Widespread Repression State Terrorism in Ogaden, Ethiopia

by GRAHAM PEEBLES

Ethiopia is being hailed as a shining example of African economic growth. Principle donors and devotees of the International Monetary Fund/World Bank development model (an imposed ideological vision which measures all things in terms of a nations GDP) see the country as an island of potential prosperity and stability within a region of failed states and violent conflict. “Economic performance in recent years has been strong, with economic growth averaging in double-digits since 2004,”states the IMF country report. The economic model (a hybrid of western capitalism and Chinese control) adopted by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government is a centralised system that denies democracy – consultation and participation in “development plans” is unheard of – ignores and violates human rights.

A willing ally in the “war on terror,” Ethiopia is a strategically convenient base from which the US launches it’s deadly Reaper Drones over Yemen and Somalia, carrying out “targeted assassinations” against perceived threats to “national security” and the ‘American way of life’. In exchange perhaps, irresponsible benefactors – Britain, America and the European Union – turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the human rights abuses being perpetrated throughout the country by the highly repressive dictatorship enthroned in Addis Ababa.

Widespread repression

Whilst there are state-fuelled fires burning in various parts of the country: Oromo, Amhara, Gambella, and the Lower Omo Valley for example. Regions where Genocide Watch (GW) consider “Ethiopia to have already reached Stage 7 (of 8), genocide massacres,” arguably the worst atrocities are taking place within the Ogaden, where GW say the Ethiopian government has “initiated a genocidal campaign against the Ogaden Somali population.”

A harsh region subject to drought and famine where, according to human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as first hand accounts, innocent men, women and children are being murdered, raped, imprisoned and brutally tortured by government forces.

The region borders Somalia and is populated largely by ethnic Somalis, many of whom do not regard themselves as Ethiopian at all and see the Ethiopian military operating within the region as an occupying force. The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has been engaged in a struggle for independence for the last 22 years. They were elected to power in the 1992 regional elections; however, after they had the democratic gall to propose a referendum on self-determination, the central government under the leadership of the previous Prime-Minister – Meles Zenawi, sent in the military: leading members of the newly elected regional authority and their supporters were executed and arrested and the army installed to control the region. The ONLF, branded terrorists by a government that labels all dissenting individuals and groups with the “T” word, were driven into the bush from where they have been waging armed and diplomatic resistance ever since.

Since 2007, all international media and prying meddlesome humanitarian aid groups have been banned from the area, making it extremely difficult to collect up-to-date information on the situation. The main source of data comes from courageous refugees and defected military men who have found their way to Kenya or Yemen. Most fleeing the region end up in one of the five sites that comprise the sprawling UNHCR-run Dadaab refugee camp in North Eastern Kenya. Established in 1992 to accommodate 100,000 people for 10 years, it is often described as the largest refugee camp in the world and is now home to round 500,000, although manipulated Kenyan government figures are much lower.

Maryama’s story

Maryama arrived in Dadaab with her son and daughter in May 2014 after fleeing her homeland in Ethiopia. She had been the victim of terrible physical and sexual abuse at the hands of the Ethiopian military. Her shocking story echoes the experience of thousands of innocent women – many of whom are no more than children – throughout the affected parts of the Ogaden. I met Maryama in the UNHCR field office of the Dagahaley site in October 2014. She spoke to me of her life in the Ogaden and the violence she had suffered. We sat on the ground in the shade of a UN office building. She spoke with clarity and passion for over an hour, her two-year old son on her lap.

