RX: mass arrest, illegal confiscation and rape in Ogaden

2009-04-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

As radio freedom voice of ogadeni people reprted- the ;ast two weeks, in Ogaden there were mass arrest, illegal confiscation of livestock and money and rape took place ACROS OGADEN. this is what is normal in Ogaden, it hapens daily and Ogadeni people may not suprise if many people are killed, arrested or young and old women are rapped.

some of the following are the latest victims acros Ogaden.

Illegal detentions:
higlaleey of jarar province.

1. Aw-Mahdi Aw-axmed

2. Cabdi Cumar Cabeeye

3. Shariif Afloow

4. Mahdi Maxamed Oogle

5. Shugri Maxmed Cabdi Geedi

6. Timacadde C/Shakuur

oballe of jarar province.
1. Taajir Sheekh Muxumed

2. Axmed Aflaag

3. Axmed Shugri Mooge

Garbo. Nogob province.

1- Reer Cabdi Rashiid aw-muxumed

2- Reer CabdI naaser

3- Macallin Shugri

4- Faadumo Shekh Xasan

5- Khadra Cabdi Guudcadde

6- Yusur Gurre Cismaan

7- Aamina Sheekh C/llaahi

8- Hinda axmed Sheekh Maxamed

9- Ibraahim Yusuf Colaad

10-Fardowsa Nuuriye

OGADEN: ONLF backs Genocide Watch call for Ethiopian investigation

2009-04-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

ONLF press release
April 17, 2009

The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) strongly supports the call by Genocide Watch for the initiation of an investigation of the human rights situation in Ethiopia based on the proprio motu powers of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The ONLF has maintained for some time that the Ethiopian regime of Melez Zenawi is engaged in war crimes tantamount to Genocide in Ogaden. The United Nations own humanitarian assessment team which visited Ogaden in September 2007 concluded that an independent investigation was warranted but this recommendation was never acted upon and the details of their findings with regards to human rights was never fully released.

The United Nations cannot continue to sit by idly as countless innocent civilians in Ogaden are killed senselessly by the armed forces of Ethiopia in a deliberate policy aimed at ethnically cleansing the Somalis of Ogaden from their own land. Should the UN High Commissioner choose to initiate a human rights investigation, the ONLF affirms that we will cooperate fully with this effort.

The fact that the current Ethiopian regime has increased its military budget and is seeking to expand domestic arms production capacity as reported this week is indicative of the misguided priorities of this regime even when faced with the stark reality of poverty, recurring famines and lack of access to education and health services for the broad masses.

Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)

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See Genocide Watch Open Letter to UN

Makhtal: a victim of legal lynching

2009-04-12T07:57:00.000-07:00

Makhtal: a victim of legal lynching
Innocent on the death raw-guilty to what happened decades before his birth-victim of illegal rendition between three countries, Bashir Makhtal’s case combined many miserable things.

Makhtal was considered as a self charity organization by his family and relatives as he was a bread winner for a very large family, a responsibility which induced him to work hard part of which was his business adventure in the most dangerous and destabilized region of East Africa .

On a normal December day, Makhtal was planning his usual business when Ethiopia invaded Somalia. Makhtal, following his government’s travel warning, had left for Kenya on his Canadian passport, but was illegally detained by Kenyan police. First of all, it was for the US interest to detain all foreign nationals, but, Makhtal’s surname was more interesting and was purposely leaked to the media which reported that ONLF founder’s son was captured by Kenyan security forces-the beginning of the more than two years old tragic scenario of Makhtal and his family.

Makhal’s detention was financial and emotional catastrophe to our family which put us in a dilemma. At the time of his detention, 17 of nephews and niece of Makhtal were doing their schools, colleges and universities relying on only his financial support, but five months later they all dropped the school, and fled or arrested. His seventy-five years old mother is in a very emotional time, while five of his brothers and relative serving life or death sentences; the whole family live in limbo, with bad and worst events happening by the day.

