Genocide
Watch and Survivors’ Rights International
A Genocide Watch and Survivors’ Rights International Field Report
“When
a lion kills a goat in
“People
are scared into silence – if you say something against the government they find
a way to arrest you – even now.”
-
Anuak Survivors, September 2004 -
i.
Preface to the Second GW/SRI Report on
State Terror in Anuak Areas…………..… 3
ii.
Map of Gambella
State & Natural Resources………………………………………..… 4
I.
SUMMARY………………………………………………………….……………………. 5
II.
BACKGROUND……………………………………….………………….……………….
8
III.
OPERATION SUNNY MOUNTAIN –
The Massacres of December 2003………….. 9
IV.
MILITARY OCCUPATION – Continuing
State Terror: January to December 2004 17
V.
ACCELERATED PETROLEUM
OPERATIONS……………………….………….… 25
VI.
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL
STANDARDS……………………………….…………… 27
A. Crimes Against
Humanity………………………………………………………… …….. 27
B.
Genocide…………………………………………………………………………………. 28
C.
Arbitrary Arrest, Illegal Detention and Torture………………………………………..… 28
D. Protection of Objects Indispensable to the Survival of Civilians………………………. 29
VII.
THE UNITED STATES AND
VIII.
CONCLUSIONS………………………………………………………………………….. 31
IX.
RECOMMENDATIONS………………………………….….………………………..… 34
X.
APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………………..….37
Appendix I: List of Police
Perpetrators Identified by Government……………………….. 37
Appendix II: Partial List of Anuak Villages Targeted by Ethiopian Military………..………..… 38
Appendix III: Anuak
Police Jailed by Government During August 2004 Evaluation……………. 40
Appendix IV: List of Anuak Leaders
Jailed 13 December 2003 Prior to Killings of UN workers.. 41
Preface to the Second Genocide
Watch/Survivors’ Rights Report on State Terror in Gambella
In
February 2004, Genocide Watch and Survivors’ Rights International published Today Is The Day For
Killing Anuaks. That first report
was based on a GW/SRI field team investigation in
This second
GW/SRI report updates and corroborates the first report with evidence gathered
in
The additional testimony
gathered underscores the criminal nature of violence committed in the region
Significant new
information has been gathered and is presented in this report. Most important
is the new evidence of the continuing violence against Anuak
civilians conducted by the Ethiopian army.
GW/SRI’s first report, Today
Is The Day For Killing Anuaks provides
the background for this report, and should be read along with it. This report strongly corroborates GW/SRI’s first report and provides ample evidence that
state-sponsored violence against the Anuak is
continuing today.
To protect
sources, this report does not specify the exact dates of visits to the region, names
of sources interviewed, or the names of GW/SRI field researchers. However, all
field visits occurred between June and October 2004, with interviews and
investigations conducted in
Genocide Watch
and Survivors’ Rights International remain deeply concerned for the security of
innocent non-combatant Anuak civilians and leaders
who have risked their lives in speaking to our researchers. Many expressed their fear of being beaten,
arrested or killed by government troops or police in reprisal.
On
the first anniversary of
The Gambella region is under total military occupation.
Estimates of the number of Ethiopian troops vary, but GW/SRI sources say
between 18,000 and 80,000 EPRDF troops have been deployed in the area, where
they commit daily atrocities on the pretext of “counter-terrorism” and
“national security.”
At least 1500
and probably as many as 2500 Anuak civilians have
died, with intentional targeting of intellectuals, leaders, and members of the
educated and student classes. Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for and
many are believed to have been “disappeared” (murdered) by government forces.
Poor rural villages, where Anuaks
and other ethnic minorities live on the margins of subsistence, have been attacked,
looted, and burned. EPRDF soldiers have burned thousands of Anuak
homes (see Appendix II).
Anuak women and girls are routinely raped,
gang-raped and kept as sexual slaves. 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 subject to sexual
atrocities from which there is neither protection nor recourse. Due to the
isolation of rural areas, rapes remain substantially under-reported. EPRDF
soldiers prey upon defenseless women and girls as they pursue the imperatives
of daily survival, such as gathering firewood and water or trips to market.
Some 6000 to 8000 Anuaks remain at
refugee camps in
Some 500 to 600 Anuak men have
reportedly been imprisoned without charge or trial and live under harsh
confinement in Gambella and rural jails. They are reportedly subjected to torture. At
least 44 of these prisoners are held in
Anuak traders are afraid to sell goods, and
vendors in towns have been forced to close shops and stores. Farmers not killed
or driven off are afraid to farm their fields. Crops, food stores and communal
milling equipment have been destroyed. EPRDF soldiers have expropriated schools
in remote villages and rural towns for use as makeshift barracks. While the
educated class has been intentionally targeted, Anuak
children are denied all basic education.
