Hameressa Mass Grave: Background

This past Sunday , June 8, 2014 workers clearing land at the former  Hameressa military camp stumbled on human skeletons, incidentally unearthing one of the most gruesome mass murder  committed against the Oromo people.   Pictures and videos of what discovered and public reaction to it has been circulating on the internet.   When did the mass killing happen? Who committed it and who were the victims? The following is information pieced together by speaking to survivors, former prisoners, individuals who worked  at the military camp as cooks, elders who live in the vicinity and other first hand witnesses of the area.

The military camp was used under two regimes: Dergue  and TPLF.  Hence mass killing and executions of political prisoners took place at this location under two consecutive regimes in span of two and half decades.

Under Dergue: The 1990 mass killing

Dergue began using the military camp as prison during the Somali-Ethiopia war and increased its usage during the Red Terror. Fitted with underground jail cells and heavily fortified it was one of the most secure prisons whereby once a person is thrown in, the chance to escape alive unimaginable.  Suspected insurgents, farmers, students  and military officers who fell out with the regime were  kept at the camp. People arrested from as far as Bale and Afar were brought in and very few survived the harsh treatment and execution.

However, the major mass killing took place in late 1990 just months before downfall of the regime. Most of the victims were Oromos  who returned from Somalia refugee camps. From 1960s onward due to the political crisis, conflict and persecution, some 200,000 Oromos were forced to flee to Somalia. Most of these refugees came from Hararge, Arsi, Bale,  Borana, Wallo and Guji areas that were affected by Bale Oromo movement of 1960s,  the Ethio-Somali war and  the OLF insurgency . The refugee community was mostly hosted in Hargiesa ( now capital of Somaliland) and Borema  and  Saba’ad refugee camps.

As Said Bare’s regime was losing grip on power, Hargeisa and other areas fell to the Somalia National Movement,  a rebel group that was supported by the Ethiopian government. As a tactic to weaken OLF, the  rebels attacked the refugee camps forcing Oromos to flee back to their homeland. The returnees were met with the Dergue officials and military commanders on the border. The officials assured them of safe passages to their areas of origin and fair treatment once they reach there. However the promise began to breakdown once the refugees crossed the border. They were told to gather in one place for transportation. Then security officers began identifying and selecting individuals. They selected about 7,000  individuals, mostly young men and women , known elders and spiritual leaders. ( This number is given by an elder who mediated  between the regime and the refugee community representatives and confirmed by survivors). They were told that the government wanted to conduct further investigation in order clear them and let them go. Then they were loaded to military trucks and taken to Hameressa military camp. ( Few ‘high value’ prisoners were taken to prisons  in Dire Dawa, Harar and Addis Ababa). Death as a result of contagious  disease, malnutrition, torture, and execution was a daily event in the camp. An elder in the nearby village recalls that  farmers in the vicinity had to stop their work as they were made busy burying prisoners handed to them by the military.

At the mean time the regime was losing grip over the country very fast and  armed confrontation between the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Dergue army was intensified in rural districts. In a week leading to the mass killing, OLF fighters overrun several outlying military posts. The causality on the government side was said to be severe. General Getachew Gedamu, who  was in charge of the security operation in Harage  at the time, said to have lost personal friends and family members. He and the rest of the military officers  also panicked due to possible fall of Harar town to the rebels’ hand. Consequently, they began angrily executing high profile  prisoners during the day. When the night fell, they brought in five bulldozers from the city and  dug up huge hole outside the compound at place called Sharif Kalid. First, they loaded up bodies of those  who were killed during the day.  Then they tied up the remaining prisoners and told them to line up facing the hole. They fired on them from behind. Many of the victims were thrown in alive. The bulldozers put back the soil on the top. It was said that, the next morning, food prepared for prisoners had to be dumped as there were just few of them were still there. Its not possible to ascertain the exact number of people buried on the ground that night. However only few of those refugees who were transported from the Somalia border were ever to be seen again.

