Ethiopia: Open Impartial Inquiry Into Candidate’s Killing

The Ethiopian government should urgently initiate an independent investigation into the murder of an opposition candidate for parliament and bring those responsible to justice, Human Rights Watch said today.

Aregawi Gebreyohannes, the victim, was a candidate for the Arena-Tigray opposition party for the May 23, 2010, elections. He was stabbed to death by five men at his home in Shire, in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, on the evening of March 1, press reports and witnesses said.

"This attack demands an urgent, credible, and independent investigation given Ethiopia's highly charged pre-election environment," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Getting to the truth of this incident will help build confidence in the electoral process."

Opposition officials contend that the attack was politically motivated and followed months of intimidation and harassment of Aregawi and other opposition candidates. The government told international journalists that the killing was a personal dispute, not political, and that Aregawi had tried to break up a fight in his restaurant. The government also said that one of the men who attacked Aregawi has been taken into custody. Credible sources told Human Rights Watch that the others have been released.

The Arena-Tigray party is a member of the largest opposition coalition, known as the Forum for Democratic Dialogue (FDD, or Medrek). The leader of Arena-Tigray, Gebru Asrat, told Voice of America radio that the killing of Aregawi and the beating of another Arena-Tigray candidate, Ayelew Beyene, by armed men on March 1 were part of a campaign of intimidation by the ruling party.

Source: Humn Rights Watch

Thousands of Somalis flee fighting in Mogadishu

More than 43 000 civilians have fled fierce fighting between insurgents and government forces in the Somali capital Mogadishu over the past 12 days, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Wednesday.

Civilians have been caught in the crossfire as the warring parties battle with mortars and automatic weapons in the north of the city. About 200 have died and more than 500 have been injured since the latest battles began.

The streets of north Mogadishu are empty, witnesses say, save for Islamist insurgents taking up positions to attack embattled pro-government militias.

Source: Mail & Guardian

Liberian Seized to Stand Trial on War Crimes

Charles G. Taylor, the warlord who became Liberia's president, was captured Wednesday after a dramatic 24 hours in which he disappeared from the villa in Nigeria where he had lived in exile and then was recognized at a remote outpost as he tried to leave the country.

He was brought here to face war crimes charges for his role in a brutal decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone, one of a series of conflagrations that he set off, killing at least 300,000 people. He is the first African head of state to face such charges in an international court. Mr. Taylor's arrival by helicopter under extraordinary security capped a saga that began nearly three years ago, when he fled his nation in the face of a rebel onslaught. He was captured Wednesday morning after a customs official recognized him as he tried to escape into Cameroon.

He arrived unshaven and dressed in a white tunic covered by a bullet-proof vest, tan pants and slip-on shoes. His appearance was in stark contrast to his dapper look in his last public appearance, in 2003, when he went into exile after a 14-year civil war that killed a quarter million of his countrymen, defiantly declaring, "God willing, I will be back." He did return to Liberia, briefly, on Wednesday, but only to be handed over to United Nations troops who promptly flew him here, where he was read the indictment from a United Nations-backed court dealing with war crimes in Sierra Leone — 11 counts of crimes against humanity — then jailed.

Desmond de Silva, the prosecutor who will try the case, said Mr. Taylor's arrival "sends out the clear message that no matter how rich, powerful or feared people may be, the law is above them." The trial is sure to resonate on a continent where dictators have ruled with ruthless impunity. From Idi Amin, the soldier whose murderous rule in Uganda gave way to comfortable exile in Saudi Arabia, to Haile Mengistu Mariam, whose 14-year Communist rule in Ethiopia brought political purges that killed more than a million people but who is now living quietly in Zimbabwe, African leaders who brutalize their citizens have faced few consequences. "The current perpetrators of serious human rights crimes should be put on notice that international courts take the crimes they commit very, very seriously," said Corinne Dufka of Human Rights Watch.

Mr. Taylor's arrival here was a dramatic turn in the already complicated saga of the effort to bring him to justice after he ignited a series of civil wars in the 1990's that engulfed much of West Africa. In the early 1980's, Mr. Taylor was a senior government procurement officer in Liberia. Charged in 1983 with embezzling nearly $1 million, he fled. He was arrested in Massachusetts in 1984, then escaped from jail in 1985. He resurfaced in Liberia in 1989 as a Libyan-trained warlord, leading a rebel force. He was elected president in 1997, in a vote overshadowed by fears of what might happen if he lost.

