Gambella Development Agency

#4 - 804 Dufferin Avenue

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

S7H 2B8 Canada

Phone: (306) 933-4346

Fax (306) 664-6331

E-mail:

MEMORANDUM

TO: The State Department, United States of America.

FROM: Mr. Obang O. Metho, Executive Director, Gambella Development Agency

DATE: October 27, 2004

RE: Update on the Ongoing Human Rights Abuses to the Anuak People of the Gambella Region of Southwest Ethiopia.

Background

Racism in western Ethiopia is deeply-rooted and symbolized by the heritage of slavery whereby a black person (Anuak) in highland Ethiopia today is still referred to as ‘Baria’ meaning slave. It was not until the reign of Emperor HaileSellassie (1892-1975), in his attempts at modernization, that he sought to administer rather than plunder the Anuak of Gambella and the Baro Salient. His efforts, however, were little more than punitive patrols.

During the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in the Sudan (1898-1956) the British government consistently and successfully made it clear in Addis Ababa that it would welcome an effective administration at Gambella that would work in cooperation with British officials to settle the inevitable frontier squabbles, but it would not tolerate the Ethiopianization of the Anuak. This dichotomy remains a sensitive and subtle paradox.

Ethiopia has viewed itself as a Christian, literate, kingdom two thousand years old of proud people with historic traditions unlike the darker skinned, “pagan, illiterate chieftaincies of the Anuak” who are contemptuously known as Shangalla that has the same equivalent in Arabic as Abid (slave), or Baria (slave) in Amharic. The legacy of the aggressive policies of imperial Ethiopia remain today despite a more representative government, but the historic attitudes of highlanders toward the Anuak below cannot be changed by declarations of democracy.

The injustices and human rights abuses inflicted upon the Anuak date back to the Ethiopian occupation of the first part of the Gambella a century ago. In 1956, when the British government ceded illegally Gambella to Ethiopia, the Ethiopian occupation forces killed in a cold-blood massacre more than one hundred Anuak people, who were protesting peacefully against the hand over of Gambella to Ethiopia. In 1974, when the military junta overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie's theocratic rule, the new communist military junta enforced more oppressive policies in the Gambella. Summary executions, arbitrary detentions and dispossessing the people of their properties were commonplace.

The Dergue in addition to taking the militarization to new heights, completely destroyed the indigenous institutions and introduced a new method, namely, the resettlement of the highland Ethiopians among the indigenous peoples in the hopes for interbreeding and assimilation to occur, thereby fulfilling the imperial ambition of its predecessors for a homogeneous empire.

In its Amharization policy, the communist regime of Mengistu has transferred 250,000 Ethiopian settlers from the north part of the country into the Gambella in an attempt to change the demographic nature of the region, eliminate the Anuaks national identity and to transform the Gambella into a region of Ethiopia, in which indigenous Anuak will be an insignificant minority. Through numerous regimes, the Anuak have been subjected to dispossession of their lands, forcible conscription to the military, and confiscation of their domestic animals, indiscriminant killings, and systematic destruction of their traditional way of life.

The Anuak people of Gambella had suffered from a century of repression, victimization and exploitation under the successive alien Ethiopian governments, and there is growing disillusionment with the current EPRDF government.In 1991, when the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front(EPRDF), which is dominated by the Tigray People's Liberation Front(TPLF) came to power, after the defeat of former government, the EPRDF presented a new charter. According to the Transitional Charter, which was adopted on 22 July 1991, among other things all democratic principles, human rights and right to self-determination of all nations in the empire-state of Ethiopia, should be recognized and fully respected.

Outside of a policy of direct violence against the Anuak population, discrimination and segregation of Anuaks in education, health care, employment, and economic development are standard government practices. This is in spite of the current administration’s adoption of the Transnational Charter in 1991, which guarantees respect of human rights, democratic principles, and right to self-determination for all nations in the empire-state of Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia, the rise of the place of the ethnic community as the center of a new political reality has led to an experiment now underway with a new state structuring called `ethnic federalism’. Here extensive central government powers and resources are being given over to virtually autonomous ethnically defined regions. These regions represent in a sense, the creation of ethnic states within a state. This appears to be a radical new venture in State formation, which could have enormous repercussions for the evolving nature of world society.

The creation of ethnic regions with their own system of government and control over their land and development requires a heightened degree of respect for ethnic differences and the value of a multi-ethnic culture. Although the regional system of government was enshrined in the 1995 Ethiopian constitution and although powers have been turned over to local authorities, the experiment is in serious danger of collapse.