Like many people in the Ogaden, Maryama lived a simple life as a pastoralist. Tending her goats and camels, she moved from place to place with her family. She had never attended school, cannot read or write and knows little or nothing of her country’s politics. Some time in 2012, she was arrested when a large group of armed soldiers from the Ethiopian military descended on her family’s settlement in Dagahmadow in the district of Dagahbuur. “They came to us one day while we were tending to our affairs in our village and they accused us of being supporters of the ONLF as well as having relatives in the ONLF.” The soldiers “called all the village people together and started carrying out acts of persecution. They took anything of value, including property and livestock, by force and burnt down homes in the process. I had just given birth seven days earlier when they came into my home and they asked me why I am inside the house [a small semi-circular wooden structure made from branches and mud] by myself [she was bathing her son at the time]. They saw footsteps near my home, which they followed and concluded that it must have been left by the ONLF” [the prints were in fact made by the military]. “All of us were taken out of our homes and questioned about the ONLF, we all denied any involvement. Our homes were then burnt.”

The solders moved from house-to-house questioning people about the footprints. A young mother, who had given birth the day before and was holding her child, was interrogated, she knew nothing and said so. An elderly woman went to her aid; she was caught by the throat and questioned about the footprints – she knew nothing. They shot her dead. Two men from the village arrived and were immediately questioned. One of the men answered, denying any connection with the ONLF; two soldiers tied his hands together, threw a rope around his neck and pulled on each end until he choked to death. Maryama was ordered to hold the strangled man upright and not allow him to fall to the side. When, exhausted after two hours, she let go of the body she was “arrested with six other girls (including my sister), one of the girls had given birth that day.” On the first night in captivity [in an abandoned village] “she was forced to her feet by two soldiers, one of them kicked her in the stomach – she fell on the floor, keeled over and died on the spot. They also shot my sister in front of us. I watched as she bled to death next to the other girl who had died from the beating.”

Maryama told how after witnessing these atrocities, soldiers put a plastic bag over her head and tied a rope around her throat until she lost consciousness. When she came to, she found herself outside in a deep pit; she was naked and in great pain; she found it difficult to move. Her son was nowhere to be seen. Eight other people were with her, five were dead – one was a cousin, two were neighbours. These people had gone missing 10 days previously; it was assumed they were in prison. She cried hysterically.

After 28 days in the pit, her son was brought to her and they were both taken to prison. She was held captive in Jail Ogaden, in the regional capital Jigjiga, for approximately two and a half years, during which time she was subjected to torture and extreme sexual abuse. There were, she told me, over 1,000 women in the prison. At this point it is perhaps worth stating the obvious: this woman had broken no law, had not been charged with any offence or been granted any of her constitutional or human rights.

Maryama, along with other female prisoners, was routinely tortured by military personnel; stripped naked, they were forced to crawl on their hands and knees across a ground of sharp stones. Their knees would collapse and bleed; if they stopped, they were verbally insulted and beaten with wooden sticks or the butt of a rifle. Another favoured method of torture was to strip the women and take them to the latrines where toilet waste was thrown over them. At the same time they were beaten with sticks, belts and hit with the butt of a rifle. They were not allowed to wash and were forced to sleep covered in this waste.

Maryama, who was around 18 years of age when she was first arrested, was repeatedly raped by groups of soldiers while in prison. They like the women to be young – 15 to 20 – and semi-conscious when raped so the girls cannot resist and the perpetrator cannot be identified; part strangulation with a rope or a blow to the head using the butt of a rifle renders the innocent victim unconscious. Soldiers are told to use the penis as a weapon and are “trained,” defected military men told me, to rape women and how to “break a virgin”; violent demonstrations on teenage girls are given by training officers. They are told to eat hot chillies before going out on patrol, so their semen will burn the women rape victims. A defected divisional commander in the Liyu Police, Dahir, related how during his five years in the force he had witnessed between 1200 and 1500 rapes in the Ogaden.

The creation of a climate of fear amongst the population is the aim of the government and the military; they employ a carefully planned, if crude, methodology to achieve their vile objective. False arrest and detention of men and women, arbitrary assassinations and torture, rape and the destruction of property and livestock make up the arsenal of control and intimidation employed by the EPRDF government.