Among  individuals whom we  have been able to confirm were kept in Hameressa and  killed on that fateful night.

• Mustafa Abdi (Harawe), an Oromo singer

• Haji Mohammed Dolal of Laga Mixee , a well known religious scholar and key leader of the refugee community in Somalia.
• Usman Keyrullah  ( from Laga Hama)
• Sufiyan Mohammed Sule  and his sister  Kimiya  ( from  Fal’aana)
• Momo Adam ( from Haban)
• Mohammed Ammee ( from  Hursoo)
• Fatiya Haji Ahmedo ( whose father and 36 of family were victims of another mass killing 10 years earlier in Daro Labu District)
• Haji Dadi  Tarre  (  from Tumtu Furdaa, Gololcha District of Arsi)
• Abdoo Katabee ( from Gaara Mul’ataa)

Hameressa under TPLF Control

After the fall of the Dergue, the Hameressa military garrison was taken over by the TPLF army’s Eastern Command led by Samora Yunos,  the current Army Chief of Staff.  Samora used the Hameressa camp as his operational headquarters.  The TPLF at the time was engaged  in fighting against the OLF in 1990s. In 1992, TPLF army arrested tens of thousands people for alleged membership and support of OLF.  This swift mass arrest was facilitated by the infamous disarmament and encampment of OLF’s Eastern Command as part of the transitional period deal. Most of those arrested jailed at the Hurso military camp located not far from Hameressa. Upto 20,000 people are said to have been kept there at the height of the mass arrest. Once screened in Hurso, ‘high valued’ prisoners were transferred to the headquarters in Hameressa for intensive interrogation and keep them secured. A former prisoner who was kept there until late 1990s recalls death of 84 people from one section of the prison where some 500 prisoners were housed.  TPLF continued to use this prison, particularly its underground jail cells upto mid-2000s. Residents who were present during the recent discovery claim seeing less decomposed bodies compared to older ones. This might a reason why the current regime who  is often eager to expose crimes committed by its predecessors has tried to suppress publicity of the discovery of the mass grave.

Note that the main mass grave at  Sharif Khalid has not been fully unearthed during the recent discovery. The remains that were exposed appears to be either on the periphery of the mass grave or those of smaller, isolated killings.
Residents of the area now demand the government to

• Stop the planned construction the site
• Help conduct proper excavation to  identify the remain so that the loved ones can give them proper burial and get closure
• Declare the place hallowed ground and  erect memorial statue in order to preserve the historical memory

The initial response by the government was to deploy its notorious ‘federal police’ paramilitaries to forcefully remove elders camped on the site. However, facing growing resistance, it appears to back down from the construction. It has yet to respond to the remaining two demands.

=>gulelepost

Ethiopia’s Police State: The Silencing of Opponents, Journalists and Students Detained

By Paul O’Keeffe

Detention under spurious charges in Ethiopia is nothing new. With the second highest rate of imprisoned journalists in Africa[1] and arbitrary detention for anyone who openly objects to the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime’s despotic iron fist, the Western backed government in Addis Ababa is a dab hand at silencing its critics.

Eskinder Nega and Reeyot Alemu are just two of the country’s more famous examples of journalists thrown in prison for daring to call the EPRFD out on their reckless disregard for human rights. This April the regime made headlines again for jailing six[2] bloggers and three more journalists on trumped up charges of inciting violence through their journalistic work. Repeated calls for due legal process for the detainees from human rights organisations and politicians, such as John Kerry, have fallen on deaf ears as they languish in uncertainty awaiting trial. This zero-tolerance approach to questioning of government repression is central to the EPRDF’s attempts to control its national and international image and doesn’t show much signs of letting up.