December 13th 2003, Genocide

What is lacking is a fundamental commitment to and respect for ethnic differences. This became shatteringly evident in the Gambella Region of Ethiopia in December 2003. In reaction to an act of banditry in which a number of `highlanders’ were killed by unknown men, the Ethiopian military and police engaged in an act of `ethnic war’ against the indigenous Anuak people killing hundreds and burning down the homes of those underattack. In the afternoon of December 13, 2003, the Anuak people of Gambella suffered a tragedy of momentous proportions - while the world stood by and watched it happen.

Over the course of only two days, a stupefying 500 innocent Anuak-fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, and grandmothers, grandfathers, young and old alike were slaughtered by their own government forces. They were hacked to death with machetes and nail-studded clubs. They were shot dead with guns. They were beaten, tortured, abused and left to die. Educated male Anuak weretargeted, hundreds were killed in cold blood, entire villages were burnt to the ground, women were raped, and tens of thousands of young Anuak males-including the President of the region-fled across the border into war-torn Sudan.

December 13th, 2004 will mark the one-year anniversary of the massacre and perpetration of serious human rights crimes against the Anuak people of the Gambella region of Ethiopia by their own government. After a year, these serious human rights abuses, perpetrated by Ethiopian Defense Forces, continue. However, the motivation behind why the Ethiopian government might be willing to compromise its international reputation as “a model democracy in Africa” is more easily understood by its current “economic activity”(oil extraction) in the area.

In fact, it has been learned from local government police and intelligence sources that the systematic elimination of the Anuak from their ancestral land, even has a code name for the military operation of--- “Operation Sunny Mountain”. It has been in the planning for many years, but began in full force on December 13, 2003. The Ethiopian government has publicly declared that the Gambella region holds vast resources such as oil, fertile land, water and gold, resources that are key to providing a way for Ethiopia to rise from being one of the poorest countries in the world, having the third lowest per capita income, to becoming a major economic power.

It is therefore understandable, why, regardless of international pressure, reports from international human rights organizations and accounts from hundreds of eyewitnesses, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) has repeatedly denied any allegations regarding their own active participation. In addition, they have failed to take any significant action to resolve it. No wonder.

Ethiopian Government’s Independent Commission Report

After initially refusing to set up an independent inquiry commission to investigate the Anuak massacre of more than 1500 Anuak, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, in order to “short-circuit” the call for an independent inquiry, appointed a commission filled by his own loyalists, party members and appointees. The chairman of the commission was none other than the president of the Federal Supreme Court, Kemal Bedri, a leading member of the Harari League political group that is allied with the EPRDF. Other members included Tegene Getaneh, Desta Kidane and others, allegedly all members of the EPRDF party.

The Commission’s report failed to answer the most critical questions:

  • Why only Anuak leaders and educated men were killed?
  • If the conflict was ethnic conflict between the Anuak and Nuer or Highlanders, as the government portrayed it, why were there no deaths or injuries on the other side?
  • Why did the Federal Defense Forces, who were located 5 kilometers away from town, not intervene?
  • If this was a spontaneous reaction to the killing of refugee workers, why was there a prepared list of educated Anuak men available to the Ethiopian Defense Forces?
  • Why did the same systematic massacre occur in four Anuak districts simultaneously?
  • Why were only the Anuak homes destroyed even though some of them live amongst other ethnic groups?
  • Why were the same slogans used in four different districts, “Today is the day for killing the Anuak”?
  • Why did Anuaks who were injured and taken to the hospital all die, regardless of whether their injuries were severe or minor? Where are their bodies?
  • Why were only Nuer police permitted to collect the bodies after the massacre?
  • Why were the Anuak police were disarmed prior to December 13th?
  • Why were Anuak leaders arrested prior to the massacre and imprisoned without charges?
  • Why are there mass graves and why have Federal Defense Forces threatened those who know the location and denied access to the site?
  • Why did the government place final blame on thirteen Ethiopian Defense troops and highlanders; yet, none has been identified and brought to justice? The explanation in the report is that it was impossible to identify them because they were all wearing the same uniform.
  • Why has the report not been made available to the public?
  • Why does the report indicate a return of peace and security to the region while prohibiting access to the rural areas by human rights organizations and humanitarian agencies?
  • If it is that unsafe in the rural areas, why are they promoting the Chinese oil company access to those same areas?
  • Most importantly, why has there been no action to stop the killings and other atrocities?

Anuak: An Endangered People

As citizens of the world, we have a responsibility not to turn a blind eye to the manmade suffering of others, as has been done in Rwanda, Sudan and many other places. Even in these locations, the world has finally paid some attention, as the numbers affected are large. With the Anuak, the numbers are far less, but yet are a significant portion of the total Anuak population.