Unbelievable

The Ethiopian regime maintains that nothing untoward is taking place within the Ogaden region. The military and Liyu police (a renegade paramilitary group), they tell us, are safeguarding civilians against the terrorist organization operating there, namely the ONLF. Soldiers in training are brainwashed to see the population of the region, men, women and children, as enemies of the State. Accounts like Maryama’s are pure fiction, government spokesmen say, and, sorry chaps, the region is unsafe for members of the international media or human rights groups and you cannot enter. And if you do, you will be arrested.

There is indeed terrorism raging throughout large parts of the Ogaden and elsewhere in the country; it is State Terrorism perpetrated by a brutal regime that is guilty of widespread criminality, much of which constitutes crimes against humanity.

Graham Peebles is director of the Create Trust. He can be reached at: graham@thecreatetrust.org



=>counterpunch

Habasha myth and peoples’ liberation

In olden times it is customary for rulers to claim mystic origins different from their people.  Such origins have some divine trait to justify limitless power for the man at the head, the king. That was how the Solomonic dynast of Abyssinia was told to have been created by a book composed in Egypt, called “Kibira Nagast”.  It claims for Habasha kings an origin that traces to King Solomon of Israel.  A son was born from out of wedlock romance between the king and the Queen of Sheba when she came to visit him from somewhere in the South as told. Queen of Sheba is known only through religious books of the Middle East and there is no history book that mentions her or her exact country. That is why she is claimed by Arabs and African alike.  Even then her committing adultery with King Solomon and having a son was not mentioned in the religious books.  That is why many believe that Minilik I was a creation of the Coptic Church to have permanent influence on Habashaa Kings and never existed as presented. His name started to appear in the said document, Kibra Nagast, for the first time. Thus everything surrounding him and his mother is myth told over and over by generations of Habashaa clerics known as daftaraa.

The myth had served the Habashaa ruling clique to rule over their people with fear of the heavenly and iron fist. The people are never citizens with full rights over their individual life and national affairs. They were subjects that pay tributes and serve the rulers without question. The clerics play great role in cramming down the myth and the possible supernatural retribution if doubted into the minds of the masses making them believe that it would be sin to disobey the rulers, in particular the king. In the last four centuries Habashaa power was never transferred peacefully. Kings were overthrown by individuals that declare themselves kings. Except for those daredevils there were rare mass movements to overthrow the kings for they are under the fear of divine retribution.  Even movement like that in Goojjam in 1960s targeted the Governor General Tsahayuu Inqusillaasee’s harsh rule not the Emperor.

The kings were presented as demigod throughout their history until the over throw of Emperor Haile Sillaasee. With the last emperor a saturation point was reached where people started doubting the sinfulness of rebellion against injustice. In earlier times the chief priest from Alexandria can condemn the rebellion or untie the people from allegiance to the king. That was what the church did to Iyyaasuu; it untied the people from allegiance to him. To over throw the last emperor no priest interference was required because the chief priest was also under threat for it was not individual rebellion but mass revolution that came to change the setup of the monarchical rule. That be as it may the reverence for those holding power still persists among the Habashaa masses. It is a bone deep ethos that does not easily get erased.

Through the years prior to that many changes have taken place. Many independent nations were annexed to Habashaa kingdom by force. Except for the land holding system, all autocratic vices of governance were transplanted to the colonies. The world’s technology and needs have started to grow in leaps and bounds. Africa was divided among alien colonizers. The world had carried out two world wars. These have prompted the demand for liberation and freedom by oppressed and colonized peoples of the world. But still they are the sly elites that dominate the political fields in Habashaa land. Power is yet far off from the people. It would have been advantageous for all oppressed peoples of the empire had the Habasha people asserted their right to be governed by those they truly elect. However waiting until they do that or fighting for them to achieve democratic rule cannot be a precondition for others to be free. To negotiate with a democratic state about freedom would have been easier than dealing with bunches of undemocratic dictators. For development, regional understanding and proper governance of the Horn of Africa the existence of democratic states can be the only warranty.

