More People Fleeing Eritrea (Lack of Political stablity-Guman rights watch)

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Eritrean Refugees: Extensive detention, torture of citizens and prolonged military conscription prompted increasing numbers of Eritrean to flee the country, Human Rights Watch says in a report released Thursday in London. "Eritrea's government is turning the country into a giant prison," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director in Human Right Watch. "Eritrea should immediately account for hundreds of (disappeared prisoners) and open its jails to independent scrutiny." Human Right Watch called the United States and European Union to coordinate with the UN and the African Union to resolve regional tensions and ensure that development aid to Eritrea is linked to the progress on human rights. The EU recently approved a €122 million assistance package to Eritrea despite concerns that development projects in Eritrea are carried out by conscript or prison labor in violation of international law, the human rights organization noted. Human Right Watch says repression in Eritrea creates human right crisis and called some countries to cease forced returns of Eritrean refugees, asylum seekers to their homeland, given the risk of torture. Because of the risk of mistreatment faced by those who are returned, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has advised against deporting anyone of the Eritrean refugees to Eritrea, including rejected asylum seekers. The UNHCR and the government of Sudan launched a joint registration operation for ten of thousands Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees living in eastern Sudan. The registration official started on March 2008 estimated more than 133,000 refugees will benefit from the exercise. Out of the 133,000 Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees, 95,000 live in open camps in Kassala, Gadaref, Jezzira, Sinar and the Red Sea States of Eastern and Central Sudan, while about 38,000 live in urban and rural areas of these states. The capital city of Sudan, Khartoum is said to be hosting close to 30,000 Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees. By registering these populations, both the government of Sudan and UNHCR hope to update the refugee statistics and to determine the best solution based on the refugees' profile. Some will require continued humanitarian support because of their vulnerability. Others may require self-reliance support while a number may be in need of resettlement in a third country because they can neither remain in Sudan nor repatriate. Most importantly, it will translate into reconfirmed refugee status for nearly 70,000 Eritrean who lost it following the application of the 2002-2004 Cessation Clause. The registration will also take into account the arrival of asylum seekers who totalled up 10,000 since the beginning of last year. Nearly 90 percent of them originating from Eritrea cited forced army enrolment as their main reason for flight. Others are from Ethiopia and Somalia. The last general registration took place in 2001. After being in exile for four decades, Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees are among the most protracted refugee populations in the world. UNHCR has recently signed an agreement with three organizations aimed at ensuring the protection needs of refugees and asylum seekers in Libya. This is in line with UNHCR's responsibility to advocate for better protection of refugees in the context of mixed asylum and migration flows. The agreement is part of UNHCR's work under its Ten-Point Plan of Action on Refugee Protection and Mixed Migration, which sets out a number of areas where the agency believes initiatives are called for and where it can contribute some expertise in this challenging area. There are currently some 9,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Libya – mainly Iraqis and Palestinians, and also Eritrean, Sudanese, Somalis, Liberians, Sierra Leonean and Congolese from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. "We welcome the decision of the Libyan authorities not to deport Eritrean asylum seekers," said Radhouane Nouicer, chief of UNHCR's Middle East and North Africa bureau. "We are aware of the challenges in dealing with mixed flows of irregular immigrants and asylum seekers, and are appreciative of the Libyan government's efforts to address some of these issues in consultation with our office in Tripoli," he added. Egypt has seen a surge of Eritrean refugees entering the country illegally in recent months by land from Sudan or directly from Eritrea via the Red Sea. The Egyptian authorities on 27 February 2008 had suspended access of UNHCR protection staff to asylum seekers in detention. Since then, UNHCR has been in continuous contact with relevant authorities through official communications and meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting access to asylum seekers in detention to evaluate their need for international protection as well as to identify humanitarian solutions to their plight. UNHCR welcomes the decision of the Egyptian authorities for UNHCR to have unhindered access to asylum seekers in detention centres in Egypt and to resume refugee status determination interviews.