A warrant for his arrest was issued in March 2003. But as part of an agreement to remove him from power and halt a bloodbath in Liberia, Nigeria offered him asylum and refused to hand him over to the court in Sierra Leone, where he was accused of fomenting a civil war. Though under intense pressure by the United States to arrest him, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria had insisted he would hand over Mr. Taylor only to an elected Liberian government. Earlier this month, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia's new president, herself facing pressure from the United States, made the request, and Mr. Obasanjo agreed. But Nigeria insisted that it was Liberia's responsibility to go and arrest him, with Mr. Obasanjo's spokeswoman declaring that Mr. Taylor was "not a prisoner," which seemed almost to taunt Mr. Taylor into trying to escape from his lightly guarded compound in Calabar.

Late Monday night the Nigerian government said he had vanished. He was found more than 600 miles north, in an ash-colored Land Rover with a large quantity of dollars, in the company of a woman and a driver, Haz Iwendi, a spokesman for the National Police, said by telephone. A customs official spotted Mr. Taylor, whose vehicle had diplomatic license plates, early Wednesday morning in the border town of Ngala, Mr. Iwendi said.

The escape was an acute embarrassment for Mr. Obasanjo, who arrived Tuesday in Washington for a visit to the White House to discuss security in the volatile Niger Delta, where attacks by militants on oil facilities and kidnappings have slashed output. Nigeria is the United States' fifth-largest supplier of oil. Outraged American lawmakers called on President Bush to cancel his meeting with Mr. Obasanjo, with whom Mr. Bush has had a warm relationship, based in part on their shared Christian faith and bolstered by Mr. Obasanjo's role as a regional problem solver. But internal problems have eroded the Nigerian's status. Militants in the Niger Delta, sectarian violence that killed more than 100 people last month and a political crisis stemming from plans to try to extend his rule to a third term have roiled Nigeria.

Mr. Bush met with him on Wednesday, and at a joint news conference, hailed the arrest of Mr. Taylor. "The fact that Charles Taylor will be brought to justice in a court of law will help Liberia," Mr. Bush said, "and is a signal, Mr. President, of your deep desire for there to be peace in your neighborhood."

Mr. Taylor was flown on a Nigerian government jet from Borno State, in northeastern Nigeria, where he was captured, to Monrovia, Liberia's capital. There he was handed over to Liberian officials, who promptly turned him over to United Nations peacekeepers, who arrested him. After a brief medical checkup, he boarded a helicopter for Sierra Leone. The reaction to Mr. Taylor's arrival here was muted and fearful.

J. B. Jenkins-Johnson, a human rights lawyer in Freetown, worried that Mr. Taylor's arrival would cause unrest in a country still reeling from the long civil war. "Let them not bring that man here," Mr. Jenkins-Johnson said. "This man will bring us nothing but problems." Indeed, many Sierra Leoneans wonder if the court's work will do much to help them improve their lives. "The Taylor case doesn't have a lot of resonance," said Olu Gordon, a political analyst and journalist in Freetown. "It is abstract, while the problems they face are concrete: what to feed their children, how to pay for school, and so on."

The loudest calls for Mr. Taylor's arrest came not from his victims but from the United States, which has backed the international court here financially and diplomatically. Ms. Johnson Sirleaf, the Liberian leader, had been hesitant to act on Mr. Taylor, saying that the peace in Liberia was still fragile and that any action could stir up his allies, several of whom hold seats in Liberia's new legislature. Several of his commanders remain in Liberia, and news of Mr. Taylor's arrest caused immediate fears of a coup attempt. But removing him from the scene could also help stabilize the region, said Mike McGovern, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, by demoralizing Mr. Taylor's supporters. "The arrest closes an ugly chapter in Liberian history and gives people the confidence to look to the future," Mr. McGovern said in an interview in Monrovia. "A lot of people are still sitting on the fence. Once they have a clear idea of where Taylor is and what's likely to happen to him, they're likely to really turn their backs on that period and move forward."

In Liberia, human rights advocates exulted in the news. "This is a great day," said Jerome J. Verdier Sr., head of the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. "It's a fundamental triumph for the rule of law both in Liberia and the sub-region."

Source: New York Times

Insurgents Claiming Victory in Somalia

Rebels in Somalia said on Saturday night that they had won control of the capital, Mogadishu, and had forced President Mohamed Siad Barre to flee his palace. The rebels' assertions, monitored over radio about 600 miles to the southwest in Nairobi, were largely confirmed today by a team of French doctors who were treating the wounded in the Somali capital.

