Puntland Diaspora Forum: Injudicious Solidarity to Mr. Farole’s Wrongdoings

Ogaden American Community
Association of USA

November 30, 2009
PRESS RELEASE
Ref. OACA/FN006/PL/091130

Puntland Diaspora Forum: Injudicious Solidarity to Mr. Farole’s Wrongdoings
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The Ogaden American Community Association of USA fully endorses the press release issued by the Honorable Congressman Donald Payne titled “Abusive behavior in Puntland” and dated November 20, 2009. The honorable Congressman Donald Payne’s press statement focused on the need to bring to an end the ongoing human rights violations against the Ogadeni civilians in Puntland and the unrelenting incarceration and unlawful transfer to Ethiopian security apparatus of persons hailing from the Somali regional state, also known as Ogaden, who ostensibly are deprived or denied due process.

Ogaden American Community Association is condemning the inhumane and abusive measures employed by the Puntland administration against innocent Ogadeni civilians who are often detained without charges, tortured in dungeons, and callously trafficked across state borders to please a country with appalling human rights record that perpetuates torture and violence against its own civilian population and treats a large segment of its population as second class citizens.

The Ogaden American Community Association is dismayed by the blind support the Puntland Diaspora Forum (PDF) is providing to the abusive regime of Mr. Farole and their callous disregard and indifference to the plight of their brethrens from the Somali regional state that are repeatedly ill-treated and molested by Puntland authorities. It is difficult to discern the morality that sanctions the maltreatment of fellow kith and kin; that follows a warlord blindly as mere pawns or stooges; that cannot question his gaffes and choose to keep a blind-eye on his monkey business and allow him to gallop on the rough road much travelled by many of African demagogical dictators that held their people as hapless hostages.

The Puntland Diaspora Forum and Puntland Authority are both determined not to admit or bring to end ongoing crimes against innocent civilians from the Somali region (Ogaden). Instead of taking steps to change the existing conditions in Puntland, the PDF had opted to provide support and speak up on the behalf of Puntland leaders who committed crimes against civilians who fled from the Ethiopian tyranny and repression and those from Southern Somalia. An entity that claims to host the best minds of Puntlanders had labored days and days just to give birth to a spiteful Manichean view in response to the press release of Congressman Donald Payne. “A response to Congressman Donald Payne’s press release titled “Abusive behavior in Puntland”

By and large, Diaspora communities living in democracies reject any form of human rights violations and abusive behaviors in other parts of the world. In contrast, the Puntland Diaspora Forum chooses to support Mr. Farole’s Machiavellian machinations and authoritarian tendencies at any cost. By doing so, the PDF has squandered the opportunity to rectify and remedy the series of political missteps and plunders committed by the Farole’s administration in recent past. With the tacit approval of the PDF, unfortunately Mr. Farole is making every effort to transform his ill-governed administration into a hermetically sealed chamber where banal criticism, political or ethical debate, and humorous newspaper caricatures are forbidden; where extralegal measures that make a mockery of justices is executed fatuously; where the beleaguered peoples human rights are trampled upon with impunity.
Here are few cases that highlight the gravity of human rights violations perpetuated against Somalis of Ogadeni origin by the hardhearted Puntland authorities.

On April 22, 2008, Puntland police detained two central committee members of ONLF in Garowe. Within few hours of their arrest, the detainees were handed over to Ethiopian army officers from Warder. The two men were visiting their families in Puntland and their wives were Puntland citizens. Names of the victims are Mohamed Ahmed Afi, aka Dhiire, and Abdi-Noor Mohamed Soyaan. The fate of Dhiire and Soyan is not known.

On May 1, 2008, just a week after handing over of the ONLF Officers to Ethiopia, six other young civilian men from the Somali regional state (Ogaden) were arrested in Galkacyo police station. Within few hours of their arrest, the detainees were handed over to Ethiopia. Names of the five men are; Farah Good, Abdi-Yare Haybe, Abdi-Noor Siyad Ismail, Omar Sheik-Mohamed, Abdi Kabul and another men whose name has not been determined.

On October 9, 2009 at mid night, a group of men who were believed to be members of the notorious Puntland security services come by a truck that bear the plate numbers of the Puntland authorities. They entered a home in Galkacyo and wounded the owner of the house whilst kidnapping three men who were guests for the house owner. The three abducted men hailed from the Somali regional state (Ogaden). The body of one of the three men named Mohamed Aardon was found 25 km away from Galkacyo towards the border between Ethiopia and Puntland. His kidnapers had severely cut his throat by knife and left him bleeding profusely. During the morning, pastoralist travelers found Aardon laying unconscious on the edge of a road. They brought him to a hospital in Galkacyo where the doctors who operated him reported later to BBC Somali service that “the victim’s throat was cut severely, lost a lot of blood, and his chance to survive is extremely small”. The whereabouts of the other two abductees is yet to be ascertained. Information about their fate is not known, however, many people in Galkacyo believe the two missing abductees were handed over to Ethiopia’s secret service.

On October 19, 2009, five men of Ogadeni origin arrived Bossasso from Yemen on boat to visit family members residing in that port city. They were carrying Somali Embassy issued official go home document. Once their boat docked in the Bossasso port, the Puntland Police detained them. Immediately the Puntland authorities invited Ethiopian Secret Service agents who separated detainees, interrogated, stripped of their clothes and tortured them. Few days later, the Ethiopian Secret Services came by plane and flew Abdi Mohamed Hassan (Abdi-Terso) to Addis Ababa.

On November 2, 2009, Abdullahi Hassan Ali passed away while in Bossasso prison. We believe that Mr. Ali succumbed to the injuries he had sustained as a result of repeated torture and beatings carried out by Ethiopian and Puntland interrogators. The remaining three detainees: Faseeh Ataab Ali, Mohamed Hassan Muse, and Mohamed Sheikh Batri are still languishing in the prison cell in Bossasso.

Mr.Farole’s divisive, manipulative and dictatorial tendencies and his administration’s pervasive culture of human rights violations may satisfy his inflated, larger-than-life ego and the whims of his self-seeking Diaspora stooges and not the beleaguered people of Puntland. For our brethrens in Puntland, we wish them peace and prosperity and a responsible administration that respects the rule of law and abides the covenant of the international humanitarian laws. Our advice to the PDF is that it is not too late to avert the making of another African dictator!

Ibrahim Ahmed
Acting Executive Director
OACA USA
310 East 38th St. Suite B,
Minneapolis, MN 55409 Tel: 612-250-1530, Fax: 612-821-2321,
E-mail: newamerservices@yahoo.com