This report
provides further evidence that crimes against humanity and acts of genocide
have been committed against Anuak civilians by EPRDF
soldiers and “Highlander” (in Amharic “cefarioch”) militias in southwestern
The report
documents the continuing murders, torture, rapes, illegal detention, and other
kinds of persecution deliberately targeting the Anuak
people, with a detailed look at the EPRDF military campaign against unarmed
men, women and children in rural Anuak villages from
December 2003 through September 2004. The perpetrators of extreme violence
committed in rural areas are EPRDF soldiers and Highlander militias who have
been given free rein to murder and rape with impunity.
There is no
evidence whatsoever to support claims that the massacres since 13 December 2003
are the result of communal violence between Anuaks
and the local Nuer ethnic group, as has been reported
by media following a propaganda campaign of denial by the Ethiopian government.
The report of an
“Independent Inquiry Commission,” chaired by a member of the Meles government, has attempted to cover up the truth about
the massacres in Gambella. The Commission’s report employs every technique of denial,
including blaming the violence on the victims,
falsely blaming the killings on other ethnic groups such as the Nuer, minimizing the number of dead, claiming that the
killings were the result of spontaneous mob revenge or crimes by “hoodlums,”
rather than a coordinated government assault, and even claiming that the
violence was the result of incompetent leadership by the Anuak
governor of Gambella, who was himself a victim driven
into exile by the killing. Incredibly,
the “Independent Inquiry Commission” report even states that the EPRDF saved Anuak lives, when EPRDF soldiers were named as the
perpetrators in every murder the Commission’s witnesses referred to in its own
report. The “Commission” report
concludes that only twelve Anuaks were killed by
government troops, when the actual number is in the hundreds. The report is a whitewash that should be
rejected by the international community, which should demand an independent
investigation sponsored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights.
Credible sources
in Gambella and
This report
supports allegations that ethnic cleansing has been approved at the highest
levels of the Ethiopian government, and that the violence initiated by the
This report also
provides credible evidence that as part of its campaign of ethnic cleansing,
other crimes against humanity are being committed against Anuak
civilians by EPRDF soldiers and “Highlanders” in southwestern
A list of names
of Highlanders allegedly responsible for the violence of December 2003 is
provided in Appendix I. The list was reportedly generated at a federal
government “evaluation” meeting about the events of December 2003 intended to
identify perpetrators. Directed by a federal police investigator from
Sources reported
that a federal police investigator from
On
Petroleum operations pursued under the current circumstances will have devastating consequences on the social and political relationships and natural environment of the Gambella region.
The Ethiopian government has followed a pattern first established by the Derg regime of [1] resettling highlanders in Anuak areas and [2] slowly killing and driving out Anuaks. Since 2001, when oil was discovered in Gambella, the campaign of ethnic cleansing of Anuaks has increased in intensity. Many sources believe there is a hidden agenda behind the recent massacres and that it is about control over Gambella’s oil.
After the EPRDF coalition defeated the Derg
– with full support of Anuaks from the Gambella Peoples’ Liberation Front (GPLF) – EPRDF troops
began killing Anuak intellectuals and students on rural
roads, in town, etc., under the pretence that they were common thieves. This
slow process of attrition reportedly provoked military confrontation between
the EPRDF and the GPLF around 1993. The conflict scattered GPLF forces, most of
whom returned to their farms, or fled to
Working to emasculate the GPLF and its capacity to defend Anuak homelands, the EPRDF resumed the process of a slow but steady attrition through the isolated killings of Anuak farmers and other civilians. This process continued through the 1990’s, and resulted in GPLF reactions.
The Gambella People’s Democratic Congress (GPDC) party was
organized in 1999 in opposition to the ruling EPRDF, primarily to challenge
consistent violations of the human rights of Anuaks
and dispossession of Anuak lands. The GPDC
immediately won a majority of seats in the government of Gambella
state. [4] An Anuak, Okello Ngalo,
was elected President (Governor) of
President (Governor) Okello Ngalo was among fourteen Anuaks jailed in April of 2002. According to Anuak sources, President Ngalo was jailed for refusing to sign an Ethiopian government document agreeing to the government’s plan to exploit Gambella’s oil.
