Ethiopia pledges to work with UN to ensure human rights in Ogaden

September 20, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia) — Ethiopia said it will work with the U.N. to ensure human rights are respected in the country’s volatile east after a U.N. team found evidence of “serious violations.”

A U.N. fact-finding mission traveled from Aug. 30 to Sept. 6 to the Ogaden region, where the government is trying to quell a decade-long insurgency by the Ogaden National Liberation Front. The rebels, along with several aid and human rights groups, say the military has burned villages and blocked aid and trade into the region.

The government denies those accusations.

Late Wednesday, the U.N. team called for another, independent investigation into the region.

“The mission received reports and direct accounts of serious violations of human rights, including substantive protection concerns for the civilian population,” a statement from the delegation said. “It is the mission’s views that these reported human rights concerns require independent investigation.”

The government responded with assurances that humanitarian needs will be met.

“The Ethiopian government will ensure the humanitarian needs of the people in the region,” the state-owned Ethiopian News Agency reported Wednesday night. “The government also assured the U.N. humanitarian assessment mission that prompt action will be taken to ensure adequate food supply and health services in the area.”

The ONLF dramatically escalated its insurgency in April when it attacked a Chinese-owned oil exploration field, killing 74 workers. Until then, it only made occasional hit-and-run attacks on government troops.

Since the rebels’ April attack, the army has intensified its counterinsurgency operations.

The rebels echoed the U.N.’s calls for an independent investigation, saying “war crimes indicative of an unfolding genocide continue in Ogaden.”

(AP)