Stevan van Praet, a representative in Kenya of a French humanitarian agency, Doctors Without Borders, said his team told him this morning by radio telephone that Mr. Siad Barre had fled the presidential palace in a tank 15 minutes before it was seized. Mr. van Praet said he had no information about the whereabouts of the President, who has held autocratic power in the eastern African nation for 21 years. Looting of Palace Mr. van Praet said his doctors had reported that civilians and rebels had looted the palace, known as Villa Somalia, after the President's escape.

One unconfirmed report in Nairobi said Mr. Siad Barre had fled to his well-fortified bunker at the Mogadishu airport, which the French doctors said was controlled by loyal troops. Another unconfirmed report suggested that the President had fled south toward the Kenyan border. In the broadcast, the United Somali Congress said: "The Government and the responsibility of the Somali people were taken over by the U.S.C. movement. We are addressing you from Radio Mogadishu, the voice of the Somali people."

The United Somali Congress is one of three clan-based insurgent groups that have been trying to oust Mr. Siad Barre, who during the cold war received weapons from the Soviet Union and then the United States. In the last two years, under pressure from Congress, Washington cut off military aid over human rights abuses by the Somali Government.

The French doctors, who are accompanied by an English ecologist and pilot, Murray Watson, are the only independent contact between Mogadishu and the outside world. Soon after intense fighting and looting started at the end of last month, all foreign embassies were evacuated. Two weeks ago, diplomats from Italy, the former colonial power in Somalia, were the last to leave. In a radio conversation this morning with the British Broadcasting Corporation, Mr. Watson graphically described the scene in the whitewashed, palm-fringed city on the Indian Ocean. "There are not so many bodies," on the street, Mr. Watson said, "because dogs have eaten most of them." "There are hands sticking up through the sand," he said in an apparent description of bodies still strewn on the beach. He said that in the last few days, the doctors had received about 60 severely wounded civilians and were performing "10 to 15 amputations a day." Mr. Watson told the BBC that shells fired from the area of the presidential palace were "going out 5 to 10 kilometers" and landing in civilian areas.

Last week, Mr. Siad Barre appointed a new Prime Minister, Umar Arteh Ghalib, a nationally known figure from the northern-based Isaaq clan, which has also been fighting the Government. The President also offered to step down if the rebels accepted a truce, but the deal was rejected. A stream of refugees has been pouring out of Somalia into both Ethiopia and Kenya, some of them highly placed military and political figures. With considerable rivalry between the clan-based insurgents, it seemed doubtful that the United Somali Congress would be able to restore stability to the country, both Somalis and Western analysts said. Many predicted that there would be persistent factional fighting.

Coveted by the superpowers during the cold war because of its strategic position on the Gulf of Aden and close to the Middle East, Somalia is a largely rural, Muslim country of six million people. The United States had an access agreement with the Siad Barre Government for use of the port at Berbera, but the internal situation had become so unstable that the port was not used during the build up for the Persian Gulf war.

Source: New York Times

ALL 108 ON HIJACKED JET ARE FREED IN ETHIOPIA

The hijackers of a Somali airliner seized on Saturday released their 108 hostages unharmed today and were given the choice of political asylum or safe passage to a country of their choice by Ethiopia. The hijackers, led by a Somali military officer, had been threatening to blow up the plane and kill the people on board, including one American, identified today as Lieut. James Dell, 30 years old, of Orangeburg, N.Y., if their demands for the release of 21 political prisoners in Somalia were not met. Seven of those prisoners are students who, the hijackers said, were to have been executed in Somalia the day after the hijacking.

The hijackers told reporters today that they had agreed to free their hostages after being told that the Italian Government, which has been acting as an intermediary, had received assurances from Somalia that the seven students would not be executed. There has been no public statement to that effect from the Somali authorities. The freed hostages moved slowly and stiffly down the stairs to the runway and to a waiting bus. Most appeared dazed and bewildered, and several shielded their eyes against the bright morning light.

Lieutenant Dell, identified as a naval engineer working on port construction in Berbera, Somalia, said he was ''feeling a lot better'' now. He said the hijackers ''treated us very well.'' The three hijackers met with reporters in a lounge at the airport and defended their action. ''We are not terrorists,'' the leader of the hijackers, Capt. Awil Adan Bourhan, who was wearing a still fresh-looking khaki uniform and green beret, said several times. ''Just, we are trying to save our brothers.'' Another of the hijackers added: ''We had no choice but to act as we have done. If the international community does not come to the aid of the struggling Somali masses, more actions will be forthcoming.''

