Written evidence submitted by the Ogaden
Community Association
We, the Ogaden Community in the UK, are deeply
distressed and concerned about the massacre and extra-judicial
killings that the Ethiopian government troops had perpetuated
against the Ogaden civilians at several locations during the last
two months.
On the 21 November 2005 the Eritrean troops
in the Ogaden burned the houses of the rural community of Fool
Jeex and all their food supplies (60,000kg of maize) and destroyed
their water reservoirs making one thousand people destitute and
homeless. On the 15 November the troops killed wantonly 30 people
in broad daylight and wounded 17 people in the town of Qabri daharre—see
attached report from ONLF and the international media reports.[15]
14 Before that there were similar massacres in the town of Shilabo
where the civilians listening to the BBC broadcast were gunned
down and five prominent elders of the community were killed and
dozens wounded. The same occurred in Farmadow in October. At the
beginning of 2005 two elders and women were burned alive in the
Qorille hamlet. The Ethiopian occupation troops in the Ogaden
kills without any censure the civilian population of the Ogaden
knowing that they will not be made accountable.
This pattern of killing civilians is not confined
to the Ogaden only but is spreading all over Ethiopia. The Ethiopian
governed had no compunctions in murdering its civilian population
in front of the cameras in broad daylight in the capital in Addis
Ababa let alone the rural areas out of international security
in the Ogaden.
We kindly request your government to ask the
UN human rights commission to send a fact finding mission to the
Ogaden and investigate the crimes against unarmed civilians. Ignoring
this will encourage the Ethiopian regime to commit more heinous
crimes and hindsight lamentations will not help victims of genocide.
80% of the funds used to commit these crimes come from international
donations intended to help this very people. Attached Reuters
report 17 November 2005.[16]
Ogaden Community Association
20 December 2005
15 Not printed. Back
16
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