In 1989, Cultural Survival warned the international community that the Anuak should be protected as distinct people as they are considered to be an endangered people, on the verge of extinction, numbering less than 100,000 persons worldwide. The majority of Anuaks live in the Gambella region. Yet, their survival is more threatened in this past year than ever before, due to the recent massacre of the educated leaders, the displacement of 70 % of the population from their land and the scorched earth policies causing many more to die from lack of shelter, food supply, medical care, clean water and other aggressive actions taken against them. Hundreds of men, women and teenagers remain in detention.

Numerous reports of torture have been verified. Over 400 women have been raped, many suffering not only from the trauma, but many have untreated venereal diseases, including HIV, that will continue to threaten their health, their fertility and their lives. Fifty-two per cent of the children in Gambella Town witnessed a family member or close relative being killed. Many widows and orphans are unable to find the means to support themselves. All the Anuak in this region have been affected in some way by this horrendous, state-sponsored catastrophe.

A recent field investigation indicates that fourteen Anuak villages in the Gambella rural area have been totally destroyed. In Gambella, approximately 1500 homes have been burned. Defense forces occupy most of the schools in the rural areas of Gambella. These children have not had any schooling since the start of the crisis.

Refugees numbering 7,000 to 10,000 thousand, remain in Pochalla, Sudan. Men who attempt to come back have been shot or detained and tortured. Women remaining in the rural areas have no protection and continue to be raped by the Ethiopian Defense Forces.

In the refugee camps in Pochalla, Sudan there are still inadequate resources. Food supply is limited. There is no access to clean water. There is only a small clinic with inadequate resources. There is a lack of blankets, sheets, mosquito nets and other basic supplies. There has been no school for the children for almost a year. The international community has not responded with adequate action to address this neglected crisis.

Anuak Leaders are Dead, Imprisoned or Have Fled their Homeland

The leadership of the Anuak has been dismantled either by execution, imprisonment, torture, displacement or weakened condition. Even before the massacre of December 13th, in October 2002, forty-four democratically elected officials, including the regional governor, four district governors, the mayor of the city and elected heads of government offices were rounded up by the federal government and transferred to the federal prison in Addis Ababa where they still remain today, without any charges. Five have already died.

Despite the upcoming federal and regional elections scheduled for May 2005, a vacuum of experienced Anuak leaders, who could run for office and bring peace and stability into the region, exists. Currently the office of governor is vacant and instead is being run by the federal government, a violation of their own constitution, yet a real advantage to their own goal of controlling the resources in the area and covering up the crimes against humanity that they have perpetrated against the Anuak in the last ten months.

What Does Gambella Mean to Ethiopia?

Oil

A recent field report has verified that petroleum operations in the Gambella region are rapidly moving ahead. The Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPEB), a powerful subsidiary of the second largest national petroleum consortium in China, the China Petrochemical Corporation (SINOPEC), appears to be the principal petroleum exploration and development firm operating in Gambella at present, under subcontract to Malaysia’s national oil company PETRONAS. An agreement was signed on May 7th, 2004, without the knowledge of the local people of Gambella, between PETRONAS and ZPEB, awarding ZPEB a contract valued at $16.42 million to provide seismic data acquisition.

Photographs have been obtained not only of the oil operation, but also of sixty thousands of Ethiopian defense troops in the rural areas of the Gambella region, especially in the Anuak villages and districts. The base camp for the oil company is under tight security and heavily guarded by EPRDF military.

PETRONAS and the China National Petroleum Corporation currently operate across the river from Gambella in southern Sudan. According to a report from Human Rights Watch (Sudan, Oil and Human Rights, Sept. 2003), the Asian oil giants have allegedly provided cover for their respective governments to ship arms and military equipment in exchange for oil concessions granted by Khartoum. These same companies perpetrated egregious human rights abuses against their own people.

Every Anuak from the educated elite to the subsistence farmer has witnessed the army of the Sudan and its surrogate militias methodically driving the Nuer and Dinka from their land to ensure the safe and undisturbed pumping of southern Sudanese oil for the northern Sudanese and their Islamist government. Is oil driving the Ethiopian government to impose its absolute control of the lowlands and drive the Anuak from the land? Many Anuak think so.

The educated Anuak are also very well-aware that one of the six Protocols signed at Naivasha between the Sudan government and the SPLM provides for a substantial percentage of oil revenues being guaranteed for the South Sudan, but they are also aware that convincing the government to resource-sharing was accomplished by the barrel of a gun. Will the Anuak have to do the same or at least try?