Captain Bourhan and his two compatriots, identified as Bashe Muse Mohammed and Ahmed Haji Mohammed Adan, both wearing civilian clothes, appeared drawn and groggy as they read from a prepared statement and answered questions. A member of the Somali Airlines crew said later that none of the hijackers had slept at all in the last three days and nights. The hijackers stressed that they had not wanted to kill anyone and that they had spared the lives of 20 Somali Government officials who were aboard.

The hijackers said they had ''already succeeded'' because Somalia had guaranteed the safety of the students. ''It is an international guarantee,'' one said. But he said the Somali President, Mohammed Siad Barre, had ''refused to give freedom'' to any of the political prisoners, including a former Somali Vice President, five former Cabinet members and two army colonels. Passengers Describe Hijacking

After the passengers and crew left the blue and white Boeing 707, which was guarded by armored vehicles and more than two dozen Ethiopian paratroopers, they described the hijacking, which occurred Saturday morning on a flight from Mogadishu to Jidda, Saudi Arabia. According to the accounts of several passengers and crew members, Captain Bourhan rose calmly from his seat and walked toward the cockpit carrying a briefcase from which he took a pistol. He then approached the cockpit door. ''I tried to stop him,'' said Suad Mohammed, 26 years old, who was the chief flight attendant. ''I grabbed him. But he was too heavy, too strong.''

A man in the crew also struggled with Captain Bourhan and was shot in the hip. A second shot was fired to force the pilot to open the door. The pilot, too, struggled briefly with Captain Bourhan and the two other hijackers, who had joined him, but he was beaten and quickly overcome. The wounded crew member, the slightly injured pilot and the co-pilot, who had fallen ill, were released on Saturday, as were 19 women and children.

Source: New York Times

3 SOMALI SOLDIERS SAID TO HIJACK A JET TO ETHIOPIA

A Somali jetliner carrying 130 people was hijacked Saturday by three armed Somali soldiers who beat the pilot and wounded a crew member in a midair shootout, Ethiopian officials said. After arriving at the airport here, the hijackers released 22 people, the Ethiopian press agency and Western diplomats said. Ethiopian officials said the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane unless Somali authorities released a number of political prisoners and canceled the execution of seven Somali youths who were convicted of anti-Government activities. The execution was scheduled for today.

Ethiopian officials said the hijackers, who seized the Boeing 707 on a flight from Mogadishu, the Somali capital, to Jidda, Saudi Arabia, had told them that they planned to blow up the plane at midnight Saturday. That deadline passed and the hijackers threatened early this morning to blow up the plane by noon if their demands were not met by then. One American on Board According to a senior Western diplomat, one American, whose identity was not known, was among the 118 passengers and 12 crew members on the plane when it was seized.

The official Mogadishu radio broadcast a statement early today saying that the Somali Government had discussed the issue with ''various embassies about this action of banditry and terrorism against the civilian passengers, since this terrorist action is in breach of international agreements covering civilians,'' The Associated Press said. It added that the statement did not say what the Somali Government would do about the hijackers' demands.

Pro-Western Somalia and pro-Soviet Ethiopia fought a war in 1977 over the disputed Ogaden region and relations between the two nations remain strained. Relief Pilots Hear Messages Pilots of Britain's Royal Air Force who were flying relief missions to Ethiopian famine victims learned of the hijacking Saturday morning when they picked up radio messages from the Somali plane. The Britons said they heard the pilot identify the hijackers as members of a Somali political resistance group. But the official Ethiopian press agency said the hijackers were three heavily armed Somali Army officers who had demanded that the execution of the seven youths in Somalia be called off and that international guarantees be given for the youths' safety. The agency said the hijackers were also demanding that a number of political prisoners in Somalia be released and sent to neighboring Djibouti, and that their arrival there be confirmed.

According to a British Broadcasting Corporation report, the hijackers freed 15 women and 4 children Saturday. Also freed, the BBC said, were three crew members - the wounded Somali crew member, who was assumed to have been a security guard, the injured captain, and the first officer, who was reported to have become ill. Food and other provisions were delivered to the passengers still on board Saturday. The Somali plane landed at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa after being refused permission to land in Aden, in Southern Yemen, the official Saudi press agency said.

Ethiopian officials negotiated with the hijackers throughout most of Saturday and early today. Late Saturday evening, spotlights illuminated the Somali aircraft, which was parked just off the main runway and was being guarded by armored vehicles. A delegation of eight United States Congressmen arrived at the airport here Saturday night as scheduled on a trip to assess famine relief efforts in various parts of the country.