Unable to cop up with the new situation the emperor has to give way. Though the major role for the change was played by the colonies, power did not go to them for they were not organized. The occupation army took over and filled offices with new class. Some members of the old ruling class took individual actions opposing the change. But they were easily crushed because the oppressed sided with the junta. The remaining landed gentry were easily cajoled to get in line and pledge allegiance to the new order.  The new rulers asserted that the source of power is not Devine but the people. But “One Ethiopia or Death” slogan was adopted assuring Darg’s loyalty to the empire state reassuring the Habasha people. Thus at least formally the Solomonic legend was mostly demystified.  The new regime and its left leaning cohorts echoed after Mao Zedong that “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” making their heritage more clear. They are going to impose their rule with power of the gun alone unlike the ancient Nafxanyaa that used the gun plus the Cross. The same principle is adhered to down to the present day.

The Darg was forced out of power in the same way it came, by the power of the gun. For those that replaced them just like their predecessors, negotiation for the dissolution and sanctity of the empire was off the table.  For the colonies nothing short of its destruction could answer their question. But a make believe policy that recognize peoples’ rights was put into a charter. The traditional power sharing practice between the two major Habashaa groups, Amaaraa and Tigrawayi was not respected. Tigray went alone to exploit the colonies for benefit of individual rulers and fringe benefit of their region. The causes that led to over throw of the different Habashaa regimes are not yet addressed.  Material deprivation of the masses in the mother country is still continuing except for the especial advantage Tigray got at the expense of others. Amaaraa elites have turned blind eye to their people’s plight while focusing on how to snatch away Oromiyaa from their cousins.

As for the colonies their resources are busy building infrastructure of Tigray. Roads, electric power, health facilities, defense force etc are mushrooming. Education facilities that produce future leaders for the empire with exclusive curriculum are said to be flourishing in Tigray alone. For the colonies nothing significant was done. Even plans for infrastructure development started by the emperor are not completed.  The previous regimes, including the Italians built roads to the colonies so that as much resources and services as possible are sifted out. From that Oromiyaa had some trickled benefits though incomparable to what colonial masters gained from it. The present ones added nothing to it to deny the indigenous smooth access to information and market. As long as they have power over the market they can force low prices on products and higher communication and transport cost locally. That gives them monopoly over movement of wealth of the colonies. The policy that allowed for land grabbing has brought in voracious groups that may side with Wayyaanee in defense of their investment, there by prolonging the subjugation of Oromiyaa and its neighbors with possible fast extinction of some minorities already on the verge.

Habashaa rulers have managed their own people with unending terror. The conquest of new land might have relieved the age old internal tension.  Able bodied men were given the opportunity to share in the colonial spoils. They were infatuated by their new gains, power, land, hunting grounds, vegetation, water, gold and other natural resources and above all free labor. The rulers and their followers were guided by intuition not knowledge. They took for granted the new land and never went back to alleviate the agony of those who are still suffering under brutal rule of petty chiefs they left behind. They feed the people only with false hopes and grandeur and fame they brought for them internationally. Those are the Nafxanyaa parasites that had been reaping without sawing for over a century.  It never clicks their minds that a time will come that they will be demanded to hand over to the owners all their loots. When that time arrives they know they have nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Whatever they had looted will return to the legitimate owners from wherever they were stashed. This they know and it is its nightmare that is driving them crazy terrorists in order to live a day more.

Despite the myth’s falling apart conspirators are trying to patch them together.  They mix up history of ancient Kush (Nuubiyaa) cited by Greek historians and the religious books of the Middle East, with that of recent Abyssinia to confuse world public opinion. Still Ethiopia’s colonial nature is being suppressed by dishonest writers, politicians and diplomats. They tell of Ethiopia maintaining her independence untouched by “The Scramble for Africa”. But they do not tell of which Ethiopia they are talking. If they are talking of Abyssinia, that may be true.  Abyssinia had participated in the Scramble for Africa. It is only racist mind that denies this. Free countries like Afar, Ogaadeeniyaa, Wala’ita, Sidaamaa, Kaficho, Oromiyaa and all the counties south of Habashaa land were colonized then with support of other colonizer buddies. Now is the time to write the true history of the region of which Habashaa is one among the many. This truth must be a part of freedom fighters manual.  One has to know the driving force behind the enemy that makes it selflessly greedy and brutal.  Now Ethiopian empire has become good only for history books for it cannot keep one people subservient to another anymore.