Arrests of Anuak men became
increasingly prevalent over a year ago, and some 44 Anuak
leaders have been held in jail in
None of the prisoners have been charged in the time since their arrest. They have also been kept in abysmal conditions. Five of the prisoners have died since their imprisonment.
Following the imprisonment of the democratically elected governor, the EPRDF appointed senior officials to take over the administration of the region. Most of these appointments were Anuaks, including the appointed Governor, Okello Akway Ochalla. However, the governor was excluded from decisions about oil exploration because the federal government nationalized all mineral resources and placed their exploitation under the control of the federal government.
The Anuak
situation has grown markedly worse since oil was discovered under Anuak lands by the Gambella
Petroleum Corp., a subsidiary of Pinewood Resources Ltd. of
On
III.
OPERATION
SUNNY MOUNTAIN
The Anuak
Massacres of December 2003
Massacres
began after the murders of eight Ethiopian United
Nations refugee camp officials whose van was ambushed on
Evidence gathered for this second GW/SRI field report from
eyewitnesses in Gambella paints a chilling picture of
a military campaign against the Anuak planned prior
to
According
to accounts from within the EPRDF regime, EPRDF plans to exploit petroleum and gas reserves in Gambella were made at a top-level cabinet meeting that
occurred in
After the September 2003 meeting, EPRDF repression intensified. For example, one witness reported that EPRDF soldiers retaliated against the killing of a highlander in the Pinyudo area in September 2003 by killing four Anuaks in Perbongo village, two in Pinyudo town, and one in Gog Dipatch village (September 2003), although there was no evidence that any of the civilians killed had anything to do with the murder in Pinyudo.
Unknown
gunmen reportedly killed road construction workers in Abobo
district in October 2003, and the EPRDF retaliated by killing five Anuaks the same day, and three more the following day. [5]
Sources
have provided GW/SRI with the name of a high-ranking EPRDF military officer who
told them of a meeting held on
In the early morning of 13 December 2003, prior to the attack by unknown assailants on the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation (UNRRA) staff and vehicle, nine Anuak government officials, including five heads of regional government bureaus, were arrested and detained in the Gambella jail. Their names were provided to GW/SRI researchers and are listed in Appendix IV. The Anuaks listed in Appendix IV remain in detention without charge or trial. The arrests reportedly occurred prior to the departure of the United Nations contingent from Gambella town. This list of key Anuak leaders was reportedly drawn up by Omot Obang Olom and is evidence that the plan to eliminate the educated Anuak was premeditated.
GW/SRI
sources reported that detainees Ajow Odol Obang and Ojulu Oriet were tortured on
According
to Genocide Watch sources, the massacres on 13 -16 December 2003 were ordered
by the High Commander in Chief of the Ethiopian army in Gambella,
Nagu Beyene (Tsegayi Beyene), a Highlander,
with the direct authorization of Dr. Gebre-ab
Barnabas, an official of the Ethiopian government’s Ministry of Federal
Affairs. The accusation has also been made that lists of targeted
individuals were drawn up with the assistance of a local Anuak
government official, Omot Obang
Olom, who has now been named Chief of Security in Gambella. [7]
Ř
AMBUSH OF THE UNITED NATIONS PERSONNEL
The
ambush of U.N. personnel occurred on the
road from Gambella to Itang
town. The U.N. personnel were en route to a village called Odier
where they intended to organize the transfer of non-Anuak
refugees from one site to another. The
driver of their vehicle was reportedly an Anuak. The Ethiopian government immediately blamed Anuak “rebels” for the killings.
Accepting the Ethiopian
government’s account of the UN killings, several international news reports
have stated that the assailants were most likely Anuaks
seeking to prevent the UN from transferring refugees to a site that would impinge
on Anuak land.
Marc Lacey of The New
York Times, for example, reported the Ethiopian government’s version of the
murder of the UN workers as fact.
“The latest round of violence began last December when a
group of armed Anuaks killed some highlanders. The
highlanders were working for
However,
Anuak sources claim that the refugee transfer would actually
have been favorable to Anuak interests, and that the
police and military did not avail themselves of the immediate opportunity to
track and possibly apprehend the killers because they knew that the killers
were not Anuaks. [9]
As
noted by an elected member of the Gambella Regional
Council and a founder of the Gambella People’s
Democratic Congress party:
“The place where the U.N. people were killed is not a place where
only Anuak are living. There are Nuers,
Anuaks, Opon and Komo… and they are living together…. But the government did
not make an investigation.” [10]
A
year after the ambush, GW/SRI has no received no replies to its inquiries to
the United Nations and the Ethiopian government asking whether either has
undertaken an official investigation of the killings of eight UN personnel on
the morning of 13 December 2003. No investigative report has ever been
released, and no one has ever been arrested for the murders.