What is heartrending to our family is, the ‘prejudges’ we face due to our grandfather’s manipulated history of his role in the war for justice and freedom for both his people and other oppressed Ethiopians. I, for example, at my school, classmates used to ask me about ONLF thinking Makhtal’s family somehow knows more about it than the others do. But, the time I profoundly realized our vulnerability to avery treacherous, social prejudgment was when I happened to apply a job in my home town of dhagaxbuur, where the deputy chairman of zonal administration told me, I was extremely wrong to apply a job from a very same government which we fought and hated;he seemingly meant my grandfather’s movement for rights of Ogaden to whom I am the third generation and only saw him few months before his death-wrongful spread rumors which created the present hatful sense may pass hundreds more years before we have it re-corrected;

Bashir Makhtal’s name and rumors about him was not strange in jigjiga.

in the year 2001, following the purchase of a home in dhagaxbuur by relative,they rumored that Makhtal is coming home with the intention of building plant. Some went further and said that he got an ambition to be president of the region and also to re-claim the huge buildings and land of his grandfather which were conquered by King Haile Selase. This time it was clear that he was not ONLF nor did they suspect him,but another more dangerous case was already there for him; had it been true and makhtal come home,they would had accused him of being foreign with the intention of spying our nation for an enemy.

Makhtal Dahir himself did nothing wrong, he was simply freedom activist which is actually critical to the concerned regime and systems. For Makhtal,it was a movement against the absolute monarch of king Haile Selase and the red terror of Mingestu but never been anti-Ethiopian, but if history can easy be manipulated,one might say Mandela was not fighting against the apartheid,but against white.

Nevertheless, Makhtal is on the brink to be convicted and even sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit; legal lynching apparently involves in Bashir’s case; hearsay eyewitness testimony is received as the only trail evidence. In the first days the mentioned eyewitnesses(by the government) were only two but suddenly became six to strengthen their testimony by number as they seemingly failed to present strong and
reliable evidence, moreover, three of the witnesses are detainees, who were also tortured, from two different jails in Jigjiga. However this made the case of Makhtal very complicated,and capital punishment might be inevitable, no matter how innocent he is.

Circumstantial evidence put Mr Hamilton on death raw; in his case, it involves the testimony of Carolyn and cilbert who were admittedly involved in the crime and the prosecution’s theory rest entirely on their testimony. He was finally killed though he was screaming for his innocence to the last of his breath; “Tonight you killed innocent Hamilton, but truth will come out tomorrow”.

Makhtal’s case is more similar to that one of Hamilton: first of all, Makhtal is a victim of legal lynching and was denied to produce any exculpatory evidences, secondly the most important eyewitness is a very known man for his brutal record during the derg regime in which he was the head of local security council,which was spying for the government and allegedly killed many people. Adan Tani fled the country after the derg fell,out of fear of prosecution by the new administration for his past crimes and he only came back home 13 years later, which he purposely coincided with the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia; Thirdly the investigating officers have no knowledge about Makhtal’s past activities and the only available source is for their investigation is Abdi Eley, the head of security bureau in the Somali region (a very same post Adan Tani used to hold) -a man who has plenipotentiary power in Somali region, who ordered 300 live sentences and 200 death penalties to opposition members and suspected ONLF sympathizers in the space of months without a court trail, among of whom are Makhtal’s old brother and many of his relatives. Mr Eley is now in search of finding more witnesses, and he desperately trying to have Makhtal executed.

For their first presentation witnesses testimony was all about hearsay,which the present day democratic nations’ law excludes from court trails due to its four
primary dangers;
 fault memory-the danger that declarant will forget key material;
 misperception- the danger that the declarant mischarged, misinterpreted, or misunderstood what she heard or saw;
 ambiguity- the danger that the meaning intended by the declarant will be misinterpreted by the witness, and hence,the fact finder.
 Lack of candor –the danger that the declarant will consciously lie

This is more dangerous specially in a country where the persecutors’ job is merely to secure conviction but not to ensure justice was done, and jury sit idly by as his office continues the unjust prosecution of innocent people due to external pressure

Finally, the die was cast-Makhtal’s court has a tendency to be misled by the deceitful statements, and so-called eyewitnesses hearsay testimony, and innocent Makhtal would be soon convicted and very likely be executed.

Leslie Shaefer’s poem describes how justice is always abused;

Eyewitnesses maintained her mistake.
Then the endless tease ends with one vote of a…

Lady "justice" may be blind
but she's not deaf
she hears the cries of innocent
and guilty blood……

By H B Abdullahi

Ogaden Human Rights Group

RX: mass arrest, illegal confiscation and rape in Ogaden

OGADEN: ONLF backs Genocide Watch call for Ethiopian investigation

Makhtal: a victim of legal lynching