This article originally appeared in World
War 3 Report.
Gambella, Ethiopia – Talk privately to any Anuak people in the
Ethiopian state of Gambella and it won't be long before they speak
about "the problem." Others are terrified into silence.
To Anuak and other indigenous minorities of southwestern Ethiopia,
the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is a ruthless military
dictatorship. And almost everyone links "the problem" to
Gambella's oil.
"Since the problem, we are not able to farm or to fish," said
one Anuak survivor who was shot three times. He is shy, but he
will show you where one bullet entered and exited his wrist. He
was shot December 13, 2003 – the day the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary
Defense Forces (EPRDF) and local "highlander" militias
launched their genocidal war on the Anuaks. "Highlanders" are
Ethiopians who are neither Anuak nor Nuer – the indigenous peoples
of the region – but predominantly Tigray and Amhara people resettled
into Anuak territory from their lands in the central highlands
since 1974.
Ten months after the massacres of December, 2003, the EPRDF government
of Ethiopia continues to downplay the violence in southwestern
Ethiopia. At the same time, the government has been rewarded with
new loans, debt restructuring and debt forgiveness by the international
development community. The EPRDF continues to benefit from its
tight military relationship with the United States.
The region is home to guerillas of the Gambella
People's Liberation Front (GPLF) and the Oromo Liberation Front
(OLF) and other forces
hostile to the Meles Zenawi regime. However, the EPRDF government
has used the pretext of "terrorism" and "national
security" to punish rural populations, and it continues to
wage low-intensity warfare against innocent civilians.
Today, Gambella state is under total military
occupation. Estimates place between 30,000 and 80,000 EPRDF troops
deployed here, carrying
out scorched-earth campaigns under the cover of "counter-terrorism." One
recent attack occurred in early September, when EPRDF soldiers
reportedly pillaged the rural village of Powatalam. Some 43 people
were killed, and the village was burned.
At least 1,500 and perhaps as many as 2,500
Anuak civilians have died in the fighting – most of these being intellectuals, leaders,
and members of the educated and student classes, who have been
intentionally targeted. Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for
and many are believed to have been "disappeared."
Numerous rural villages where Anuaks and other ethnic minorities
generally hover in the margins of existence at the best of times
have been similarly attacked, looted, and torched. Thousands and
perhaps tens of thousands of Anuak homes have reportedly been burned.
Anuak women and girls are routinely raped,
gang-raped and kept as sexual slaves by EPRDF forces. Girls have
been shot for resisting
rape, and summary executions of girls held captive for prolonged
periods as sexual slaves have been reported. In the absence of
Anuak men – killed, jailed or driven into exile – Anuak women and
girls have been left vulnerable to such sexual atrocities. Due
to the isolation of women and girls in rural areas, rapes remain
substantially under-reported.
Some 6,000 to 8,000 Anuak remain at refugee camps in Pochalla,
Sudan; and there are an estimated 1,000 Anuak refugees in Kenya.
The Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Bureau (DPPB), a regional
body that works closely with international aid groups, estimated
in August 2004 that approximately 25% (roughly 50,000 people) of
Gambella's population had been displaced.
"Many, many men have been killed since the problem began," says
one witness. "Many men ran away into the bush and have been
hunted by the soldiers. Women and girls are left undefended in
their homes. They are raping many girls. They keep some women by
force."
The violence has almost completely disrupted
this year's planting season, and people see famine in the coming
winter months (October-March) – exacerbated
by the destruction of milling machines and food stores.
According to Anuak sources relying on sympathetic
oppositionists within the regime, the EPRDF plans to access the
petroleum of Gambella
were laid out at a top-level cabinet meeting in Addis Ababa in
September 2003. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi chaired the meeting,
at which the military cleansing of the Anuaks was reportedly openly
discussed. Also present were Gen. Abdullah Gamada, head of the
EPRDF military, Vice-Prime Minister Adisu Lagesse, and Omot Obang
Olom, security chief for the Gambella region, an ethnic Anuak.
Petroleum operations – heavily guarded by EPRDF troops – are rapidly
moving forward.
The “Rwanda Model” in Gamebella
While there is a history of communal violence between indigenous
minorities in the Gambella region, evidence attests to patterns
of EPRDF government provocation, pitting tribe against tribe and
neighbor against neighbor. There is no evidence to support claims
of communal violence between Anuaks and the local Nuer ethic group,
as has been reported by the New York Times and other media, and
by the EPRDF government.