Stepping up their counter-dissent efforts the regime just this week detained another journalist Elias Gebru – the editor-in-chief of the independent news magazine Enku. Gebru’s magazine is accused of inciting student protests[3] which rocked Oromia state at the end of April. The magazine published a column which discussed the building of a monument[4] outside Addis Ababa honouring the massacre of Oromos by Emperor Melinik in the 19th century. The regime has tried to tie the column with protests against its plans to bring parts of Oromia state under Addis Ababa’s jurisdiction. The protests, which kicked off at Ambo University and spread to other parts of the state, resulted in estimates[5] of up to 47 people being shot dead by security forces.

Ethiopia has a history of student protest movements setting the wheels of change in motion. From student opposition to imperialism in the 1960s and 1970s to the early politicisation of Meles Zenawi at the University Students’ Union of Addis Ababa.  The world over things begin to change when people stand up, say enough and mobilise. Ethiopia is no different. Similar to its treatment of journalists Ethiopia also has a history of jailing students and attempting to eradicate their voices. In light of such heavy handed approaches to dissent the recent protests which started at Ambo University are a telling sign of the level discontent felt by the Oromo – the country’s largest Ethnic group. Long oppressed by the Tigrayan dominated EPRDF, the Oromo people may have just started a movement which has potential ramifications for a government bent on maintaining its grip over the ethnically diverse country of 90 million plus people.

Students and universities are agents of change and the EPRDF regime knows this very well. The deadly backlash from government forces against the student protesters in Oromia in April resulted in dozens[6] of protesters reportedly being shot dead in the streets of Ambo and other towns in Oromia state. Since the protests began scores more have been arbitrarily detained or vanished without a trace from campuses and towns around the state. One student leader, Deratu Abdeta  (a student at Dire Dawa University) is currently unlawfully detained in the notorious Maekelawi prison for fear she may encourage other students to protest. She is a considered at high risk of being tortured.

In addition to Ms. Abdeta many other students are suspected of being unlawfully detained around the country. On May 27th 13 students were abducted from Haramaya University by the security forces. The fate of 12 of the students is unknown but one student, Alsan Hassan, has reportedly committed suicide by cutting his own throat all the way to the bones at the back of his neck after somehow managing to inflict bruises all over his body and gouging out his own eye. His tragic death became known when a local police officer called his family to identify the body and told them to pay 10,000 Birr ($500) to transport his body from Menelik hospital in Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa town in Oromo state.  Four of the other students have been named as Lencho Fita Hordofa, Ararsaa Lagasaa, Jaaraa Margaa, and Walabummaa Goshee.

Detaining journalists and students without fair judicial recourse may serve the EPRDF regime’s short term goal of eradicating its critics. However, the reprehensible silencing of opponents is one sure sign of a regime fearful of losing its vice-like grip. Ironically the government itself has its own roots in student led protests in the 1970s. No doubt it is well aware that universities pose one of the greatest threats to its determination to maintain power at all costs. Countless reports of spies monitoring student and teacher activities on campus, rigid curriculum control and micro-managing just who gets to study what are symptoms of this. The vociferous clamp-down on student protesters is another symptom and just the regime’s latest attempt to keep Ethiopia in a violent headlock. The regime would do well to remember that stress positions cause cramps and headlocks can be broken. It can try to suppress the truth but it can’t try forever.

Paul O’Keeffe is a Doctoral Fellow at Sapienza University of Rome. His research focuses on Ethiopia’s developing higher education system.

=>globalresearch

Jigjiga: Security operations under way in Jigjiga

(OgadenToday Press)- Ethiopian Paramilitary forces in Jigjiga are conducting security operations in Jigjiga, Somali Ogaden Regional administration, the report said.

According to source, dozens have been arrested overnight security operations in the city, meanwhile, the border of Somaliland and Ogaden region has been closed temperately.

A source close to the administration informed OgadenToday Press that the security has been tightened after fearing Somali linked Al-Qaida Alshabab revenge against the administration after two week fighting at the border of Somali and Ogaden Region in eastern Ethiopia.

The regional administration fears explosions after getting information, the report said

Independent source confirmed that curfew has been imposed in Jigjiga starting from local time 10:00 evening until 6 morning.

=>ogadentoday