Ethiopia rejects Amnesty accusations over killings in Somalia
By Tesfa-alem Tekle
May 7, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) – Addis Ababa has rejected the accusation of Amnesty International that Ethiopian troops in Somalia have killed people by slitting their throats “like goats”.
Amnesty last Tuesday said that Ethiopian forces in a raid at Al Hydya mosque have killed at least 21 people, including 11 unarmed civilians inside the mosque, and detained at least 40 children and youths, aged 9 to 18. At least 10 others were killed by Ethiopian forces in the vicinity of the mosque.
The Ethiopian foreign ministry said in a statement it released on Tuesday that Amnesty is reproducing allegations fabricated by one of Islamist insurgents groups in Somalia “Al-Shabaab” who fight against the Addis Ababa backed government in Mogadishu.
“This is an outright, and deliberate, lie, fed to Amnesty by groups affiliated to Al-Shabaab, groups that use the cover of human rights to promote their terrorist agenda.” The ministry said.
“We must deplore that one of the world’s most prominent human rights organizations should descend to the level of publicizing deliberately invented stories about the activities of Ethiopian troops.” The statement further said.
“Deliberately killing civilians is a war crime,” said Amnesty International. “We call on the Ethiopian government to ensure an independent investigation is carried out into the raid on the mosque and the subsequent treatment of those detained by its forces.”
Addis Ababa regretted that Amnesty “has lent itself to an obviously transparent and disgraceful smear campaign against” the Ethiopian troops in Somalia. It added that the rights watchdog has used “highly emotive, even racist, language, language that it would not and has not used outside of Africa.”
Ethiopia further accused Amnesty of ignoring that Al-Shabaab is “a terrorist organisation” committing widespread human rights violations, including assassinations of political and religious leaders, desecration of dead bodies and the cutting of throats of Muslim clerics who oppose it.
Ethiopia also charged Amnesty of taking the side of the “enemies” of the Somali peace process which started two weeks ago in Djibouti between the Somali government and opposition parties.
Al Shabaab is the military wing of Islamic Courts Union that ruled most of southern Somalia for six months in 2006 before being ousted by allied Somali-Ethiopian forces.
Ethiopian forces came to the rescue of Somalia’s embattled transitional government in late 2006 and soon defeated an Islamist militia that had taken control of large parts of the Horn of Africa country.
(ST)