14 December 2008
(Page 3 of 3)
Two years of unconstrained warfare and violent rights abuses have helped to generate an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis, without adequate response. Since January 2007 at least 870,000 civilians have fled the chaos in Mogadishu alone-two-thirds of the city's population. Across south-central Somalia, 1.1 million Somalis are displaced from their homes. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are living in squalid camps along the Mogadishu-Afgooye road that have themselves become theaters of brutal fighting.
Thousands of Somali refugees pour across the country's borders every month fleeing the relentless violence. Freelance militias have robbed, murdered, and raped displaced persons on the roads south towards Kenya. Hundreds of Somalis have drowned this year in desperate attempts to cross the Gulf of Aden by boat to Yemen. In spite of the dangers, thousands make these journeys every month. As a result the Dadaab refugee camps in northeastern Kenya are now the largest in the world with a collective population of more than 220,000.
Somalia's humanitarian needs are enormous. Humanitarian organizations estimate that more than 3.25 million Somalis - over 40 percent of the population of south-central Somalia - will be in urgent need of assistance by the end of 2008. But violence, particularly targeted attacks on aid workers, is preventing the flow of needed aid. ...
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No party to the conflict in Somalia has made any significant effort to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes and serious human rights abuses. The grim reality of widespread impunity for serious crimes is compounded by the fact that both TFG and insurgent forces are fragmented into multiple sets of largely autonomous actors. TFG security forces are not regularly paid and often act as freelance militias rather than disciplined security forces.
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This report recognizes that there is no "quick fix" to bring about respect for human rights, stability, and peace in Somalia. However this does not justify a lack of political will to engage with problems that past international involvement in Somalia helped create, let alone policies by outside powers that are making the situation worse. Many key foreign governments have played deeply destructive roles in Somalia and bear responsibility for exacerbating the conflict.
The poisonous relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have greatly contributed to Somalia's crisis. Eritrea has treated Somalia primarily as a useful theater of proxy war against Ethiopian forces in the country, while one of Ethiopia's reasons for intervening was a fear that an ICU-dominated Somalia would align itself with Eritrea and shelter Ethiopian rebel fighters as Eritrea has done.
Ethiopia has legitimate security interests in Somalia, but has not lived up to its responsibility to prevent and respond to war crimes and serious human rights abuses by its forces in the country.
Ethiopia's government has failed to even acknowledge, let alone investigate and ensure accountability for the crimes of its force.
This only serves to entrench the impunity that encourages more abuses.
United States policy towards Somalia largely revolves around fears of international terrorist networks using the country as a base.
The United States directly backed Ethiopia's intervention in Somalia and has provided strong political backing to the TFG. But US officials have refused to meaningfully confront or even publicly acknowledge the extent of Ethiopian military and TFG abuses in the country. The US approach is not only failing to address the rights and suffering of millions of Somalis but is counterproductive in its own terms, breeding the very extremism that it is supposed to defeat.
The European Union and key European governments have also failed to address the human rights dimensions of the crisis, with many officials hoping that somehow unfettered support to abusive TFG forces will improve stability.
Now is the time for fresh thinking and new political will on Somalia. Human Rights Watch calls upon all of the parties to the conflict in Somalia to end the patterns of war crimes and human rights abuses that have harmed countless Somalis and to ensure accountability for past abuses. This can only come to pass with much stronger and more principled engagement by key governments that have hitherto turned a blind eye to the extent and nature of conflict-related abuses in Somalia.
International engagement must take into account the rights and needs of the Somali people. It should include better monitoring of past and ongoing abuses and, as a starting point, a commitment at the UN Security Council to establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate serious crimes in Somalia. Key governments should also use their diplomatic leverage with Ethiopian, TFG, and opposition leaders to insist upon accountability and an end to the daily attacks upon Somalia's beleaguered citizens.
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In Washington, the new administration of US President Barack Obama should urgently review US policy in Somalia and the broader Horn of Africa and break with the failed approach of his predecessor.
European governments should follow suit, beginning by reversing the harmful actions of European Commission policymakers who have funneled donor money to abusive TFG security forces. The UN Security Council should establish a Commission of Inquiry to map widespread international crimes and pave the way for ending the impunity that has helped create the catastrophic situation that prevails today.
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I want to work in Africa.I am working in primary school.I am professor of pedagogic and socilogy.
It is devastating to discover how little credibility anglo-saxon dominated institutions,like the media and organizations like HRW,have these days in Africa. As an Ethiopian i must say that they are exceptionally hostile to Ethiopia as this report shows that calls a US-puppet regime that is in power for 18 years in Ethiopia thanks to anglo-saxon,in particular US, support ETHIOPIA !
NO NO MELES and co are not Ethiopia they are US puppets who are in power AGAINST THE WILL OF 80 million Ethiopians and who are inflicting enormous damage on Ethiopia since they came to power in 1991 thanks to US support. So the anglo-saxons authors of that report should CRITICIZE themselves and their governments such as US and UK and Not Ethiopia !!!
We know allafrica is not really African and is owned by the americans, so hiding those facts only further destroys the credibility of this site in this era of the internet.
GUYS you need to mention at least a 1000 times how the Ethiopia-hater Bush kept supporting hated Meles after losing the may 2005 elections, and Ethiopians will never forget that and for sure the americans will pay one way or another for their crimes of the past 18 years on the Ethiopian people by installing their puppet Meles, the worst leader in the history of Ethiopia and Africa.
So keep on lying and hiding the facts about US crimes in Ethiopia and your credibility will approach ZERO.
Thanks
yours sincerely Tom
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