Descendants of the first “Nafxanyaa” in Oromiyaa were the most privileged members of the society distinctly different from the indigenous people around them.  They were owners of land and most of the wealth it produced. That land based economic wealth came to an end with land proclamation of 1975. But their umbilical cord with the empire state was not totally severed. Most were still trusted more than the oppressed for which the revolution claimed to come. But still they were hard hit by the revolution in general terms. That be as it may, the colonial state cannot escape the responsibility by changing its name and ideology, not descendents of the first Nafxanyaa. It is the one that has to apologize and redressed all harms done. As for the descendants no one can deny them being an Oromiyaan if they desire so. But if they are still the bragging types by the broken bones and spilt blood of their forebears in the process of colonization it could be considered “rubbing salt on a wound”.  But for those that stand for justice and equality there is nothing to fear from independent free Oromiyaa. Because they were born in Oromiyaa for most of them there is no other country to claim or better relations they could depend on.  To support free Oromiyaa or continuation of the empire is their individual choice.

The problem in which descendant of the first Nafxanyaa find themselves in, needs to be addressed by liberation activists.  Given from what they were told at bed side story or as indoctrination at schools, any change in the status quo can be freighting for they were not told about Oromo accommodativeness at the same time. Throughout their lives they had been seeing Oromo the dehumanized and timid not the real one. The real one is not vengeful but brave and passionate; to make peace is the arena of the brave and true offspring of the Gadaa fathers.

It must be understood that the sacrifices the oppressed made are not to oppress others in turn. It is to bring peace, freedom and happiness for all Oromiyaans irrespective of ethnicity or past records. Descendants of the first Nafxanyaa are being hammered from left and right by false history and gruesome consequences if the colonies were freed.  That is daily reinforced by continuous propaganda of those that are not personally affected but have something to gain from chaos that may ensue.  The struggle for liberation is not based on ethnicity. It is the demand for, liberation from alien domination, justice, freedom and equality. The Nafxanyaa descendant may be answerable for their own folly like all Oromiyaans not for their forefathers. As for ethnicity of the Nafxanyaa for many of them it is all a myth that their forefathers were made to accept of being Amaaraa, whether they were recruited from Abyssinia or Oromiyaa. Purposely they have made Amaaraa synonymous with Orthodox Christianity to which most gun wielders are proselytized, to keep Oromo Nafxanyaa apart from the Waaqeffataa and Muslim indigenous.  It is up to them to verify if racism has anything to do with the Oromo question and even if they were real Habashaa before they are thrown to fright by made up ethnic cleansing scarecrow.  

Otherwise, to join a group that denies Oromoo having land in Africa would be, denying one’s own identity or self-hatred.  It will also be denying Minilik’s claim that is on record of his being “Emperor of Abyssinia and the Oromo countries”. The first Nafxanyaa had destroyed more than half the population, their sovereignty, culture, language, national identity and tradition mercilessly. That is all remembered for its historic value not to affect generations that are not responsible. But anyone that continues with that animosity and contempt for the colonial peoples even under the present situation cannot escape being responsible for condoning criminal actions.

There cannot be peace, stability and development in the region without the rule of law, democracy and freedom. The colonizer has nothing to gain from peace and stability of the region. Rule of law, democracy and freedom for all does not give it exclusive access to resources. Therefore it will not accept the right of nations to national self-determination that includes independence of the colonies which is a democratic right. In addition losing authority for those that abused human rights while in power makes them vulnerable to the wrath of justice. For these reasons it is highly unlikely for it to give up power willingly. Therefore for activists to waver at every turn is no solution, only firm stand could lead to victory. Peoples’ right is not something that one gives to another but is a birth right recognized by Assembly of nations. Today political forces of Oromiyaa are not well organized to enforce their nation’s rights but spontaneous people’s movements for liberation are fast rolling. Whether liberal Oromo or fundamentalist Habasha like it or not, the struggle for independence will never stop. OLF can stand only for independence as its program dictates and for nothing short of that as long as it remains OLF.

