Saturday, July 11, 2015

Reporters in Ogaden and Addis Ababa have reported that the Ethiopian security in Addis Ababa and other towns in Ethiopia are rounding thousands of Somalis regardless of being from Ogaden, Djibouti or Somalia and are detaining them, claiming that all Somalis are a threat to the security of the visit of Barack Obama to Ethiopia. In a similar move, the Ethiopian Army and its associated militia the Liyu-Police are rounding thousands in Ogaden and transporting them to Jail Ogaden in Jigjiga.

The Obama visit is giving a pretext for the Army and Liyu-police in Ogaden to detain more civilians so that they could demand more cash for their release from relatives in the Diaspora. This a very common practice to augment their dwindling funds after the international community stopped supporting some of their projects in Ogaden. Currently the Liyu-police is being bank-rolled by cash from the Chinese company that is preparing to export Gas from Jeexdin (Kalub), which pays cash for “security” thus supporting genocide in Ogaden in exchange for Oil and Gas concessions.

The new wave of detention in Ogaden are being supervised by the head of Ethiopian Administration in Ogaden Mr Abdi Omar Illey nicknamed UBO (Gourd), who has ordered the Liyu police to collect detainees from the towns of Fik, Hamaro, Dhuhun, Godey, Har’ad, Qabridaher, Aware, Wardhere and Shilabo. The Detainees include women and teenagers.

In Addis Ababa, detainees were taken to military camps and other undisclosed locations so that relatives cannot have access to those missing. Relatives who go to stations seeking news of their relative are themselves detained. Therefore all Somalis are either in hiding or escaping to nearby towns, where some are picked up again.

This is not the first time that Somalis were discriminated and selectively detained in Addis Ababa. Every time there is an even in Addis Ababa, Somalis are targeted. Qorahay reporter asked a woman in Addis hidden by other Ethiopian friend her views about the situation and she replied, “We did not choose to be Ethiopia, they are keeping us by force and they are at the same time segregating us and showing us we are not them. Why cannot they just let us leave if they cannot treat us as equals”Although the Ethiopian regime claims that Somalis are Ethiopian citizen and enjoy the same rights as other Ethiopians and are protected by the Ethiopian “Constitution” this act clearly shows that Somalis are at best third class citizens or tolerated aliens.

The Ethiopian regime has just recently concluded a fraudulent “election” where it won 100% of the votes in Stalinist Soviet style Democracy. The Regime routinely commits crimes against humanity and war crimes in Ogaden and Ethiopia. Journalists are considered terrorists for reporting any news that the regime considers is revealing its transgressions. Hundreds of Ethiopian Journalists are in Prison in Ethiopia. In the Ogaden, no independent media is allowed and the territory is under total embargo on media , trade and aid to most areas in Ogaden.

The regime has just released few journalists after having completed its electoral fraud and it has secured the support of its main international sponsors for a new mandate to keep its dictatorship over the Ethiopian people with guarantees of aid and economic support to be continued. In addition, the journalists were released  in order to reduce the criticism addressed to president Obama visit.

The American Administration of Barack Obama is aware of these and occasionally issues through the State Department reports about the Human Rights violations of the Tigray led regime in Ethiopia. However, the USA administration defends and props up the Ethiopian regime politically, economically and militarily and uses it as proxy in the Horn of Africa, disregarding the rights and needs of the Ethiopian people and the Somalis in the Horn of Africa who are the main victims of Ethiopian regime aggression.

Respect of the Human and Political Rights of peoples and the curtailment of state impunity is the only guarantee against terrorism.

We will follow up this story and keep reporting any developments.

By Waxgarad

Story aggregated from Qorahay Media Report  and independent sources in Addis, Ogaden and Human Rights groups