize their operations in the country. The government had effectively cowed not only the civilian population, but also aid groups, the United Nations, and foreign embassies.
In addition to having my phone tapped, I was now sure I was being followed by plainclothes intelligence agents. On several occasions, after I exited a taxi, the driver would be interrogated by police.
One day, two men in civilian clothes identifying themselves as police officers showed up at my house and questioned my cook, a 15-year-old girl who'd just finished the eighth grade and knew nothing about my work. She was shaken by the experience, and I knew things had changed.
I began to consider leaving Ethiopia. My love for the country collided with my ever-increasing fear and disdain for those who were making my life, and the lives of those who knew me, difficult. For the first time in two years of living in this beautiful place, I was afraid to leave my home. The government's goal was intimidation, and it was working.
Everyone around me told me to leave, including the U.S. ambassador, who offered to escort me to the airport. It was not an official expulsion, but there was a real chance that I would be arrested and charged under local laws if I stayed. The next day, I reluctantly bought a ticket and packed my bags.
Early on a Saturday morning, I hailed a taxi to take me to the American Embassy. As we pulled away from my house, I noticed my landlord looking out from his door. He had seen me put luggage into the taxi, and I knew he would immediately call the police with this information.
Earlier that week, I had learned that the man I had lived not 200 yards from for two years, the man I paid my rent to and chatted amiably about America with, was an unofficial government spy. In 2005, he had identified and turned in dozens of neighborhood people he suspected of supporting the opposition party. He even appeared on the state-run TV channel urging the ruling party and the police to more effectively punish the city's young people.
I urged the taxi driver to hurry. At the embassy, I was greeted by the ambassador, who shook my hand and tossed my suitcase into the trunk of his waiting SUV. "I wonder if there'll be any Ethiopian intelligence guys waiting for you at the airport," he said, chuckling.
There were not. Only glassy-eyed airport employees and passengers going about the business of waiting. I boarded the plane, and without any fanfare except my own nervous breathing, flew away from Ethiopia-the country I loved that, in the end, didn't love me back.
THANK YOU MR. DOUG
SOME ONE SAID THERES NO GONOCIDE IN ETHIOPIA BUT The Ethiopian regime spends all the money on tank, plans, guns and latest war machines to kill innocent children and women in the Ogaden by organized terror and to attack the neighboring countries. the Ethiopia regime uses foreign aid to conduct war against innocent people and neighboring countries and continue to suppress internal opposition and uprising of the Ogaden people who are fighting for their self-determination. reports by credible human rights groups, including International Commission of Jurists, Amnesty International, and Human rights watch/Africa, confirm that there is no rule of law in Ethiopia today.
The self-determination of the Ogaden people
The right of self determination is a synthesis of individual right that has been accepted by the International Community. in addition, the International Bill of Human rights that in article 1[1] of both covenants, which says , protects it: All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of the right, the the freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Hence, like any other people in the world, the Ogaden and other oppressed peoples in Ethiopia are endowed with right to self-determination. Therefore, they are entitled to freely exercise their rights, which ultimately belong to them and to them alone .
THANK YOU MR. DOUG
Really this is true catastrophe. But no doubt to see some Ethiopian espionage activist to insult the mindful and grateful writer Mr. Doug, don't give up to discovery the true and we appreciated you sir. This is really your job
Big crimes against humanity
Shame on you Abdi in the comment section. Well, you can't hide little RIDWAN's neck. Shame on you. I know you are TPLF member hidding his name, is about time to tell the real stories.
Thank you very much doug McGill
You are playing with a FIRE
For whom are you writing? For Ogaden Somli people? I'm 100 percent sure that you are working against Ogaden people and of course against all Ethiopians. This is a clandestine crime against humanity. We, the Ogaden people had never enjoyed our rights before as we are doing today. It is not the government doing most of the fighting with the ONLF insergents.It is the PEOPLE of OGADEN.
You are trying to instigate civil war so that you will be able to control possible oil fields at the end. You are trying to distablize Ethiopia like Congo, Darfur, Iraq, and Afghanistan.... to avoid future ENERGY concerns of your country. I think you very well know Ethiopia. Ethiopia had never given up for Europeans and won't in the future. We are quite aware of your strategies. Today Africa is AWAKE!!! Please be satisfied with what you have. Don't try to make your comfort from the death of poor African people.
What do they have to offer!
The systematic and widespread killings of the people of ogaden by the Ethiopian government is a fact. America supports the Ethiopian government, that is fact too. What can we do about it? American government is not a humanitarian organisation, what is in for the American government for saving the four million ogadenis. America has permanent interest not permanent friends. It's the responsibility of the ogaden people to show that America will be better of with the people of ogaden as an ally. Take Bosnia and Herzogovina as an example.
Ogaden Crisis
I strongly believe that is inhumane to happened such horrified stories in Ogadenia.It is humiliation of Economic politics and socially as well.
Perpetrators should bring in front of justice right now. Ahmed
Ogaden
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King Jr.
What is going on in Ogaden region is unique to the world, this genocide is a reality to millions of innocent Ogadeni people...
thank you sir... for speaking the truth, millions of people in the Ogaden regions thanks you...
BY DOUG MCGIL Thank you for the true and your free mindful
BY DOUG MCGIL Thank you for the true and your free mindfulThis is the sad reality for Ogadenis in Ogaden.
