By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Ethiopia's Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebel movement has slammed a government [Woyanne regime's] investigation refuting claims of war crimes against the people of a marginalized eastern region it operates in.
Ethiopian authorities Woyanne on Wednesday said a government-funded probe showed a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) that found it liable of abuses during a campaign against the ONLF, was fabricated.
"The reality of the matter is that the Ethiopian Woyanne regime has committed war crimes in the Ogaden and is continuing to commit such crimes with impunity," a statement by the rebels said.
"At the same time Ethiopia Woyanne is actively engaged in trying to conceal such crimes and the real purpose of these teams that it claims to have sent to the Ogaden was to insure that no traces are left."
HRW issued two reports in June that it said documented attacks on civilians in the arid region, one based on witness accounts and another on satellite imagery showing burnt-out villages during a year-long military offensive.
Ethiopian Woyanne said HRW's claims were fabricated because it found villages that the rights body said were burnt by government troops untouched, and people allegedly killed, alive and well.
Villagers and elders also denied allegations of extra-judicial killings, rape or torture by the security forces, the Ethiopian investigators' report said.
Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi's government accuses the ONLF movement of being terrorists supported by arch-foe and neighbour Eritrea.
It launched the offensive in April 2007 after ONLF rebels attacked Chinese-run oil fields in the remote region also known as Somali, killing more then 70 people.
"If Ethiopia Woyanne has nothing to hide, let it allow free access to international media and independent international investigators from reputable organizations to conduct an impartial investigation," the ONLF said.
(Reporting by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura; Editing by Sophie Hares)
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What should be obvious to all of us Africans is that HRW is an inherently western institution whose main purpose is to advance their strategic interests, in my view it is an insult to us to be told by HRW that the despotic Woyanne regime is commiting war crimes, we knew it all along because the people who are suffering our brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. No matter what HRW says or does the westerners who finance its activities will do nothing to rectify thier puppet's actions.
My Ethiopian brothers and sisters; you shouldn't put your faith in western institutions to help you improve the situation in Ethiopia, it is only Ethiopians who will have to free themselves from this tyrannical regime, when that happens the westerners can't blackmail you anymore. The reason Woyanne is at their mercy is because Woyanne depends on westerners to exist.
Learn from the Eritrean experience, in the 1950s the UN and its intitutions under the guidance of the US and Great Britain enslaved the Eritrean people, when representatives of the Eritrean people went to the UN to plead their case they were disappointed because all along the westerners wanted to give Haile Selassie Eritrea so they can have their military garrisons in Eritrea which they got from Haile Selassie. The Eritrean people picked up arms and it took us 31 years to free ourselves from the bondage that westerners put us in. Because Eritreans achieved their indepence on their own without any help from outsiders now Eritrea enjoys true freedom. Eritrea was the only nation that condemned the Woyanne invasion of Somalia while all the Islamic and Arab countries kept quiet because they are afraid of westerners, the governments don't trust their people to stay in power, if they opposed the Woyanne invasion of Somalia westerners would have punished them.
Time for all Ethiopians to rally with their armed opposition groups, have them come up with a united goal to make Ethiopia free from any outside influence and depend on yourselves to control your destiny.
November 30th, 2008 at 8:30 PM