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An
intensified
counter-insurgency
campaign
against
Somali
rebels
and
their
suspected
civilian
supporters
in
Ethiopia's
Ogaden
region
is
drawing
growing
criticism
by
human
rights
groups
and
concern
from
the
administration
of
U.S.
President
George
W.
Bush,
a
staunch
ally
of
Addis
Ababa.
The
campaign,
which
some
experts
date
to
an
April
attack
by
the
Ogaden
National
Liberation
Front
(ONLF)
on a
Chinese
oil
installation
in
which
74
people
were
killed,
including
nine
Chinese,
is
causing
immense
suffering
by
the
local
Somali
population,
according
to
Human
Rights
Watch
(HRW)
which
released
a
statement
on
the
situation
Wednesday.
"Ethiopian
troops
are
destroying
villages
and
property,
confiscating
livestock
and
forcing
civilians
to
relocate,"
according
to
Peter
Takirambudde,
HRW's
Africa
director.
"Whatever
the
military
strategy
behind
them,
these
abuses
violate
the
laws
of
war."
But
the
campaign
is
also
putting
additional
pressure
on
Ethiopia's
army
at a
moment
when,
much
like
U.S.
troops
in
Iraq,
it
appears
increasingly
bogged
down
in a
low-level
guerrilla
war
in
neighbouring
Somalia
and
faces
growing
tensions
along
its
still-contested
border
with
Eritrea
with
which
it
fought
a
bloody
conflict
from
1998
to
2000.
Even
Ethiopian
Prime
Minister
Meles
Zenawi
conceded
last
week
that
his
government
"made
a
wrong
political
calculation"
when
it
intervened
in
Somalia
late
last
year,
driving
the
Islamic
Courts
Union
(ICU)
from
power
in
Mogadishu
and
most
of
the
rest
of
the
country.
Since
then,
neither
the
transitional
federal
government
(TFG)
nor
an
African
peacekeeping
force
--
for
which
only
about
1,500
Ugandan
troops
have
been
deployed
so
far
--
has
been
able
to
exert
control
over
the
capital,
leaving
an
estimated
10,000
Ethiopian
troops
to
maintain
order
in
what
most
observers
see
as a
deteriorating
security
situation
in
which
anti-Ethiopian
forces
are
steadily
gaining
strength.
"Ethiopia's
intervention
in
Somalia
has
led
to
more
instability
and
chaos
in
Somalia,
and
made
Ethiopia
more
vulnerable
in
different
fronts,"
according
to
Ted
Dagne,
a
Horn
of
Africa
specialist
at
the
Congressional
Research
Service
here.
"When
your
forces
deployed
on
multiple
fronts,
it
definitely
weakens
your
strategic
position."
The
Bush
administration,
which
backed
Ethiopia's
intervention
in
Somalia
and
even
carried
out
several
attacks
against
specific
"terrorist"
targets
in
the
country
since
the
invasion,
has
declined
to
publicly
criticise
the
ongoing
counter-insurgency
campaign
in
Ogaden.
At
the
same
time,
however,
U.S.
officials
have
privately
expressed
concern
about
the
serious
rights
abuses,
including
murders,
rapes,
and
the
burning
of
villages,
committed
by
the
army
and
the
possibility
that
its
continuation
could
attract
ICU,
which
Washington
has
accused
of
harbouring
al
Qaeda
militants,
and
other
anti-Ethiopian
forces
to
the
Ogaden,
effectively
transforming
what
are
currently
two
distinct
conflicts
into
a
broader,
regional
war.
The
Meles
government
has
long
insisted
that
links
between
ONLF
and
the
ICU
already
exist,
but
that
charge
is
questioned
by
independent
experts
here
and
strongly
denied
by
the
ONLF
itself.
"The
ONLF
wishes
to
make
clear
to
the
international
community
that
we
are
not,
have
not
been
and
will
not
be a
party
to
the
ongoing
conflict
in
Somalia
as a
matter
of
policy
and
principle,"
it
said
last
month.
The
State
Department
has
also
rejected
Ethiopian
requests
that
it
list
the
ONLF
as
an
international
terrorist
organisation.
