Ethiopian Separatists Accuse Government of Killing 48 Civilians

By Jason McLure

Jan. 1 (Bloomberg) -- An Ethiopian separatist group accused government soldiers of killing 48 civilians in a village in the country’s eastern Somali region last month.

The villagers were shot in an attack on Dec. 17 at Mooyaha, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of Degehebur near Ethiopia’s border with Somalia, the Ogaden National Liberation Front said in an e-mailed statement today in the capital, Addis Ababa. The group included a list of names of those killed.

“The area was closed off for several days in order to remove the bodies and eliminate the evidence of a massacre,” the ONLF said. “These people were unarmed.” State officials weren’t available to comment on the allegation.

Ethnic Somali rebels from the ONLF are seeking autonomy for Ethiopia’s Somali region, an arid tract of land twice the size of England, which is also known as the Ogaden. In June, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the Ethiopian government of burning villages, executing civilians and raping women in an effort to quell the ONLF’s insurgency. Ethiopia denied the allegations.

Wahde Belay, a spokesman for Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry, didn’t answer his mobile phone when called several times today for comment on the ONLF’s latest allegations. Korale Illiasu, an Ethiopian Defense Ministry official, said he couldn’t comment because he’d been transferred from his job as spokesman with the ministry and didn’t know who had replaced him.
In 2007, the United Nations twice requested access to the Somali region to conduct an assessment of human rights abuses. Ethiopia refused the requests.

Somalia Withdrawal

Thousands of Ethiopian forces in neighboring Somalia are expected to withdraw to Ethiopia’s Somali region this week, two years after invading Somalia to help remove Islamists from power and halt support for the ONLF from militias in Somalia. At least 800,000 people have been forced from their homes in the ensuing fighting between Ethiopian forces and Somali militias.

Ethiopia has controlled the Ogaden since the late 19th century. Ethiopia and Somalia fought wars from 1963-1964 and 1977-1978 over the region. Ethiopia also occupied border areas in Somalia in 1995 in an effort to destroy an Islamist militia that carried out attacks in the Ogaden. Somalia hasn’t had a functioning central government since 1991.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via the Johannesburg bureau at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 1, 2009 04:45 EST