Call on US and Canadian Authorities to Deny Visit by Ogaden Genocide Perpetrator

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Join Press Release by: East African Human Rights Coalition & Solidarity Movement for new Ethiopia Da’ud Mohamed Ali, governor of the Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia, is heading up a delegation that is expected to tour North America, which includes a planned visit to Minnesota this weekend and on to Canada next week. Why Minnesota? Minnesota is now home to more Somali Ogadens than anywhere else outside of Ethiopia. We believe that if the US and the Canadian public knew more about this man and his central complicity in committing massive atrocities against his own people, they would not only be outraged; they would never allow him entrance into either of these free countries. In March of 2009, Dr. Gregory Stanton, president of Genocide Watch, has called Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles’s regime “serial killers” and has referred the case on to the International Criminal Court to consider doing an in-depth investigation, particularly citing the case of the Ogaden region. Base on Da’ud’s perpetration of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Ogaden region (Somali Regional State), we are hoping—that the US and Canadian Governments will deny him a visa. Da’ud has been connected to massive crimes against humanity, war crimes and the destruction of livelihood, as documented by human rights organizations and humanitarian groups working in the area. Food, medical aid and other humanitarian assistance have been blocked and thousands were displaced by Da’ud’s orders. Recently 42 international organizations have been kicked out of the country, allegedly for providing information on the human rights situation, later used in the US State Department’s disparaging human rights report on Ethiopia. The genocide and dictatorship by a corrupt and brutal government under the leadership of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, known for using tactics to suppress the people while pretending to be a partner in the War on Terror. Zenawi uses ethnic “puppets,” like Da’ud, to carry out schemes usually attached to the exploitation of natural resources; in this case, the large gas and oil reserves in the region. Americans and Canadians should shun any support of such genocide perpetrators and not give them a voice or a platform to intimidate and silence those among us. This coalition of concerned American and Canadian are asking that the both goverments exercise their established laws against human rights violators in respect to Da’ud and his delegation, excluding them from entry. Indeed it will give voice to the silenced victims in Ethiopia—something that would indeed be an encouraging source of hope to some who have been discouraged by US and Canadian quietness of this terrorist regime. Ethiopians have been divided by ethnicity, region, political view, religion and other differences, but those in this new coalition hope that by coming together in solidarity around principles of putting “humanity before ethnicity” or any other difference; that they can better create society that is free, democratic, just, reconciled and prosperous. we are working together to bring about the transformation based on the principle that “no one will be free until all are free.” This is the only way to break the cycle of dictatorship, injustice, ethnic conflict, poverty, exploitation and corruption that is now rampant on the continent. Some of the crimes that Da’ud is directly linked to include: · Forcible mobilization of civil servants to pick up arms and fight the ONLF. Da’ud Mohamed, as a party deputy leader, was in charge of the campaign to mobilize untrained civil servants to face highly trained armed groups. In an article in the New York Times, see http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/world/africa/15ethiopia.html , it was written “Anybody who works for the government — teachers, doctors, clerks, administrators — has to join a militia,” In the same reported that “Several Western officials say they are alarmed about this new strategy, especially when the first signs maybe emerging of a humanitarian crisis that aid officials predicted over the summer.” · In May 2007, Da’ud Mohamed called for and chaired all civil servant staff meeting which was held at Abdulmajid Hussein Teacher Training Collegall, and in that meeting, ordered all the present civil servants to be transported to the frontline to fight armed groups. Some of them have been killed, others have fled to neighboring countries and those who refused to fight were jailed. · In October 2008, Mr Daud, accompanied by the head of the regional security Abdi Omar, (also known Abdi Iley), toured Fiq, Korahe and Degahbour zones, to implement similar operations. In Degahbour, he ordered the salaries of Gunagado district to be frozen until they captured or killed the leader of ONLF, whom he believed was in the area at that time. · In December 2008, the army and the militia, with