Worst journalism
where is the information about endless killings, burnings and bombings by ONLF terrorists?
where is the response or quotes from ethiopian government and anti-terrorism peaceful Ogaden people?
you have only one bias group of sources and you call yourself a journalist?
If i were you, i would quit journalism.
i feel bad for "TCDAILYPLANET.NET" which has lost credibility by allowing propaganda articles.
Wahat a sad world!
There is no doubt that the extrajudicial killings in ogaden are commited by the Ethiopian government. The individuals dubbed locally as (OGM) Ogaden Genocide Marshals include: Da'ud (Amhar), the head of the so-called Somali administration, Iley, the head of the Security Bureau, and the head of the current Tigrian clique in Addis Ababa Mr. Meles Zenawi
what can we do about it?
A major violation of UN Charter.
Ethiopia is born with a colonial ambition of Amhara tribe, if there is such a thing. Through out ethiopia's history of a little over 100 years, the party in power has always violated it's citizen's right through torture and genocide. Western world turned blind eye because ethiopia was being run by Christians and they wanted to keep it that way. Well, I say that's enough. All oppressed people of ethiopia should rise and claim their right to freedom and liberty. The only way to achieve that is by dividing ethiopia to its precolonial kingdoms where every tribe lived side by side and in respect of each other.
Mr. Doug
You have touch some good points with both sides being responsible. I remember when i was working for the NGO Action Against Hunger in Ogaden. About 10 years ago, we were helping the local Ogaden people in Ethiopia. The locals are very scared of both the ONLF and the government. The government because it is paranoid regime and feared that some people will help the ONLF. The ONLF, because no one knows where the next bombing or ONLF mine will be located. It was a terrifying lifestyle for these people. Ironically, most of them don't support ONLF. In fact, only a couple of sub-sub clans of Ogaden support ONLF. Anyway, the ONLF ambushed our NGO in 1999. Mr. Eric Courly was kidnapped by ONLF. We were terrified. But the ONLF has all its financers and leadership in UK/Europe, Minnesota, DC and Australia so they did not hurt Eric. THANK GOD! They know how to play the diplomatic game with the WEST. Anyway, it is sad that the ONLF continues to bomb schools and development projects in Ogaden. So many crimes are being committed by ONLF in Ogaden but even the Meles Zenawi government helps ONLF by hiding the ONLF crimes. Meles wants the Oil companies to think ONLF is not active in Ogaden region and to persuade them to invest. So his government does not even report the smaller crimes by the ONLF terrorists. In the middle, the locals are the ones suffering.
un-matured article
This person knows nothin about that area.
He is either a somali,Eritrean, or confused white man.
The Ethiopian army is fighting the terrorist groups blowing up buildings in the big cities.
This evidence could lead to a solution
Thank you Doug for giving the the victims the oppurtunity to tell their stories. This might be a tiny portion of what has been happening in the Ogaden. In the past people were so afraid to talk. Others just say 'what is point", no one is going to do anything anyway!
Whether something has been done or not, the violations and attrocities must be told. At minimum, it might give a relief to the vicitmns and make the perperrators be aware that they are being watched.
IT IS CALLED GENOCIDE MAN.
Ethiopian forces are committing extrajudicial killings, rape, and gruesome maiming in Ogaden. Halloo people, don't be so daft! This perfectly fits the legal definition of genocide. It is like Darfur. ONLF is merely protesting against Genocide. ONLF is a victim don't blame the victim blame the genocide perpetuators.
Reality is reality no one can hide the truth
What is commentators are saying shows their support of crime perpitrators. Mr. Doug is professional journalist that what he disclosed is similar with what HRW, AP, APA, Bloomerg, New York Times, American Chronicles, and many others already told us. Though Abysinian led regime of Addis Ababa's intention is to extriminate Ogaden people, victims who survived from the BARBARIC compaign are everywhere and ready to share their ordeal with respected journalists like Mr. Doug, and humane people in world.
I can understand the protest of criminal supporters objectives, it is simply to defend their Abyssinian colleagues who are killing Ogadens, Oromo people, Anuaks, Sidama, Anfars, Binishingul, and all other none Abyssinian ethnic groups in Ethiopia. But, you should know that hiding crime as some of you did, is another crime against humanity.
You criminal supporters, what you are ignoring is that ONLF is sons, daughters, and fathers of the people under the oppression and victimized by Abyssinian led regime of Addis Ababa. ONLF men and women are not British, or Chinese, they are victims carried gun to defend their people and themselves from the Abbysinian beasts who their days are numbered. How sons, fathers, and daughters of Ogaden people can kill their families. You are lying, lying a plan lei. Some of you said, "ONLF is against development," where is development? From Haile Selese to current Melese, what Ogaden people received from Addis Ababa is one thing, and that thing is "kill Somalis." History will change soon, and criminals of Abyssinian will pay the prize.
Victory for oppressed people, and fiasco for Abyssinain criminals and their offspring supporters.
Mr. Doug, keep the noble job, and keep disclosing crimes against humanity.
Ogadenia is another Darfur.
Mr doug, You hit the nail on the head, that is exactly what is happening in Ogadenia. It is the daily life of the Ogadenian, and the ethiopian government is killing, torturing and raping the beautyfull ogadenian girls.
@Abdi, the guy who wrote the first comment, i am sure you are not ogaden, and you don't know exactly what is going on in ogadenia(the oil-rich oagden basin), and if you are support the genocide in ogadenia that is another case and justice will over come soon Insha allah.
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