Source: New York Times

Somali Guerrillas Claim Some Advances

Somali guerrillas said today that they had killed 123 Government soldiers and wounded 231 in the last week in northwestern and central Somalia.

The rebels' radio station, broadcasting from Ethiopia and monitored in Nairobi, said the guerrillas had captured four villages in the northwest since the fighting began March 8 and suffered ''only light casualties.''

The guerrillas' said the fighting began after an army patrol killed eight villagers, touching off an uprising. The claims of the rebels, who are fighting to overthrow President Mohamed Siad Barre, could not be verified independently.

Source: New York Times

U.S. FLYING ARMS TO SOMALIA AFTER ETHIOPIAN RAIDS

The State Department announced today that the United States had begun flying weapons and military equipment into Somalia to help that nation repel Ethiopian attacks across the border. No details were given, but Defense Department officials noted that Somalia had ordered air defense radar and antiaircraft weapons such as the Vulcan, which shoots rapidly at low-flying aircraft. A State Department spokesman, Rush Taylor, noting an announcement of the airlift by the Somali radio, said in a statement: ''I can confirm that the United States is airlifting military equipment to Somalia. This is in connection with the recent incursion by Ethiopians and Ethiopian-supported forces.'' As far as could be determined, the weapons and equipment were drawn from a $20 million foreign military sales credit under a security assistance agreement negotiated when Somalia granted the United States access to military bases there in 1980. A radio broadcast from Mogadishu, the Somali capital, said ''the Somali people are grateful for this appropriate response of arms needed to meet Ethiopian aggression,'' according to news dispatches from the region.

The President of Somalia, Mohamed Siad Barre, was also quoted as saying he had received a message from President Reagan expressing the ''hope that we will strengthen our cordial relations in the future.'' The Somali President was in Washington in March seeking an increase in military aid. The talks with President Reagan were said to have gone well, but no new agreements were reported. The Administration, however, has begun to emphasize military assistance to friendly governments to counter the expansion of Soviet military power. In this case, that policy has come into effect immediately because the Soviet Union, according to Defense Department intelligence, has 2,400 advisers in Ethiopia, while Cuba has 5,900 advisers and East Germany 550. The United States ground forces most recently in Somalia were engineering and medical units taking part in an exercise in November. Mechanized infantry units were sent into Egypt, Special Forces to the Sudan, and the marines to Oman in the same maneuvers.

Military assistance to Somalia, which began last year, has always been in dispute in Congress. Advocates have contended that such aid should be extended because that nation is strategically situated on the Horn of Africa with bases that would be useful to the United States Rapid Deployment Force if it had to defend Western oil sources around the Persian Gulf. Opponents have contended that the assistance should be denied because the Somali Government is autocratic and oppressive. A Defense Department publication says the security assistance is related to the agreement giving the United States access to Somali naval and air bases. It says, ''Such assistance will be limited to defensive materials and related training.'' The publication also says transportation, engineering and communications equipment, along with air defense, are Somalia's biggest military needs. ''There are no plans to provide Somalia with offensive equipment, suitable for use outside of Somali borders,'' it says.

Somalia split with the Soviet Union in 1977 when the Russians began supplying Ethiopia with arms and advisers. Ethiopia and Somalia have fought for several years, particularly over the Ogaden area, which is now controlled by Ethiopia but is populated largely by ethnic Somalis. The most recent flareup, according to dispatches from Somalia, started this month when Ethiopian troops and aircraft attacked Somalia on two fronts. Reports from the area said about 9,000 Ethiopian soldiers were involved. The aircraft were said to be Soviet-built MIG's.

Source: New York Times

Ethiopia and Pro-Somali Rebels Claim Success in Border Conflict

Ethiopian troops are battling Somali-backed insurgents in southeastern Ethiopia, with both sides claiming substantial gains.

Source: New York times

Ethiopia and Soviet Sign Agreements on Closer Tie

The revolutionary military Government in Ethiopia today moved toward closer ties with the Soviet Union by signing a series of documents promoting cooperation between the two countries.

Source: New York Times

Ethiopia, Under Dictatorial Ruler, Taking Violent Path Against Foes

With Lieut. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam now its undisputed leader, Ethiopia's secretive council of military rulers has turned from a collective revolutionary, body into a one-man dictatorship.

Source: New York Times

Ethiopian Head And 6 in Capital Reported Slain

Ethiopia's chief of state and six other members of the nation's feuding leadership were killed today as a gun battle erupted around headquarters of the governing council, official broadcasts reported.

Source: New York Times