From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Jun 01 2009 - 21:03:38 EDT
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*Aussie aid worker Sadiq Ahmed jailed, tortured in Raaso, Ethiopia
Alison Bevege
June 02, 2009 10:10am
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**RELATIVES of a Melbourne man thrown into an African jail as he worked to
build a hospital fear he has been beaten and tortured.*
West Heidelberg resident Sadiq Ahmed on May 21 was arrested with a British
man and seven local community leaders in the town of Raaso.
Distraught relatives told *Herald Sun *they believed the men had been beaten
and possibly tortured after being grabbed by authorities in the regional
government of Ethiopia's Somali district.
"My brother has two broken ribs, that's what we're told. The British guy was
hit around the head badly and is bleeding," said Sadiq's brother, Abdalla
Ahmed.
Abdalla narrowly escaped arrest himself and went into hiding, only emerging
six days later to make his escape home to Australia.
Ahmed, 53, and his brother Sadiq, 46, a food safety inspector, had been
working in the Somali region of Ethiopia for the past two years to build a
hospital after their family - once refugees from the area - had raised more
than $100,000 in funds for the project to help the impoverished community.
Ethiopia is broken into ethnic regions, with Raaso governed by the Somali
Regional Government.
Mr Ahmed said Executive Committee president Daud Mohamed Ali was angry with
Raaso community leaders campaigning to draw attention to the plight of poor
people, many living in tents with no running water.
"He personally came to Raaso to threaten us," he said.
Ahmed, his brother Sadiq, and a group of other community leaders left Raaso
to go to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Abbaba ten days ago.
There was not enough room on the bus for all of them, Ahmed said, so he was
forced to catch a different bus.
"We kept communicating by mobile ... They were on the bus laughing until
they reached a road block. The Somali Regional Government army took them and
was beating anyone who asked them what was going on," he said.
Nine people including Sadiq and British citizen Ibrahim Gaasim were
arrested, taken to the provincial capital Jijiga and thrown into prison,
Ahmed said.
Community members living in Jijiga tipped the former Melbourne taxi driver
that the militia were looking for him, too.
“I didn’t have any chance to go back to my house for my clothes or my
photographs - I had to go on the run,” he said.
Ahmed spent a week hiding in Addis Ababa.
"I stayed in hotels and inside a room in an unknown house," he said.
"My friend was the only one who knew where I was and he brought me food.
"It was hell not knowing what would happen to me. I could not use my phone
in case they tagged me."
Ahmed said his friend organised for him to meet an Australian consular
official from Pretoria who was flown up from South Africa to work on the
case.
"She organised for me to fly to Australia," he said.
“I’m relieved to be home but I’m very worried about my brother … I am still
in shock and worried about him.”
Ahmed said community sources had told him the detainees appeared as though
they had been beaten when they appeared in a Jijiga court late last week.
A Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said the Ethiopian Ministry for
Foreign Affairs had confirmed that an Australian man had been detained in
Ethiopia.
“The man has not yet been charged and it is inappropriate to speculate about
what, if any, charges the man may face.”
The department did not say whether a representative had seen the Australian
detainee or whether he was in need of medical attention, but said they were
continuing to provide assistance to the man and his family.
The spokesman stressed the Australian government was unable to control or
intervene in the judicial processes of foreign countries including
Ethiopia.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's travel advice for Ethiopia
advises Australians to reconsider their need to travel to Ethiopia, the
spokesman said.
Ahmed’s sister Malyun Ahmed said the attack had happened two weeks after the
Ethiopian Government had passed a vote to recognize Raaso, which had angered
Ethopia’s Somali regional government.
But she said the arrests could also be based on tribal rivalries.
Violence has flared in the past between the majority Ogaden tribe and the
minority Sheekhaal to which the Ahmeds belong, causing the Sheekhaal
community to move to Raaso, Malyun said.
"The Sheekhaal community fled the Ogaden region six years ago after killings
and raids," she said. "Since then Ogaden militia have waged several wars: my
cousin who was only 16 years old was shot more than 10 times in 2006."
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