the approval of the Regional Security Council Chair Mr. Daud Mohamed, massacred 37 unarmed civilians and politicians including Qanyare, a member of Gursum district parliament, Ali Heydar- head of Biyo Ade Kebele administration and Omer Aw Ibrahim- a known elder in the village. Mr Mohamed as the head the Security Council that leads and overseas the military and militia operations in the region approved all these operations. · In January 2009, hundreds of civil servants were dismissed for not taking up arms against rebel groups by the order of the regional president. In its 130 page report supplemented with satellite images of the burnt villages, the Human Rights Watch said “During the peak of the army’s counterinsurgency campaign from June to September 2007, witnesses described how Ethiopian troops forcibly displaced entire rural communities and destroyed dozens of rural villages; executed at least 150 civilians, sometimes in demonstration killings to terrorize those communities suspected of supporting the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF); and arbitrarily detained hundreds of civilians in military barracks where they experienced beatings, torture, and widespread rape and other forms of sexual violence.” (http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/06/12/collectivepunishment Buildings in Labigah town, in the Ogaden, are seen before their destruction in this handout satellite image taken February 2008. Satellite images confirm reports that the TPLF/EPRDF military have burned towns and villages in the remote Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia, the American Association for the Advancement of Science reported on eight sites in the rocky, arid region, which borders Somalia, have clear signs of burning and other destruction, the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program said. REUTERS/American Association for the Advancement of Science/Digital Globe/Handout. Amnesty International, Ogaden Human Rights Committee, the US state department and other international institutions have also documented the severe human rights violations in Ogaden (Seehttp://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/119001.htm, http://www.amnesty.ca/resource_centre/news/view.php?load=arcview&article=4046&c=Resource+Centre+News, http://www.ogadenrights.org/THE_DIRE.htm, ). In October 2008 Douglas Alexander, the international development secretary, visited Ogaden and experienced human rights violations in Ogaden first hand after malnourished children and mothers were forcefully removed from the Hospital he visited in Kabridehar region (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4965305.ece) For more information please contact Mr. Yassin Kassim; Executive Director East African Human Rights Coalition Email, Yassin@solidaritymovement.org Or Mr. Obang Metho Executive Director Solidarity Movement for new Ethiopia Email: Obang@solidaritymovement.org

Tune, others affected by Ethiopian murder-suicide

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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Most of Monday, Sept. 29 was a normal day in the lives of a group of Ethiopian marathon runners coached by Hadji Adilo. "We did a session in the morning and the athletes trained privately in the afternoon," recalled the marathon-runner-cum-coach during a telephone interview late last week. "Many of the runners in the group were preparing for marathons throughout the world. Everything was fine and peaceful. Everyone was concentrated and we had a nice day." After another session in the afternoon, many of the athletes went home to rest and recover from a hard day of training. Their lives were then dramatically altered after they discovered some tragic news at about 9 p.m. The parents and sister of one of the group's top runners, Leila Aman, who were also the mother and father in law to 2008 Boston Marathon and Houston Marathon champion Dire Tune, were shot and killed by Aman's brother in-law. The incident has forced some of the runners to stop training during a period of mourning. The runners are also thinking about canceling competitive plans this fall. Tune is considering the New York City Marathon on Nov. 1. "I still cannot believe what happened," said Adilo, who received a phone call about the shooting from fellow coach and agent Gemedu Dedefo, the husband of Ethiopian elite marathon runner Leila Aman (2:27.18 in the 2004 Berlin Marathon). "When Hadji called to tell me, I thought he was not serious," says Kassim Adilo, a brother to Hadji Adilo and a direct cousin of Leila Aman and a top class marathon runner himself with a personal best of 2:10.20. "I remember Leila telling us that he had often threatened her, but I never thought it would come down to this." Because Adilo's family and running group based in Addis Ababa consists of more than 20 people, it took about an hour for all members of the family to hear about the incident and prepare to leave for Assela. "We received another call telling us that the mother passed away and we were really