The following is UN resolution 3070 of 30, November 1973 for everyone to know:

The General Assembly ∙∙∙

1. Reaffirms the inalienable right of all people under colonial and foreign domination and alien subjugation to self-determination, freedom and independence in accordance with General Assembly resolutions 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, 2649 (XXV) of 30 November 1970 and 2787 (XXVI) of 6 December 1971;

2. Also reaffirms the legitimacy of the peoples' struggle for liberation from colonial and foreign domination and alien subjugation by all available means, including armed struggle;

3. Calls upon all States, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations and with relevant resolutions of the United Nations, to recognize the right of all peoples to self-determination and independence and to offer moral, material and any other assistance to all peoples struggling for the full exercise of their inalienable right to self-determination and independence;

Frightening the masses with the divine power of kings has already eclipsed. Then all the dirty policies of the kings were covered up under the saying “Kings make no mistake” and they were presented as fountains of justice with no flaws. Now with that myth broken leaders of the empire stand naked and their naked force exposed. They cannot distance themselves from implementation of their oppressive inhuman policies. Rule of law had never been a concern of Habasha rulers though there were traditional redress mechanisms in the ancient ones. The present ones have full control over all mechanism and it is only them that are judges for their actions. Therefore to save the Habasha from abuse of power, peoples of the colonies from dehumanization and extermination they have to go. To be ruled by rude gangsters is sin. Wayyaanee is on its way out soon forced by its own mistakes and corruption. But the question Oromo liberators have to answer is what next?

The cry of “terrorism” for Wayyaanee is one of the methods to get aid and attention from western countries in particular USA. But how long should the tax payer’s money prop a corrupt unsustainable dying system? The truth is there is no terrorism in Ethiopia except for the incumbent government itself. It is to hide its true terrorist nature and win appreciation when it kills and imprisons so many people for being terrorists. Actually they were not terrorists but Oromo; it is terrorizing them not to dare ask for justice. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism they fulfill their objective of keeping the Oromo nation under subjugation with the material and moral support they get. The vanguard political organization Oromo have, the OLF is branded terrorist to smear any dissenting Oromo voice as members of OLF and therefore “terrorist”!

Reports of human right organization had exposed the Ethiopian government of abusing its people in particular the Oromo. Oromo are law abiding peace loving people with democratic tradition.  To which ever religion they might belong so far no extremism is observed among the Oromo. All believers understand their place and role within the Oromo national political setting. There Gadaa background seems never forgotten when it comes to maintain peace and conciliation (Nagaa and Araaraa).  They were good fighters and good peace makers prior to all indoctrinations.  Still they have the stamina to fight and to make peace but for freedom and independence of their country, Oromiyaa, not for “clash of civilization”.  Unlike the Habashaa their civilization was known for accommodativeness. No religion or religious sect had ever been considered as second class citizen in Oromiyaa while religious segregation is obvious in Abyssinia from time immemorial as opposed to what they lecture to the world.

That has to be understood as not to be swayed by Wayyaanee smear campaign. The Oromo are victims of Wayyaanee terror not vis-versa. Oromiyaa is the country of the brave. The brave believe in fair play at any time. No violence should be used against the unarmed and there is no terrorizing the not aware innocent civilian. That is the skill Wayyaanee is trained for. That is what it is carrying out on the Oromo and crying of Oromo being “terrorists”. Oromo can be called terrorist only if resisting alien subjugation can be termed so. Be that what it may the Oromo will continue fighting with the occupation army of aliens until their right for national self-determination up to and including independence is realized.  

