No place for war criminals at the G20 conference table!

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was invited by Canada’s Head of Government Stephen Harper to take part in the G-20 summit meeting of the world’s most important industrial and newly-industrialised countries at the end of June 2010 in Toronto. The invitation is a great honour for Ethiopia’s autocratic ruler, and, in view of the war crimes of which his government have been accused, totally undeserved.

Just in the previous four weeks, In Ogaden in the east of the country, more than 70 unarmed civilians have been killed. The Somalian civilians were court-martialled and shot following raids in Ogaden, according to reports coming out of Ethiopia from local human rights groups. In Fafen, Farso, Goray, Bambas and Galaalshe, village elders and peasants were killed, sometimes before the eyes of their families. They were accused of supporting the Somalian liberation movement – the ‘Ogadon National Liberation Front’ (ONLF). The Society for Threatened Peoples is handing over a list with the names of 34 victims to the United Nations. The killing of unarmed civilians is a designated war crime.

One can assume that the killings were a punitive action of the Ethiopian army in response to the attack by the ONLF on the garrison town of Malqala on 18th May 2010. In the attack on the town on the strategically important road between Harar and Jigjiga in the north west of the mainly Muslim-populated Ogadon region in Ethiopia, 94 Ethiopian soldiers, according to the ONLF, were killed. Officially, the capturing of the town by the Somalian liberation movement was denied. Nevertheless, in the days following the attack the army combed through the surrounding villages, sealed themselves off from the outside world and carried out the court-martials and shootings. Following the end of this blockade, many people have fled from the conflict zone.

The Ogaden region in the east of Ethiopia has a larger area than that of Germany and Belgium put together. Only around eight million people live in this huge area, which is fought over between Ethiopia and Somalia. As early as 2007/8 accusations of war crimes in Ogaden were made by human rights organisations, and Ethiopian soldiers advanced with great severity upon unarmed Somalis, who en masse were blamed for supporting the ONLF liberation movement. The ONLF have been struggling for more self-determination as well as an end to oil developments by foreign companies in their country.

The serious allegations must be thoroughly investigated before the planned participation of Ethiopia in the G 20 summit meeting in Canada at the end of June 2010.

Please call upon the Canadian Prime Minister to investigate these accusations before the arrival of Meles Zenawi at the G-20 summit meeting. For war crimes must be punished with the full vigour of the law, and those responsible must be held accountable.

Link for the On-line appeal

Translated from Charlie und Gisela Russell