disturbed," says Kassim Adilo. Starting their journey from the home of Leila Aman, the group headed to Assela and got the second phone call just before they reached the city at 11 p.m. that the sister had also passed away. By the time they got to the murder scene at around midnight, they heard that Aman's father had died and that the brother-in-law had killed himself as well. "You do not know how to deal with such kind of situations," said Hadji Adilo. "I have never heard anything happening like this ever in Ethiopia and I do not think it matters how strong you are. Everyone has been affected by this." The group received more bad news when they arrived in Assela. "I was hoping that the children had not seen what happened," says Kassim Adilo. "But when we got back home [to the murder scene], the youngest child said to us "Baba [Daddy] came with a gun and boom, boom, boom he shot Mama [mother], Ababa [grandfather] and Emama [grandmother]. I fear for the kids. This is an experience that will stay with them forever." Police have not responded to repeated phone requests for comment. The tragedy has rocked what is considered one of Ethiopia's largest running dynasties. The central figure of this dynasty is Hadji Adilo, a former member of the Ethiopian National Team in the marathon before retiring in 2004 to take up coaching. Hadji Adilo convinced many of his siblings to take up the sport seriously, including brothers Kassim and Hussein, sister Radiya, and cousin Kelil and Leila Aman. Many members of the dynasty have married runners. Kassim Adilo married Houston Marathon champion Teyiba Erkesso (2:24.18); Hadji's wife is African 3000m steeplechase champion Zemzem Ahmed; and Kelil Aman is the husband of Tune. "We have a large family and everyone is either a professional runner or wants to become one," says Kassim. Hadji and Kassim have seven brothers and sisters, while the Aman family has 16 children. The tragedy has affected many of the runners who are torn between grief and their sport. "Everyone has been deeply affected by this," says Hadji. "We live as one big family and it is difficult to concentrate on running when you face this kind of problem." Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie even stopped by to pay his respects. "I happened to be in Assela and was really shocked when I heard about it,” he said. “This is something that is very difficult to forget."

In Minnesota, Ethiopians brace for a dreaded visit

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Wednesday, 30 September 2009 16:11 Douglas McGill, The McGill Report MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Pulling up folding chairs to round tables, sipping hot sweet tea out of styrofoam cups and arguing politics into the afternoon, the men at the Horn Afrik café here last weekend all had the name of one man on their lips. Every time that man’s name was mentioned, the volume of chatter was deafening. I was the one native Minnesotan in the café, and a journalist, and when the men there learned that I wanted to hear about this man who was causing such a commotion, they gathered around me, eager to tell their stories and to show me their wounds. Osman had a scar that runs from his lower lip to the tip of his jaw. Mohamed had a raggedy star-shaped scar in the center of his forehead, and another at the crown of his head. With a dozen men standing around me, I asked how many had scars that they associated with this man whose name was inciting them so much. Four quickly raised their hands and the others looked at me shyly, sadly, their heads faintly nodding. Jailing Innocents The dreaded name is that of Mohamed Daud, the President of the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia, also known as Ogaden. According to the men at the café, Daud’s government, implementing central Ethiopian policy, has transformed the Ogaden into a brutal police state committing crimes against humanity including the jailing of thousands of innocent citizens, torture, rape, killings and the destruction of entire villages. One specific bit of news set off the agitation I witnessed at the café: Mohamed Daud may visit Minnesota soon, perhaps this week. “Why is he coming? What does he want to tell us?” asked Hassan, a native of the Ogaden town of Kabridahar, who came to the U.S. in 1996. “The suffering of the Ogaden people is astronomical, so for him to come here is hypocrisy at its peak.” Razed Villages Widespread crimes against humanity in the Ogaden – many bluntly call it a genocide and “the new Darfur” – are hardly a secret by now. The Internet is teeming with documentary videos smuggled out of the region (journalists are banned in the Ogaden); the American Association for the Advancement of Science has shown satellite photographs of razed Ogaden villages; and Human Rights Watch has documented “mass detentions without any judicial oversight” which they called “routine;” as well as “widespread and systematic attacks on villages,” “killings, torture, rape and forced displacement” for which “the Ethiopian government bears ultimate responsibility.” About 