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Somalia: Puntland Extradites More Civilians to
Ethiopian Govt - Report |
Garowe Online
(Garowe)
NEWS
3 May 2008
Authorities in Somalia's Puntland State
regional administration have extradited an
additional number of Somali civilians over
to the government of Ethiopia, independent
sources told Garowe Online.
At least 13 men with clan ties to Ethiopia's
restive Ogaden region were rounded up in the
Puntland city of Galkayo, 750km north of the
national capital Mogadishu, the sources
added.
After intense questioning, at least six
members of the group were handed over to
Ethiopian intelligence officers, who were
cooperating with the Puntland Intelligence
Service (PIS) during the operation.
A relative of one of the detainees told the
BBC Somali Service that PIS and Ethiopian
intelligence officers transported several of
the detainees to a secret location in Garowe,
the capital of Puntland.
The anonymous relative indicated that some
of the detained men were employed as day
laborers, while others came to Puntland for
medical reasons.
Traditional elders who contacted Radio
Garowe said Galkayo city government
officials distanced themselves from having
anything to do with the arrests.
A Galkayo-based clan elder told the BBC
Somali Service that the men were arrested
for "clan reasons," adding that all of them
belong to the Somalis' Ogaden clan that
dominates in eastern Ethiopia's Somali
Regional State, which is popularly known as
the Ogaden region.
"Before, we used to always hear people in
Mogadishu say that Ethiopians have conquered
us...today, we [in Galkayo] feel the same,"
the clan elder said during the Saturday
interview.
Last month, PIS agents arrested two
political officers that served in the
central committee of the Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLF), an Ethiopian rebel
group fighting for self-determination in the
region of Ogaden.
It was the first time that ONLF political
officers were arrested in Puntland, with
later reports indicating that the officers
were extradited to Ethiopia.
The arbitrary arrests come on the heel of
Puntland President Adde Muse's trip to
Ethiopia in April. Ethiopian government
officials have often accused the Muse
administration of allowing ONLF rebels to
operate on Puntland territory.
Ethiopia's repressive regime has been widely
condemned by international human rights
organizations and aid agencies, especially
with regard to the Ogaden region, which has
suffered from a low-level ONLF insurgency
since the 1990s.
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