Honor and glory for the fallen heroines and heroes; liberty equality and freedom for the living and nagaa and araaraa for the Ayyaanaa of our fore parents!

Ibsaa Guutama

=>gubirmans

The Rape Victim Who Fought Back and Shamed a Nation

Aberash Bekele in a scene from Schoolgirl Killer in 1998. SCHOOLGIRL KILLER DOCUMENTARY

January 9, 2015 (Newsweek) — The woman who greets me at Addis Ababa airport is very different from the traumatised girl I last saw in 1998. When I hugged Aberash Bekele goodbye 16 years ago, I had just finished filming a BBC documentary about her called Schoolgirl Killer. At 14, Bekele was kidnapped by a gang of horsemen, raped and then put on trial for killing her abductor. Her story forced Ethiopia to confront its brutal customs and change its laws. Today she’s the mother of a 10-year-old son;  she’s plumper, her hair is hennaed and styled, her shoes sparkly, her nails varnished gold. Her story has now been made into a feature film called Difret. Executive produced by Angelina Jolie, Difret has already won awards at the Sundance, Berlin, Montreal and Amsterdam film festivals and Bekele is once again the talk of the nation.

Bekele is one of 11 children (now aged between 52 and 19) by the same mother and grew up outside Kersa, a small remote town in Arsii, southern Ethiopia, where her parents are subsistence farmers. She was on her way home from school when horsemen with whips and lassoos surrounded her, grabbed her, threw her over a saddle and took her to a hut where she was locked up and raped. Her rapist then announced he was her husband-to-be. In Arsii it was the custom that if you wanted a wife you went out and kidnapped one and it’s estimated that, in 1998, 30% of marriages were initiated this way, with varying levels of violence.

Bekele escaped, stealing the guard’s gun. When her abductor and his men gave chase, she threatened to fire but they ignored her. So she pulled the trigger. Bekele was nearly murdered by the furious mob that gathered but was rescued by family friends, then arrested and put on trial. She became the first cause célèbre for the Ethiopian Women Lawyers’ Association and was finally released on the grounds of her youth and acting in self-defence. Despite her release, Bekele was exiled by the Kersa elders who didn’t recognise the courts. Unable to return to her family, and in danger from revenge threats by her dead abductor’s family, she fled to Addis.

When Schoolgirl Killer aired on the BBC in 1999, it struck a chord with the British public, who sent in enough money to send Bekele to a safe boarding school to finish her education. I lost touch with her until last year when an Ethiopian cameraman alerted me to Difret. I went to see it at the London Film Festival. Centre stage, as the main character, rather than Bekele, was Meaza Ashenafi, the then head of the Women Lawyers’ Association, whom I had interviewed for Schoolgirl Killer. The producers had changed Bekele’s name, but some scenes in the film were almost identical to Schoolgirl Killer. I found Bekele and flew to Addis.

Bekele now works there for Harmee, an NGO that aims to eliminate violence against women in Arsii. Dr Daniel Keftassa, who founded Harmee in 2006, picked me up from the airport with Bekele and we made the five-hour drive to Kersa, where Harmee has its headquarters, and where Bekele’s family still lives. On the way, she told me about the film. She was never consulted during its making, and when she found out about it and confronted Ashenafi and the producers, they told her the film was not about her.

Rounds of legal negotiation followed but no-one agreed to put Bekele’s name on the film. So, on the night of the film’s première, she obtained a last minute court injunction to stop it being screened. The producers had just screened Jolie’s televised address, in which she said that Difret was based on the “untold story of Aberash Bekele,” when she arrived with the necessary papers. Bekele ultimately signed an agreement, which means she feels unable to complain or take further action. Meanwhile, the film was temporarily released in Ethiopia but blocked again by the children of Bekele’s defence barrister. The film’s producers did not respond to a request for comment nor did Jolie’s personal assistant acknowledge receipt of emails.