Ethnic cleansing appears to be sanctioned at the highest levels
of the EPRDF government, and there is evidence that the violence
initiated by last December's massacres in Gambella may have been
deliberately instrumented to justify a campaign against the Anuaks.
December 13, 2003 marked the start of a coordinated
military operation to systematically eliminate Anuaks. Sources
from inside the military
government's police and intelligence network say that the code
name of the military operation was: "OPERATION SUNNY MOUNTAIN."
In a pattern reminiscent of the Interahamwe civilian militia involved
in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, operations by government troops were
apparently coordinated with local Highlanders, who set upon Anuak
civilians with rocks, sticks, hoes, machetes, knives, axes and
pangas (clubs). Witnesses described Highlanders chanting slogans
as they hunted down and killed Anuaks.
Some 425 Anuak people were reported killed in the initial outburst
of violence, with over 200 more wounded and some 85 people unaccounted
for. Since December 2003, sporadic murders and widespread rapes
have continued in Gambella town, but the rural countryside is awash
in blood.
In February 2004, Genocide
Watch and Survivors' Rights International called for an independent
inquiry into the Gambella situation. That call was ignored.
Ten months after the pivotal massacres, there
is no indication that the United Nations or any other formal
body has undertaken
an official investigation of the killings of eight UN personnel
on the morning of December 13, 2003. The attack was blamed
on Anuak guerillas, and precipitated the wave of violence.
The killings reportedly occurred on the road from
Gambella to Itang town. Sources report that Anuak policeman Ojo
Akway was amongst
the first group of responders to the site of the ambush on the
morning. Akway reportedly found tracks that he wanted to immediately
pursue to attempt to discover those responsible for the UN killings
- it was winter and the ground was amenable to tracking. The Police
Commander in Gambella, Tadese Haile Selassie, is said to have ordered
Akway's execution in order to remove the problem of identifying
the actual killers. Sources report that Akway was detained later
that day, driven out of Gambella town, tied to a tree along the
road to Abueal village, and shot in the head seven times. An informant
sympathetic to Anuaks provided the information to relatives, noting
that Akway's body was disappeared, his gun was brought back to
town, and no report was filed.
A federal police investigator from Addis Ababa
dispatched to Gambella in July was also reportedly shot and killed.
Charged with determining
the extent and nature of involvement of Gambella police in the
December massacres, the investigator was said to have identified
many Highlander police who were "fully involved" in the
killing.
International and Ethiopian human rights organizations say that
the killings in Gambella constituted acts of genocide, as defined
by the Genocide Convention. Arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions
and torture are occurring throughout Ethiopia. Arbitrary arrests
and detentions of Anuak people have occurred for years prior to
the recent massacres. Reports coming out of the Gambella region
indicate that hundreds of people have been arbitrary arrested and
illegally detained, and that these people remain under detention,
subject to torture.
”Golden Spear”
Ethiopia remains a pivotal ally in the US "war against terror" in
the Horn of Africa, maintaining both covert and overt military
operations and programs.
Beginning July 2003, forces from Pentagon's Combined Joint Task
Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) held a three-month bilateral training
exercise with Ethiopian forces at the Hurso Training Camp, northwest
of Dire Dawa. The US Army's 10th Mountain Division recently completed
a three-month program to train an Ethiopian army division in counter-terrorism
tactics. Operations are coordinated through the CJTF-HOA regional
base in Djibouti, where the Halliburton subsidiary KBR is the prime
contractor.
The CJTF-HOA region includes the total airspace and land areas
of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan and Kenya, and the
coastal waters of the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. In
May 2004, US Brigadier General Samuel T. Helland assumed command
of the CJTF-HOA region.
On January 21, 2004 special operations soldiers
from the 3rd US Infantry Regiment – "The Old Guard," Bravo Company – replaced
the 10th Mountain Division forces at a new base established at
Hurso, Ethiopia, to be used for launching local joint missions
with the Ethiopian military. A new forward base named "Camp
United" has also been established in the area – a "temporary
training facility in rural Ethiopia" used "as a launching
ground for local missions, predominately training with the Ethiopian
military."
From 1995-2000, the US provided some $1,835,000 in International
Military and Education Training (IMET) deliveries to Ethiopia.
Some 115 Ethiopian officers were trained under the IMET program
from 1991-2001. Approximately 4,000 Ethiopian soldiers have participated
in IMET since 1950.
For 2002 and 2003, Ethiopia received some $2,817,000 through the
IMET and Foreign Military Sales and Deliveries programs. The US
also equipped, trained and supported Ethiopian troops under the
Africa Regional Peacekeeping Program. Ethiopia has remained a participant
of the IMET program in 2000-2004.
In August 2003, the U.S. committed $28 million for international
trade enhancements with Ethiopia.
In 2003, US AID, working with Africare and
Catholic Relief Services, was providing disaster relief to "combat famine in the drought-stricken
Gambella region of Ethiopia." The US State Department was
informed about unfolding violence in the Gambella region as early
as December 16, 2003, through communications to Secretary of State
Colin Powell, the Overseas Citizens Division, and the US Embassy
in Ethiopia.
Immediately following the February 16, 2004,
release of a report by Genocide Watch and Survivor's Rights International
("Today
is the Day of Killing Anuaks") the United States issued a
formal call for "an independent investigation" into the
events in Gambella. The State Department and the UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks (IRIN) condemned the ongoing violence
in Gambella. Each agency called for "[f]ully transparent and
independent investigations by the government" that would "encourage
restoration of peace in the troubled region," and called on
the Ethiopian government to investigate allegations of EPRDF involvement
in atrocities.
In the spring, the EPRDF government launched
an "independent
inquiry" into the Gambella violence. The Independent Inquiry
Commission, established by the Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives,
reported that few members of the Ethiopian armed forces were involved
in the Gambella killings.
In April 1, 2004, testimony before a House
of Representatives appropriations panel, US AID representatives asked Congress
to approve some $80 million in funding for Ethiopia programs in
FY 2005. Ethiopia was described as a "top priority" of
the Bush administration. US AID boasted of programs "that
lay the groundwork to establish a market-based economy hospitable
to investment..."
In a letter of August 6, twelve members of the US Congress called
on Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to protect citizens from harm and
ensure humanitarian access to the Gambella region. Asking the Meles
government to hold officials accountable for any involvement in
the violence, the letter also asked for an English version of the
Independent Inquiry Commission findings on the situation in Gambella.
On September 16, US Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced
a bill to the House Committee on Appropriations calling for substantive
attention to the Anuak problem.
The US Department of Defense Central Command
(CENTCOM) and European Command (EUCOM) are the pivotal forces
behind the "Golden
Spear" anti-terrorism program initiated in 2000 to "address
issues of terrorism, humanitarian crises, natural disasters, drugs
trafficking and refugees in the greater horn of Africa."
"Golden Spear" members include Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea,
Djibouti, Seychelles and Egypt. Ethiopia sponsored the July 28-30,
2003 "Golden Spear" symposium (held at Addis Ababa),
designed by the DoD "to provide a forum for strategic-level
dialogue on current security issues" in the region.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said "the
consensus reached at the meeting was a major achievement towards
the enhancement
of national capacities as well as collaborative efforts to deal
with disasters, thus protecting development gains the region has
attained over the years."
Meetings of the Golden Spear military group occurred in June in
the Seychelles, and July in Tampa, FL. Participants in July included
Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Seychelles.
Gambella Oil Rush
Sources report ten military camps in the immediate vicinity of
Gambella town, with an estimated 60 to 100 troops at each. The
three major camps are Terfshalaka, about seven kilometers from
Gambella town on the Addis Ababa road; Mekod, at the Gambella airport;
and a base in the middle of Gambella town. An estimated 60 to 75
troops can be seen at the Gambella airport. Troops are everywhere
in the town.
Witnesses report trucks of soldiers perpetually coming and going
from Gambella along the roads into rural areas. Soldiers were seen
to openly extort money and goods from civilians. Vehicles traveling
along the roads are expected to stop and pick up any soldiers waiting
for rides. Rights workers reportedly witnessed a church building
that had been expropriated by soldiers and turned into a semi-permanent
barracks. A nearby school was also expropriated and occupied.
On June 13, 2003, Malaysia's state-owned petroleum
corporation, PETRONAS, announced the signing of an exclusive
25-year oil exploration
and production sharing agreement with the EPRDF government to exploit
the Ogaden Basin and the "Gambella Block" or "Block
G" concession. On February 17, 2004, the Ethiopian Minister
of Mines announced that Malaysia's PETRONAS will launch a natural
gas exploration project in the Gambella region. Block G covers
an area of 15,356 square kilometers within the Gambella Basin.
