Detrimental IRIN News Report Exposes Criminal, Racist State ‘Ethiopia’ for Genocide in Somalia

IRIN headquarters must become the venue for all those who have fallen victims of the inhumanity of the ruling ethno-religious group of Abyssinia, the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) Abyssinians.
Detrimental IRIN News Report Exposes Criminal, Racist State ‘Ethiopia’ for Genocide in Somalia
Complementing the HRW Report on Somalia, the brief IRIN News Report makes state of the huge humanitarian crisis to which Somalia is being currently exposed, because of the long duration of the civil war which is mainly due to Abyssinian interference and Western tolerance or indifference.

With a quite telling title (Somalia: Human Rights Day is "Just Another Day of Suffering"), the IRIN News Report highlights a few indicative cases of personal suffering and trouble, which testify to the cruelty of the Abyssinian deeds in Somalia and plans fro the entire Horn of Africa region.

It is necessary that all Somalis, and more particularly the Ogadenis, who have escaped to Kenya contact the IRIN News Organization which is headquartered in Nairobi (telephone numbers below) to narrate their stories and describe the inhuman brutality of the Amhara and Tigray criminal death squads to which they bear witness.

IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, but its services are editorially independent.

IRIN headquarters must become the venue for dozens of thousands of Somalis, Ogadenis, Oromos, Sidamas, Afars, Shekachos, Kaffas, Kambaatas, Hadiyas, Gedeos, Wolayitas, Anuak, Nuer, Gumuz, Berta, Shinasha and Agaw, as well as Amhara and Tigray Muslims who have fallen victims of the inhumanity of the ruling ethno-religious group of Abyssinia, the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) Abyssinians.

I republish integrally the IRIN News Report, which has been released earlier today; at the end, I add the section ‘About IRIN Services’ from the IRIN News website (www.irinnews.org), as it can – and must – become an essential tool in globally publicizing dramas lived by dozens of millions of subjugated people in the vast Cemetery called ‘Ethiopia’.

Somalia: Human Rights Day is "Just Another Day of Suffering"

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81907

Nairobi, 10 December 2008 (IRIN) - War-weary Somalis have little reason to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights on 10 December.

"I don’t know what this day means," Faliz Ali, 33, a mother of two, said. "I am more worried about how I am going to take care of my children."

She said human rights in Somalia were "just words and nothing more".

Ali, whose husband was killed in the civil war, lost her right leg when a shell landed on her home in Mogadishu in 2007. She now nurses a left arm broken after she was hit by a military truck.

Bashir Qaadi, a displaced person in Karan district of north Mogadishu, told IRIN: "There are no human rights or any others here; we are always the ones who suffer and no one seems to care. We are lost in the middle."

Qaadi has been displaced five times after he and his family were caught up in fighting between Ethiopian-backed forces of Somalia's interim government and insurgents. "Two of my children died and three were injured after rockets hit our camp," he said.

A human rights activist, who requested anonymity, told IRIN that for most Somalis, Human Rights Day was "just another day of suffering. They are too busy trying to survive to think about this day.

"I don’t think there is any country in the world that is comparable to Somalia today in terms of human rights violations."

Up to one million Somalis are internally displaced, while some 3.5 million need assistance, according to the UN.

Ali Sheikh Yassin, acting chairman of the Mogadishu-based Elman Human Rights Organisation, said: "Far more atrocities are taking place in Somalia than in any other country in the world today, yet all you hear about is Zimbabwe, DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] or Darfur, because there are powerful countries that are interested."

War crimes allegations

Human Rights Day is being marked two days after Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report accusing the warring parties in Somalia of war crimes.

Local human rights and civil society groups said the report did not go far enough and "only covered less than 20 percent" of the atrocities committed.

Yassin said the report, while welcome, "did not cover most of the crimes being committed here. There is a lot more going on than has been reported and it is getting worse every day."

Another civil society activist told IRIN that HRW was too easy on the perpetrators and "adopted a soft approach".

"They should have said who is committing what and on what scale," he said, adding that although all sides were committing crimes, "some were committing far worse atrocities than others".

The HRW report, So Much Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia, states that the Transitional Federal Government [TFG], its Ethiopian allies and the insurgents, were "responsible for numerous serious human rights abuses".

It said: "TFG security forces and militias have terrorised the population by subjecting citizens to murder, rape, assault and looting."

The report accused the insurgents of subjecting "perceived critics or TFG collaborators - including people who took menial jobs in TFG offices or sold water to Ethiopian soldiers - to death threats and targeted killings".

Yassin said his group had documented 16,000 deaths, with another 30,000 injured in 2007 and 2008.

"These are the figures we were able to verify. There are many more unaccounted for," he added.

Government spokesman Abdi Haji Gobdon told IRIN on 10 December that while there was some truth to the HRW report, it failed to accurately reflect the realities on the ground and the efforts of the government to put a stop to crimes against the population.