The
Ogaden,
which
is
dominated
by
the
Somali
Dorad
clan
and
came
under
Ethiopian
rule
only
in
the
mid-19th
century,
has
been
the
scene
of a
near-constant
tug-of-war
between
Somalia
and
Ethiopia
since
the
former
became
independent
in
1960.
The
conflict
emerged
into
open
warfare
in
the
late
1970s
when
then-President
Siad
Barre
tried
unsuccessfully
to
realise
a
"Greater
Somalia"
by
invading
the
region.
Barre
was
eventually
forced
from
power
in
1991,
the
same
year
that
his
Ethiopian
nemesis,
Haile
Mengistu
Mariam,
was
ousted
in
Addis
Ababa
and
replaced
by
Meles
and
his
Tigrayan
Peoples
Liberation
Front.
At
the
time,
the
ONLF
joined
the
government
but
then
left
it
when
the
Meles
government
launched
its
crackdown
against
the
group
in
1993
for
advocating
substantial
autonomy
or
independence,
both
of
which
were
permitted
under
Ethiopia's
new
constitution.
Since
then,
it
has
waged
a
low-level
guerrilla
campaign
that,
until
its
attack
on
the
Chinese
installation
this
year,
has
gained
almost
no
international
attention,
in
part
due
to
the
remoteness
of
the
region
and
obstacles
placed
by
the
government
to
human-rights
monitors
and
journalists
who
wanted
to
travel
there.
"The
Ogaden
is
the
forgotten
tragedy,"
according
to
Dagne,
who
noted
that
Ogadenis
have
remained
loyal
citizens
under
successive
Ethiopian
governments
who
have
long
suffered
discrimination
by
Addis
Ababa.
In
recent
weeks,
Ethiopia's
counter-insurgency
efforts
in
the
Ogaden
have
intensified
dramatically,
according
to
HRW,
which
said
thousands
of
civilians
have
been
displaced,
even
in
places
where
there
is
no
known
ONLF
presence.
In
tactics
reminiscent
of
Sudan's
counter-insurgency
campaign
in
Darfur,
witnesses
told
HRW's
investigators
that
Ethiopian
troops
have
burned
homes
and
property,
including
the
recent
harvest
and
other
food
stocks,
confiscated
livestock
and,
in a
few
cases,
fired
on
and
killed
fleeting
civilians.
In
addition,
they
have
arrested
dozens
of
people
in
the
larger
towns,
particularly
family
members
of
suspected
ONLF
members.
Bombing
by
Ethiopian
warplanes
has
also
been
reported.
The
government
has
also
imposed
a
trade
and
food
blockade
on
the
region
in
an
apparent
effort
to
force
thousands
of
people
in
rural
areas
to
move
to
larger
towns
and
thus
deny
the
ONLF
a
support
base,
according
to
HRW,
which
also
criticised
abuses
by
the
ONLF,
including
the
attack
on
the
Chinese
installation
and
the
killing
of
at
least
28
civilians
on a
nearby
farm.
"At
this
point,
the
question
whether
this
is
similar
to
Darfur
is
very
difficult
to
say
because
of
the
inability
of
international
human
rights
monitors,
the
press,
and
others
to
get
full
access
to
the
region
and
find
out
exactly
what's
going
on,"
Georgette
Gagnon,
a
regional
specialist
at
HRW,
told
IPS.
"But
for
the
people
suffering
in
the
Ogaden,
the
situation
is
incredibly
serious,
and
the
government
needs
to
rein
in
its
troops
and
stop
attacking
civilians
and
burning
them
out
of
their
homes,"
she
added.
The
HRW
report
was
anticipated
by a
lengthy,
front-page
article
in
the
New
York
Times
from
the
Ogaden
three
weeks
ago
which
described
a
"reign
of
terror"
by
Ethiopian
troops
and
depicted
the
ONLF
as
an
indigenous
movement
with
strong
popular
support.
The
Times
reporter,
Jeffrey
Gettleman,
and
two
of
his
colleagues
who
contributed
to
the
article
were
imprisoned
for
five
days
by
the
Ethiopian
authorities
after
it
was
published
and
had
all
of
their
equipment
confiscated.
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