Oromo: Ogaden and Oromo Refugees At Severe Risk The Oromia Support Group (OSG), a non-political organisation, in association with the Oromo Relief Association UK, have released a report which compiles information obtained from Oromo and Ogaden refugees in South Africa in October and November 2012. The report intends to raise awareness of human rights violations in Ethiopia. Fifty-eight Oromo and two Ogadeni refugees from Ethiopia were interviewed in Johannesburg, Alexandra township and Randfontein, in Guateng province, and in Kinross and Evander, Mpumalanga province, in October and November 2012. The refugees reported serious abuse in Ethiopia and hazardous journeys to South Africa. The 60 interviewees corroborated previous reports of extraordinarily high rates of torture in places of detention in Ethiopia. 26 (43%) had been tortured – 58% of the men and 26% of the women. Of the 38 who had been detained, 68% reported being tortured. All had been severely beaten. 76% of detained men and 54% of detained women were tortured. Reported conditions of detention in Ethiopia were atrocious. Torture was routinely practised in military camps, prisons, police stations and unofficial places of detention. Methods included arm-tying (falantis), severe enough to cause nerve damage; flaying of the soles of the feet (bastinado); mock execution; whipping; immersion of the head in water and other forms of asphyxiation; walking and running on gravel, barefoot or on knees; suspension by the wrists or ankles; stress positions; sleep deprivation by flooding cells; drenching and other exposure to cold; electrocution; suspension of weights from genitalia; and castration. Previous reports of high mortality rates among detainees in military camps, especially Hamaresa in E. Hararge, were corroborated by former detainees. In addition to the many who were killed or died in detention, the interviewees reported 91 killings of family and friends. These included 21 summary executions, some of which were public. Interviewees also reported 18 disappearances, ten of close relatives. Only two of 13 women former detainees were raped in custody, considerably less than the 50% in previous reports, but this probably reflects the small size of the sampled population. Another interviewee was raped in her home by a government official and then in Kakuma camp, Kenya, by an Ethiopian security agent. Three interviewees reported rape of others in Ethiopia, including the multiple gang-rape of a 14 year-old in the Ogaden, who was strangled to death after ten days by the soldiers who raped her. Travellers to South Africa were at risk of abuse, including rape, by people-smugglers. Several deaths were witnessed during dangerous and harsh journeys lasting up to 12 months, during which migrants were often short of food and water. Detention in unsanitary, severely overcrowded conditions, especially in Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi, for up to five months, was experienced by 18 interviewees (21 episodes). Deportation and attempted deportation was reported by four. Making a living in South Africa, although legal, is difficult and dangerous. The majority of interviewees work or have worked in township tuckshops, which are frequently subject to armed robbery and xenophobic attacks. At least five Oromo died in tuckshop attacks in 2012 alone. On average, each tuckshop is robbed every 5-6 months. Several organised racist attacks against tuckshops were reported and xenophobic threats, direct and via distributed leaflets, were recorded. unpo.org/article/16300
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 19:16:53 +0000
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