"Hundreds of detainees were freed on orders of the Prime Minister [Nur Hassan Hussein] and he has made it a priority to protect the civilian population," he said.

Gobdon said the government forces were under instructions not to target civilians.

About IRIN Services

http://www.irinnews.org/about.aspx

IRIN's principal role is to provide news and analysis about sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia for the humanitarian community.

The networks target decision-makers in relief agencies, host and donor governments, human-rights organisations, humanitarian advocacy groups, academic institutions and the media. At the same time, IRIN strives to ensure that affected communities can also access reliable information, so they can take informed decisions about their future.

IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, but its services are editorially independent. Its reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations and its agencies, nor its member states.

Based in Nairobi, Kenya, IRIN was founded in 1995 to improve the flow of vital information to those involved in relief efforts in the Great Lakes region following the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

IRIN's area of geographical coverage has increased steadily since then. So too, have the range of subjects covered and the number of services offered.
The core news and analysis service is distributed free of charge to subscribers by e-mail, and via the website www.IRINnews.org. This is now complemented by a range of other multimedia services:

PlusNews, a specialist news and analysis service on HIV/AIDS.

IRIN Radio, which is helping to develop the programming of radio stations in Africa and Afghanistan.

IRIN Film & TV, which produces short documentary films on humanitarian issues and news footage for media.

IRIN Photo provides a public gallery of photographs relevant to humanitarian crises. Print-quality photos can be downloaded free of charge.

IRIN has a growing worldwide readership of millions through these services.

Most of IRIN's output is in English, with a limited French service. PlusNews produces material in English, French and Portuguese. IRIN radio produces programmes on over a dozen languages. Plans for humanitarian news and analysis output in Arabic are well-advanced.
Areas covered by IRIN include parts of Asia, the Middle East and all of sub-Saharan Africa.

News & analysis
IRIN's reporting is underpinned by rigorous editorial standards. Strict controls are employed to ensure that its reports are accurate, fair, carefully sourced and rich in perspective.

The regional desks in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Dakar and Dubai are staffed by experienced journalists, who travel frequently within the countries they cover to report directly from the humanitarian frontline.

Their research and writing is supplemented by news reports and features from an extended network of staff in sub-offices and freelance correspondents in the field. They give IRIN a permanent presence on the ground in every hot spot, and enable the networks to continue reporting directly from areas deemed too insecure for the UN's international staff to visit.

Set up in 2003, the IRIN Analysis Unit examines key issues that often cut across national boundaries, by producing special in-depth reports and publications. Recently, these have examined issues such as water crises, transitional justice, small arms and youth in crisis.

PlusNews, IRIN's HIV/AIDS news and analysis service
In 2001, IRIN saw the need for a specialist news service for people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa and all those involved in fighting the pandemic - thus PlusNews was born.

PlusNews is edited by a specialist team of journalists in Johannesburg, and has its own website www.PlusNews.org.

The scope of PlusNews has been gradually extended to all countries and regions covered by IRIN and beyond. The service is now a recognised leader in HIV/AIDS-related news and analysis. Since 2004, PlusNews has been available in French.

Radio services
IRIN Radio is active in Afghanistan, Cote d’Ivoire, Somalia and Uganda. The service has produced news programmes that have reached millions of people, and works with radio stations in conflict-affected countries to help improve their programming. IRIN supports these stations through the co-production of programmes, including soap operas and news magazine shows, as well as in training radio journalists.

Film services
IRIN produced a short film in 2003 about the forgotten plight of people terrorised by the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda, which was widely distributed to the humanitarian community and the media on CD-ROM as part of advocacy efforts to highlight the situation.

In 2004, it established a permanent film unit based in Nairobi which now makes documentaries to highlight under-reported issues and specific countries of concern.

Films produced so far have focused on issues such as: the crisis in Darfur, Southern Sudan; the 2004 locust invasion of West Africa; sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo; female genital mutilation, opium cultivation in Afghanistan, cluster bombs and the fragile situation in Somalia.

Besides producing and distributing its own documentaries, IRIN also shoots news footage of under-reported emergencies for distribution to the international media.

Photo services
To complement its text services, IRIN has provided high-quality photographs to its humanitarian partners and the media through the creation of IRIN Photo in 2005. Alongside its news services, IRIN makes its photos available free of charge (mainly to non-profits) to enhance awareness of humanitarian needs and response and to encourage greater media coverage of forgotten and under-reported crises. IRIN photos are used widely by news websites, print publications, NGOs, blogs and UN organisations.

Contact Information
For further information, please send an e-mail or telephone the IRIN offices in:
Nairobi: +254 20 762 2147
Geneva: +41 22 917 1135
New York: +1 917 367 2422

Note
Picture: Faliz Ali, injured in the Mogadishu fights
From IRIN News Report
   By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Published: 12/10/2008
 
Use the feedback form below to submit your comments.
Your Comments:
Your Name:
Use the form below to email this article to your friends.
Recipient Email Address:
 Separate multiple email addresses by ;
Your Name:
Your Email Address: