|
This article originally appeared in World War 3 Report.
It has also now appeared in Black Commentator at www.BlackCommentator.com . "Since
the problem, we are not able to farm or to fish," said one Anuak
survivor who was shot three times. He is shy, but he will show you where one
bullet entered and exited his wrist. He was shot Ten
months after the massacres of December, 2003, the EPRDF government of The
region is home to guerillas of the Gambella People's Liberation Front (GPLF)
and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and other forces hostile to the Meles
Zenawi regime. However, the EPRDF government has used the pretext of
"terrorism" and "national security" to punish rural
populations, and it continues to wage low-intensity warfare against innocent
civilians. Today,
Gambella state is under total military occupation. Estimates place between
30,000 and 80,000 EPRDF troops deployed here, carrying out scorched-earth
campaigns under the cover of "counter-terrorism." One recent attack
occurred in early September, when EPRDF soldiers reportedly pillaged the
rural At
least 1,500 and perhaps as many as 2,500 Anuak civilians have died in the
fighting most of these being intellectuals, leaders, and members of the
educated and student classes, who have been intentionally targeted. Hundreds
of people remain unaccounted for and many are believed to have been
"disappeared." Numerous
rural villages where Anuaks and other ethnic minorities generally hover in
the margins of existence at the best of times have been similarly attacked,
looted, and torched. Thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of Anuak homes
have reportedly been burned. Anuak
women and girls are routinely raped, gang-raped and kept as sexual slaves by
EPRDF forces. Girls have been shot for resisting rape, and summary executions
of girls held captive for prolonged periods as sexual slaves have been
reported. In the absence of Anuak men killed, jailed or driven into exile
Anuak women and girls have been left vulnerable to such sexual atrocities.
Due to the isolation of women and girls in rural areas, rapes remain
substantially under-reported. Some
6,000 to 8,000 Anuak remain at refugee camps in "Many,
many men have been killed since the problem began," says one witness.
"Many men ran away into the bush and have been hunted by the soldiers.
Women and girls are left undefended in their homes. They are raping many
girls. They keep some women by force." The
violence has almost completely disrupted this year's planting season, and
people see famine in the coming winter months (October-March) exacerbated
by the destruction of milling machines and food stores. According
to Anuak sources relying on sympathetic oppositionists within the regime, the
EPRDF plans to access the petroleum of Gambella were laid out at a top-level
cabinet meeting in The
While
there is a history of communal violence between indigenous minorities in the
Gambella region, evidence attests to patterns of EPRDF government
provocation, pitting tribe against tribe and neighbor against neighbor. There
is no evidence to support claims of communal violence between Anuaks and the
local Nuer ethic group, as has been reported by the New York Times and other
media, and by the EPRDF government. Ethnic
cleansing appears to be sanctioned at the highest levels of the EPRDF
government, and there is evidence that the violence initiated by last
December's massacres in Gambella may have been deliberately instrumented to
justify a campaign against the Anuaks. In
a pattern reminiscent of the Interahamwe civilian militia involved in the
1994 Rwanda genocide, operations by government troops were apparently
coordinated with local Highlanders, who set upon Anuak civilians with rocks,
sticks, hoes, machetes, knives, axes and pangas (clubs). Witnesses described
Highlanders chanting slogans as they hunted down and killed Anuaks. Some
425 Anuak people were reported killed in the initial outburst of violence,
with over 200 more wounded and some 85 people unaccounted for. Since December
2003, sporadic murders and widespread rapes have continued in Gambella town,
but the rural countryside is awash in blood. In
February 2004, Genocide
Watch and Survivors' Rights International called for an independent
inquiry into the Gambella situation. That call was ignored. Ten
months after the pivotal massacres, there is no indication that the United
Nations or any other formal body has undertaken an official investigation of
the killings of eight UN personnel on the morning of The
killings reportedly occurred on the road from Gambella to Itang town. Sources
report that Anuak policeman Ojo Akway was amongst the first group of
responders to the site of the ambush
on the morning. Akway reportedly found tracks that he wanted to immediately
pursue to attempt to discover those responsible for the UN killings - it was
winter and the ground was amenable to tracking. The Police Commander in
Gambella, Tadese Haile Selassie, is said to have ordered Akway's execution in
order to remove the problem of identifying the actual killers. Sources report
that Akway was detained later that day, driven out of Gambella town, tied to
a tree along the road to Abueal village, and shot in the head seven times. An
informant sympathetic to Anuaks provided the information to relatives, noting
that Akway's body was disappeared, his gun was brought back to town, and no
report was filed. A
federal police investigator from International
and Ethiopian human rights organizations say that the killings in Gambella
constituted acts of genocide, as defined by the Genocide Convention.
Arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions and torture are occurring throughout Golden
Spear Beginning
July 2003, forces from Pentagon's Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of The
CJTF-HOA region includes the total airspace and land areas of On
January 21, 2004 special operations soldiers from the 3rd US Infantry
Regiment "The Old Guard," Bravo Company replaced the 10th
Mountain Division forces at a new base established at Hurso, Ethiopia, to be
used for launching local joint missions with the Ethiopian military. A new
forward base named " From
1995-2000, the For
2002 and 2003, In
August 2003, the In
2003, US AID, working with Africare and Catholic Relief Services, was
providing disaster relief to "combat famine in the drought-stricken
Gambella region of Immediately
following the In
the spring, the EPRDF government launched an "independent inquiry"
into the Gambella violence. The Independent Inquiry Commission, established
by the Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives, reported that few members
of the Ethiopian armed forces were involved in the Gambella killings. In
In
a letter of August 6, twelve members of the US Congress called on Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi to protect citizens from harm and ensure humanitarian
access to the Gambella region. Asking the Meles government to hold officials
accountable for any involvement in the violence, the letter also asked for an
English version of the Independent Inquiry Commission findings on the
situation in Gambella. On
September 16, The
US Department of Defense Central Command (CENTCOM) and European Command
(EUCOM) are the pivotal forces behind the "Golden Spear"
anti-terrorism program initiated in 2000 to "address issues of
terrorism, humanitarian crises, natural disasters, drugs trafficking and
refugees in the greater horn of "Golden
Spear" members include Ethiopian
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said "the consensus reached at the meeting
was a major achievement towards the enhancement of national capacities as
well as collaborative efforts to deal with disasters, thus protecting
development gains the region has attained over the years." Meetings
of the Golden Spear military group occurred in June in the Seychelles, and
July in Tampa, FL. Participants in July included Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti,
Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and
Seychelles. Gambella
Oil Rush Sources
report ten military camps in the immediate vicinity of Gambella town, with an
estimated 60 to 100 troops at each. The three major camps are Terfshalaka,
about seven kilometers from Gambella town on the Witnesses
report trucks of soldiers perpetually coming and going from Gambella along
the roads into rural areas. Soldiers were seen to openly extort money and
goods from civilians. Vehicles traveling along the roads are expected to stop
and pick up any soldiers waiting for rides. Rights workers reportedly
witnessed a church building that had been expropriated by soldiers and turned
into a semi-permanent barracks. A nearby school was also expropriated and
occupied. On
According
to Anuak sources, the Ethiopian government held a public meeting in Gambella
in February, even as violence against Anuak in rural areas was continuing to
rise. One witness testified: "They
told people about the oil and how it would benefit everyone. But the Anuak
said: 'How can you talk to us about oil when people are still being killed?
We don't want to talk about the oil.' But the government said, 'No, we want
to talk about the oil now.'" The
Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPEB), a powerful subsidiary of
China's second largest national petroleum consortium, the China Petrochemical
Corporation (SINOPEC), appears to be the principal oil firm operating in
Gambella at present, under subcontract to Malaysia's national oil company
PETRONAS. The
base camp for ZPEB equipment and petroleum explorations is located
approximately 1.5 kilometers from the center of Gambella town on the
Abobo-Gambella road. The Ethiopian site manager, Mr. Degefe, is a highlander
who tersely describes himself as "responsible for making all operations
and security." The base camp is under tight security and heavily guarded
by EPRDF troops. PETRONAS
and the China National Petroleum Corporation currently operate in While
not cited in the above Human Rights Watch report, ZPEB operates a concession
for oil and gas exploration in Block 6 in the On
September 18, 2004, a notice was posted around Gambella town indicating that
the Southwest Development Company (a new Highlander-owned venture) would be
accepting applications for new hires to fill some 117 positions in support of
"construction and petroleum related operations in Gambella region."
On Anuak
sources in Gambella state: "The Anuak people have not been involved in
the discussions about the oil, our leaders have not agreed to these projects,
and they will not hire any Anuaks for these jobs. If any Anuak says anything
about the oil he will be arrested." Crocodiles
and Rats The
few reports about the situation that have appeared in the international press
have misrepresented and distorted the nature of the violence. Reporters
traveling to the region have relied upon the EPRDF for security and
information, and attempts by Anuaks to make the truth known have largely been
ignored. National Public Radio last spring described Anuaks as primitives
"once went naked and ate rats." Marc
Lacey reported from Gambella for the New York Times ( " Just
across the |