5,000 refugees from the Ogaden live in Minnesota today, making it one of the biggest diaspora populations of Ogaden refugees in the world. Several other Ethiopian ethnic groups, such as the Oromo, the Amhara and Anuak, also have among the world's largest Ethiopian refugee diasporas in the state. Minnesota Visit That makes Minnesota a prime target for visits from Ethiopian leaders eager to build support – and to tamp down opposition – among the many Ethiopian refugee groups here. Last August, Ogaden leaders traveled to Stockholm and London to meet with the Ogaden refugee populations living there, announcing later they had plans to visit North America soon, with Minnesota mentioned in one government announcement. Then, last week, the Minnesota-Ogaden grapevine, which is fed by people close to the Ethiopian government who live in Minnesota, relayed news that Daud might arrive in Washington as early as this week – and might visit Minnesota soon thereafter. Fierce Letter In response, members of Minnesota’s Ogadeni community last Friday delivered a fierce letter of protest to Daud’s visit from the “Ogaden-American Community” to the Minnesota offices of Senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, Governor Pawlenty, U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison, and others. Speaking of the visiting Daud delegation the letter said: “These individuals are the very reason why we came to the United States, to escape with our lives. Now they are here with the sole reason to intimidate and strike fear in the hearts of Ogaden citizens who are living in Minnesota.” “These men are directly responsible for the continuous man-made drought, raping women and young girls, indiscriminate killing, burning of homes, destroying farms, and many other atrocities going on in Ogaden,” the protest letter said. "Running a Genocide" The letter encouraged Minnesota officials to reject any overture made to them by the Daud delegation; to recognize the Ogaden tragedy as a genocide; and to hold Daud and other Ethiopian leaders accountable for crimes against humanity in the Ogaden. The chaos inside the Horn Afrik cafe on Sunday was precisely the effect that Daud wishes to have on the Minnesota diaspora, some men at the cafe said, because emotional outbursts tend to neutralize an otherwise potentially focused and effective Ogaden diaspora. “He wants to confuse us and intimidate us,” said Siyat. “He might want to change our minds, but we can’t accept that because he is running a genocide against our people.” International Opinion None of the men interviewed gave their last names, saying their family members and friends still living in the Ogaden would be at risk of their lives if they did. In recent years, Ethiopia has engaged its refugee diasporas more, recognizing their increasingly large role in shaping international opinion about Ethiopia. International opinion is critically important to Ethiopia because its economy is relies largely on foreign aid. Ethiopia was the world’s 7th largest recipient of foreign aid in 2006, receiving $1.57 billion in annual aid in the early 2000s, according to the Brookings Institution. Aid revenues could dry up if concerns about human rights abuses increase, and in recent years they have done so dramatically, especially in the Ogaden. The Ogaden crisis has been sending refugees to Minnesota for more than a decade. All-Out War But the crisis worsened dramatically in 2007, when the Ethiopian government stepped up a counter-insurgency campaign against a separatist group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which it calls a terrorist organization with ties to Somali jihadists. Today, nearly every Ogadeni refugee in Minnesota has friends or family members who are in jail, or who have spent significant time in jail, on suspicion supporting ONLF fighters. This is notwithstanding that the ONLF draws members from virtually every Ogaden town and village, so that declaring all-out war on the ONLF and every last one of its supporters is tantamount to declaring war on the entire Ogaden, its people and culture. When asked how they got their scars, the men at Horn Afrik café all gave the same answer – they were beaten by Ethiopian soldiers, usually struck by their guns. Fear for Family “We are all afraid of Daud, even though we live here now,” said Osman, a 65-year-old clan elder, who says that he lost two sons killed by Ethiopian soldiers. According to his network of clan members with whom he stays in touch, roughly 8,000 Ogadeni citizens are now being held in military prisons in virtually every city in the region. They don’t fear for themselves so much as for their friends and family back home, other Ogadenis at the café said. “Daud wants to identify the activists in Minnesota,” said Abdi. “He will write down our names so he can then go back and find our family members and put them in jail. “Of course, he will have his picture taken with a few people here who support him, so he can go back and say his mission to Minnesota was a success.” Copyright @ 2009 The McGill Report