Ethiopia rejects watchdog’s report of “torture claims”
By Tesfa-alem Tekle
October 6, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia rejected torture claims by Human Rights Watch against terror suspects saying the claims by HRW are “unsubstantiated and most are simply untrue”
“HRW, as usual, did not make a series of claims for which a close reading of its 60 page report fails to provide evidence” Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Despite HRW’s claims none of these people has been maltreated” it said adding “one publicly testified to this when questioned by journalists last year, a point totally ignored by HRW”
The New York-based rights watchdog on Wednesday last week said that at least 90 people were rendered from Kenya to Somalia and then to Ethiopia in the aftermath of Ethiopia’s 2006 invasion of Somalia.
“In fact many of the details claimed by HRW are unsubstantiated and most are simply untrue.” The statement said.
The ministry added that the suspects were not “arbitrarily” arrested, but “they were found in a theatre of war or trying to cross the Somali-Kenya border.”
“There were strong grounds for suspicion of terrorist involvement. Under the circumstances of the time, it would have been irresponsible to leave them at large,” it said
“They were sent to Ethiopia because of the lack of acceptable or secure facilities in Mogadishu, as Mogadishu lacked secure and acceptable prisons.”
“Ethiopia has not hidden the identity, fate or whereabouts of anyone brought from Somalia for investigation,” it said.
Ethiopia on Thursday released eight Kenyans of the nine suspected terrorists who has been held in detention without charge since 2006 on suspicion of ties to Al-Qaeda-linked Islamists.
The move comes after Human rights watch (HRW) on Wednesday issued a 60-page report entitled “Why Am I Still Here?” investigating the fate of the detainees, and urged Addis Ababa for an immediate release.
The Kenya Muslim Human Rights Forum welcomed their return but said it was outrageous the eight had been held for so long without charge.
“The governments of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia broke humanitarian, international and national laws in the treatment of these people,” it said, accusing Washington of pressuring this African government to violate rights.
A ninth suspect, Abdulkadir Mohamed Aden, who is an Ethiopian-Canadian national still remains in Ethiopian custody for yet undisclosed reasons.
In August Nairobi sent a team of officials to Addis Ababa to negotiate their freedom and a deal was reached with Ethiopian Authorities.
Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in late 2006 to bolster the country’s feeble government against Islamist insurgents accused of ties with Al-Qaeda.
(ST)