According to Anuak sources, the Ethiopian government held a public
meeting in Gambella in February, even as violence against Anuak
in rural areas was continuing to rise. One witness testified:
"They told people about the oil and how
it would benefit everyone. But the Anuak said: 'How can you talk
to us about oil
when people are still being killed? We don't want to talk about
the oil.' But the government said, 'No, we want to talk about the
oil now.'"
The Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPEB), a powerful
subsidiary of China's second largest national petroleum consortium,
the China Petrochemical Corporation (SINOPEC), appears to be the
principal oil firm operating in Gambella at present, under subcontract
to Malaysia's national oil company PETRONAS.
The base camp for ZPEB equipment and petroleum
explorations is located approximately 1.5 kilometers from the
center of Gambella
town on the Abobo-Gambella road. The Ethiopian site manager, Mr.
Degefe, is a highlander who tersely describes himself as "responsible
for making all operations and security." The base camp is
under tight security and heavily guarded by EPRDF troops.
PETRONAS and the China National Petroleum Corporation currently
operate in Sudan. A recent report by Human Rights Watch raises
charges that the Asian oil giants have provided cover for their
respective governments to ship arms and military equipment to Sudan
in exchange for oil concessions granted by Khartoum.
While not cited in the above Human Rights Watch
report, ZPEB operates a concession for oil and gas exploration
in Block 6 in the Republic
of Sudan. ZPEB also operates in petroleum extraction in the Yli
Basin of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an area noted
for egregious human rights violations and systematic state terror
against the indigenous Uighur people. According to Human Rights
Watch: "Much like Tibetans, the Uighurs in Xinjiang (western
China) have struggled for cultural survival in the face of a government-
supported influx by Chinese migrants, as well as harsh repression
of political dissent and any expression, however lawful or peaceful,
of their distinct identity."
On September 18, 2004, a notice was posted
around Gambella town indicating that the Southwest Development
Company (a new Highlander-owned
venture) would be accepting applications for new hires to fill
some 117 positions in support of "construction and petroleum
related operations in Gambella region." On September 19, 2004
another notice seeking an additional 70 workers was posted around
Gambella town. The posters were stamped with the official seal
of the office of the Gambella People's National Regional State.
Anuak sources in Gambella state: "The
Anuak people have not been involved in the discussions about
the oil, our leaders have
not agreed to these projects, and they will not hire any Anuaks
for these jobs. If any Anuak says anything about the oil he will
be arrested."
Crocodiles and Rats
The few reports about the situation that have
appeared in the international press have misrepresented and distorted
the nature
of the violence. Reporters traveling to the region have relied
upon the EPRDF for security and information, and attempts by Anuaks
to make the truth known have largely been ignored. National Public
Radio last spring described Anuaks as primitives "once went
naked and ate rats."
Marc Lacey reported from Gambella for the New
York Times (June 15, 2004) simultaneous to the Ethiopian military's
ongoing scorched
earth campaign against rural villages. Lacey, who arrived with
a government escort – including an Ethiopian intelligence and security
team comprised of perpetrators of "the problem" – related
no first-hand accounts from Anuaks of the summary executions, massacres
and mass rape by EPRDF soldiers. Instead, the Times opted for a
picturesque story of pastoral harmony, mentioning the violence
almost in passing and even noting the threat to local bathers from
crocodiles.
"Bath time here is a communal affair," read Lacey's
lead. "Everyone grabs a bar of soap and heads down to the
river. As they stand naked in the water a few feet from one another,
lathering and rinsing in unison, people from Gambella's various
ethnic groups appear at ease. The Anuak, the Nuer and the highlanders
all use the Baro River as their tub."
Just across the Baro River are Anuak villages
with scars attesting to the huts that were torched – some with
people inside. But these went unmentioned by the New York Times.
The EPRDF military has
been said to routinely dump the bodies of the disappeared in Gambella's
rivers.
Resources:
International
Resources Group page on development and military aid projects
in Africa.
An award-winning journalist, snow's work
has appeared in publications in the US, UK and Japan. Returning
(2000) from his investigations
of war in central Africa and "the genocide" in Rwanda,
in 2001 snow gave expert
testimony on genocide and U.S. covert operations in Africa,
at a special congressional hearing in Washington D.C. He also
attended the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda in Arusha,
Tanzania. In 2002, two of snow's reports on Central Africa won
awards from the internationally recognized Project Censored and
they are included in Project Censored 2003, a book on the top
25 underreported news stories of 2001-2002. His website is www.allthingspass.com. |