GW/SRI
sources in Gambella report that Anuak
policeman Ojo Akway was
among the first group of responders to the site of the ambush on the morning of
GW/SRI
sources alleged that Selassie, the Commander of
Police in Gambella, subsequently ordered Akway’s execution in order to suppress Akway’s
identification of the killers of the UN personnel. Sources report that Akway
was detained on
As
soon as the police returned from the scene of the UN killings, they called EPRDF
soldiers and armed Highlanders together to incite and organize the massacres of
Anuaks. Another UN team with a military escort
subsequently retrieved the bodies of the murdered UN staff. At public meetings, sources report, EPRDF
High Commander Nagu Beyene
incited the massacres of Anuaks because, he said, Anuaks killed the United Nations contingent. [12]
Credible
sources in Gambella and
Ř
TODAY IS THE DAY OF KILLING ANUAKS
The
mass killings began about
The
pogrom continued unabated in Gambella town until
December 15, with massacres, mutilations, mass rape, and arson of homes
deliberately targeting unarmed and non-combatant Anuak
men, women and children.
GW/SRI’s recent investigations on the ground in Gambella corroborate the evidence cited in our first report
that acts of genocide and crimes against humanity have occurred with impunity,
that they were committed by Ethiopian state officials and army forces, and that
they are still occurring in
The
genocidal nature of the massacres was evident in the intent declared by the
killers and in the methods of killing.
The bodies of those killed were dismembered and mutilated, a sign of the
symbolic dehumanization typical of genocidal massacres. The killers shouted
slogans indicating their genocidal intent. Among the slogans noted in GW/SRI’s first report, Witness #7 claimed to watch a gang of
some 15 to 30 Highlanders armed with crude weapons attack and kill three Anuaks, including a student named Omot
(grade 9), while repeatedly chanting:
“Today
is the day of killing Anuaks.” [15]
According
to corroborating testimony of survivors interviewed during GW/SRI’s recent trips to Gambella
and other areas of Ethiopia, during the massacres, EPRDF forces and Highlander
militias shouted,
“We will wipe you [Anuaks] out of this place.” [16]
“Soldiers
said: ‘You black man, we want to kill you. If you do not leave this area we
will finish you.’ The soldiers and Highlanders said the same words: ‘We will
finish Anuaks. We will kill them. This land is not
your land. This is the
One
Anuak survivor from Gambella
town was shot by soldiers three times on the afternoon of
A
GW/SRI interviewee saw seven people killed on 13 December. One man was running
until the EPRDF caught him, tied his hands and feet and -- while he was still
alive and conscious – purposely ran him over with a military truck, killing him.
[19]
Highlander
Paulose Akililu was killed
by soldiers on
Another
woman who witnessed numerous killings said troops in uniform arrived at mid-day
when she was working with another woman in her compound. She said she saw
troops shooting people, bombing clay and cement houses, and burning grass
houses. When the men came out to escape
the fire, they were murdered. Ojulu Boka was first shot and then attacked by Highlanders with
sharp tools. She saw Odan Omot
(~37) killed by machete by Highlanders after troops set fire to his house and
he ran out. She also saw five others murdered: Ajak Okiddy (~38); Okuny Nyigwo (~43); Achim ___ (~36); Oriemi Ojulu (~38) and his son Anuto (~11). [21]
The
EPRDF troops said, “We will kill all today. We can finish you [Anuaks] all today… When they saw me crying after they
killed my husband they said: “Don’t cry. You [women] will remain our slaves and
we will finish all the Anuak men.” [22]
The Ethiopian
government immediately and publicly blamed the massacres on Nuer
and other ethnic groups indigenous to
On
On
At
one meeting organized in late December by the Federal government -- with
soldiers and highlanders present -- Anuaks were
informed: “This is Ethiopian land, this is not Anuak
land. You are complaining that this is Anuak land,
but this is Ethiopian land.” [24]
Reports
of mass graves around Gambella town were made by many
eyewitnesses, but could not be verified by GW/SRI researchers due to security
concerns. One witness cited a possible mass grave near
Many
Anuak dead were reportedly buried by their families
in makeshift graves near their homes. GW/SRI researchers viewed one gravesite
in an Anuak compound where five victims of the
Ř
TORTURE OF RETURNING REFUGEES
An
unconfirmed estimate of Anuak refugees in