Garowe Online (Garowe)
14 May 2008
Garowe — Five Somalis who landed at an airport in the country's northern sub-state of Puntland were arrested Wednesday minutes after they get off an airplane from neighboring Djibouti, a government official told Radio Garowe.
Yasin Said, the governor of Karkar region in Puntland, told Radio Garowe the group of five Somalis was arrested by Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS) officers at Bossaso airport.
The detainees were then loaded onto vehicles and transported towards Garowe, the capital of Puntland.
But an intervention by a senior government official in Puntland halted the detainees' trip to Garowe, according to the governor.
"The Security Minister [Abdullahi Said Samatar] gave the order to return the detainees [back] to Bossaso," Gov. Said, referring to the region's commercial hub.
The governor of Karkar region, which is located south of Bossaso, said he accompanied police units to a checkpoint in the northern part of Qardho, the provincial capital.
Gov. Said stated that he was "displeased" by the detentions, while indicating to Radio Garowe that such an act only harms the image and security of Puntland.
Many people in Bossaso, including traditional elders and community leaders, have condemned the arbitrary arrests of the five Somali civilians.
A Puntland government source said the five detained civilians are accused of receiving military training in Eritrea and of having alleged links with the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), ), an Ethiopian rebel movement made up of ethnic Somali fighters.
A community source privately told Garowe Online that local activists contacted Puntland Vice President Hassan Dahir Afqura, pleading with him to stop PIS agents from transferring the detainees over to the Ethiopian government.
But the Vice President said that he can do nothing in the matter, since a "third hand" was directly involved in the arrests.
The Puntland leader, Gen. Adde Muse, was then contacted in Addis Ababa, where he has been staying for a number of weeks for reasons undisclosed to the public.
Last month, PIS agents in Garowe arrested and handed over to Ethiopian intelligence services two politicians with the ONLF.
Days later, a group of eight civilians were detained by the PIS and later transferred to Ethiopian authorities.
International human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have accused the Ethiopian government of committing war crimes in Somalia and torturing domestic opponents of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
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Exiled Anuak prepare to confront Ethiopia official
By MARTIGA LOHN, Associated Press WriterSat May 31, 11:08 AM ET
Being in the same Minneapolis hotel building is about as close as Peter Omot wants to get to Omot Obang Olom, the Ethiopian official he holds responsible for the massacre of more than 400 of his ethnic kin.
Peter Omot, a 35-year-old member of the Anuak ethnic minority, says he won't enter the room where Omot, the governor of the country's western Gambella region, will speak to the local community-in-exile on Saturday.
Gov. Omot was in charge of security when, according to human rights groups, Ethiopian troops attacked the local Anuak population in December 2003.
"He prepared the ground," Peter Omot, who lives in Savage, Minn., said Friday.
The regional governor's appearance at the community meeting has set off debate in the Anuak diaspora over whether it's appropriate even to be in the same room as Omot, who is Anuak himself.
The Anuak Justice Council in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has been pushing U.S. and Canadian authorities to arrest and try Omot for war crimes. He is expected to continue on to Canada next week. But advocates haven't been able to confirm whether he's traveling on a diplomatic visa that would grant him wide-ranging immunity.
"He should not be meeting the Anuak in a town hall meeting. He should be meeting the Anuak in chambers — you know, in a court of law," said Obang Metho, an advocate with the Anuak Justice Council in Saskatoon who is boycotting the meeting.
He added: "He has blood on his hands."
State Department spokesman Bill Strassberger confirmed that Omot received a visa, but said that because visa records are confidential, he could not discuss the visa application. He also declined to discuss whether Omot had a role in the 2003 killings.
A message left Saturday for officials at the Ethiopian embassy in Washington, D.C., was not immediately returned.
Human rights groups have detailed a campaign of killings, rape, torture and displacement against the Anuak by government soldiers and members of other ethnic groups. Wholesale attacks started on Dec. 13, 2003, in Gambella town in southwestern Ethiopia. Thousands fled, some to southern Sudan.
An estimated 2,500 to 3,000 Anuak live in Minnesota, in what is thought to be the largest concentration outside Africa, said Akway Cham, who heads the Minneapolis-based Anywaa Community Association in North America.
Obang, the advocate in Canada, said he expects Omot to try to get exiled Anuak to move back and help develop their region, and will say that the region has become safe and democratic.
Akway is at the center of the furor over Omot's visit because he's the facilitator of Saturday's forum. He planned to collect Omot and other Ethiopian officials at the airport Friday.
He acknowledged the stir the visit is creating but said he hopes people will come away with answers to their questions. He said the meeting will focus on the 2003 killings after a similar meeting in April with other government officials left many in the community dissatisfied.
"This guy is the governor, and he was there when the things happened, and people are expecting that he should be able to give some clear answers," he said.
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Associated Press writer Fred Frommer contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
Actually, AI does not care about stability of nations. It fights and cries only for very few terrorists, mad and adveturous 'journalists' and war mongers in the cover of human rights protection.