ONLF Press Release on Massacre near Shilabo

Ogaden National Liberation Front
Foreign Relations Bureau
Press Release
Official Report: Qabri-daharre
MassacreDuring April 2005 the Ethiopian occupation army rounded and imprisoned 39 people near the town of Shilabo. The young people who were imprisoned included 18 wounded ONLF liberation Army fighters and the rest were civilians. The ICRC was aware of their imprisonment and visited the inmates on several occasions. The prisoners were constantly ill treated and their relatives were forced to feed them.On the 14th of November, the prisoners complained to the office in charge about their ill treatment and told him that they will complain to ICRC when they come to visit them. The officer concerned informed them that they will be taken to a training camp in northern Tigray and if they become good soldiers, they will be pardoned for their treason or else they will all be shot.On the 15th of November, at about 3:00 pm local time, the prisoners were told to collect their belongings and were assembled in front of the prison where there were vehicles waiting to transport them to an unknown destination. After listening to what the prison warden told them, the prisoners panicked and run towards the town. The prison wardens opened fire on the escaping prisoners and five of them were killed instantly. As Qabri daharre is a garrison town, surrounded by military camps on all sides, units from different parts of the town heard the gun shots and each started spewing gun fire from their side to the civilian population.Ten of the prisoners entered a house owned by a man named Abdi Khalif Ali weyd; the pursuing army sprayed the house with bullets killing all the occupants. The house caught fire and the charred bodies of the dead people were later among the buried. Two more prisoners were rounded up and shot near the town centre. The town’s people reported that five of the remaining casualties were killed with machetes and the butt of the guns.Finally the remaining prisoners were rounded and smashed with butt of guns bayonets and bulky sticks and most were rendered unconscious and later returned to their cells. No one knows their fate. The next day a woman named Sahro Abdi Haybe was found near the burned house. She was badly wounded and had to be transported to Jigjiga 400km away and her leg amputated.The next day the Ethiopians collected the dead bodies and ordered the towns folk to dig two mass graves. After they finished, they were told to leave the area, but some resisted and requested to bury their dead. A young man named Abdi Weli was shot dead on the spot and another wounded.With these facts on hand, it is hard to believe that the current despotic regime in Addis Ababa justified its criminal acts against innocent civilians and prisoners of war as something that does happen anywhere. Where in the civilized world except in despotic and militia led Ethiopia does this happen we wonder? We, ONLF, remind this doomed and deranged regime that these criminal acts are not acceptable in a democratic and civilised society and can not be dispended with such an arrogant and irresponsible statements spouted by the Ethiopian information ministry. Such utterances are the product of a mind accustomed to take the lives of innocent people with any compunction and then relish the experiences of watching others swallow its mendacious genuflections.ONLF asks the international community and the UN human rights commission to bring to justice the criminals responsible for this heinous act. ONLF will pursue all international legal instruments available to the people of the Ogaden to bring the culprits to justice. This is not the first time this regime violated the lives, dignity and property of the Ogaden people and it is time they are made accountable and brought to justice for their heinous crimes.The list of the people killed in Qabri daharre: 1. Abdullahi Ahmed Aqib 2. Abdullahi Gaani Ali 3. Abdulasis Muhumed 4. Abdullahi Ahmed mahamed 5. Shamsudiin Bashir 6. Yusuf Mohamed Aden 7. Asad Mohamed Abdullahi 8. Bashir Mohamed Hassan 9. mohamud Mohamed 10. Abdirahman Hareed Alaaki 11. Geesh Olad 12. Anwar Sheikh 13. Carab Garwah 14. Amin Mohamed Abdullahi Dheere 15. Si’ad Irgah 16. Bashir Hassan 17. Raage Moalim 18. Abdi Weli 19. And four unidentified persons (still under investigation) 20. Eight wounded people who died in custody and buried in unmarked graves in the vicinity of the army camps( identities will be provided later)The List of the wounded: 1. Sahro Abdi Haybe 2. Ahmed Bare Hassan 3. Ahmed Mohamed Dahir 4. Farah Abdi 5. Mohamed Ahmed Hussein 6. Abdullahi Ahmed Hussein 7. Irshaq Aqil 8. Farah Mohamed Bare 9. Abdi Ahmed Yusuf 10. Mohamed Mahdi Rage 11. Mohamed Ali Rage 12. Ali Dahir Gure 13. Hashi Abdi Gurey 14. Hussein Mahdi Dhuh 15. Faysal Hussein 16. FarahThe investigation is still ongoing and other facts may emerge that may change some of the contents of this report.Foreign Relations Bureau The Ogaden National Liberation FrontForeign@onlf.org23/11/05