Bekele, Keftassa and I arrived in Kersa. Apart from a new mosque, it’s the same shambles of mud and corrugated iron shacks strung along a few dirt roads. We went immediately to see Bekele’s family, who live a walk away from a new dirt road in a thatched hut on their farm. After eating, we sat around a fire under the stars. The grandchildren began dancing as one of the daughters beat out a rhythm on a plastic jerrycan and the family sung traditional Oromo songs. Bekele looked happy as she sat in her father’s embrace, a small nephew on her knee. Her brother told me about the day she was abducted. He was in the same class at school and went home early. As he cradled his infant son, it clearly still haunted him that he was unable to protect his sister.

Aberash Bekele with her father and family members today. ABERASH BEKELE PERSONAL PHOTO

After Bekele’s high profile case, abductions dropped in Arsii; none were reported for five years. Bekele’s older sister Mestawet is now 50. She was also abducted into marriage at 14. When we filmed her for Schoolgirl Killer, she was living in a hovel that also served as a bar, pouring home-brewed Arak to men, bringing up four small children. She had been a contemporary of the athlete Derartu Tulu, the first black African woman to win an Olympic gold at Barcelona in 1992. Mestawet, too, had been picked to run for her country and had been about to depart when she was kidnapped. Though she later left her husband, the elders persuaded her to return. She is now a grandmother and lives in a small new house running Harmee’s compound for Keftassa. Her eldest daughter is at college studying IT, the youngest at school. “I was married against my will so I will never be satisfied or happy but things are much better,” she said. “Kidnapping here has been minimised. Bekele paved the way because men started to be scared of what girls can do but only some have really changed their minds.”

The impact of Bekele’s high-profile case was immediate, but in the last few years abductions are back to seven or eight a year and late last year a 14-year-old was kidnapped. When her abductor tried to rape her, the girl fought so hard that he enlisted his friend to help tie her up. He kept her bound and hidden in the forest for a month, repeatedly raping her. To end the torture, the girl agreed to marry him. At the earliest opportunity, she stole his mobile and called her brother. Her abductor was given 17 years in jail. Bekele applauds the sentence but worries, like her sister, about whether the male mindset has truly changed. “How could that man have thought the girl would want to be his wife after what he did to her? Shame on him!” she said.

Bekele is now determined to change the violent customs that have scarred her life. Her work with Keftassa and Harmee is already yielding results in Arsii, where more girls are being educated and learning to stand up against the traditions that have subdued them for so long. Recently another girl was grabbed, hurled into a horse-drawn cart and driven off, but she screamed so loudly and the local women were so alert to abductions that they gave chase. The kidnappers threw the girl out of the cart. She was severely injured but her abductor was sent to jail for 12 years.

One night in Kersa, Bekele, Keftassa and I sat talking until late, reminiscing about the day she finally obtained the court order that ruined the film’s première. “I counted 11 big Mercedeses dropping off actors that night,” remembers Keftassa. “They swept up the red carpet, so high, so honoured, to meet Meaza and other important people. Meanwhile, far from the celebrations, running around out there seeking justice was Aberash. Aberash! The one who went through all the pain and all the trauma. I despair of people’s greed and ego that they can say it’s not her story.”

The film’s producers have now invited Bekele to Los Angeles in December, but she has been refused a visa. Though the film continues to be blocked in Ethiopia, distribution deals have been secured throughout Europe and Jolie enthused about its forthcoming release in the UK, when she hosted a special screening of the film during the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which she co-chaired with the British foreign secretary William Hague. She  reportedly said, “I cried for the first 20 minutes and then I smiled for the rest of it thinking I can’t wait for the world to see it because it will make a change.”

Of course, any change that helps end violence towards girls is welcome. While anyone to whom the cause of Ethiopa’s young women is important applauds the makers of the film for their good work, Bekele remains without a credit on the film. Today, she could be bathing in the glow of international admiration for her extraordinary courage and resilience. Instead she is invisible, her story taken.

“I feel doubly abducted,” she said.

=>ayyaantuu