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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Fri Apr 29 2011 - 20:48:53 EDT
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/east/International-Red-Cross-Africa-Denies-Ethiopias-Ogaden-Permission-to-Resume-Operation-120952534.html
Ethiopia Denies ICRC Permission to Resume Ogaden Operation
April 29, 2011
Peter Heinlein | Addis Ababa
Ethiopia has denied the International Committee of the Red Cross permission
to resume humanitarian operations in the restive Ogaden region. ICRC workers
were expelled from the Ogaden nearly four years ago for allegedly aiding
members of a separatist group, a charge they strongly deny.
ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger says talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi yielded no progress on the organization's return to the eastern
Ogaden region.
"I had bilateral talks yesterday. And it will not be possible in the very
near future for us to go back to the Ogaden region," Kellenberger said.
"That's the message I got."
Ethiopia ordered ICRC staff out of the mostly ethnic Somali region in July,
2007, accusing humanitarian workers of siding with rebels of the outlawed
Ogaden National Liberation Front. The ICRC rejected the charges.
Ethiopia limits access to the Ogaden by journalists and humanitarian groups.
But a recent US State Department human rights report suggests food and
medicine deliveries are restricted in the conflict zone, as pro-government
forces wage a counterinsurgency operation against increasingly violent ONLF
rebels.
The challenge to humanitarian groups is compounded by a severe drought. The
UN World Food Program estimates nearly eight-and-a-half million people are
in need of food aid over a wide swath of the Horn of Africa, including
southern and southeastern Ethiopia, as well as parts of neighboring Somalia
and Kenya.
Kellenberger says the ICRC focuses its Somalia operation mainly on the
parched south and central region that is the stronghold of the
al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab. He admits it is hard to monitor
food and water deliveries to ensure the aid is not being used to benefit
al-Shabab.
"Somalia is a very difficult context because to a large extent, it is what
you call in humanitarian language a remote control operation," he said. "For
security reasons it's very difficult to have expatriates on the ground on a
permanent basis, so what they can do at the maximum is go in and out, so we
do rely to a large extent on Somali ICRC staff, and we rely on the Somali
Red Crescent."
Kellenberger's agenda in Addis Ababa included briefing the African Union
Peace and Security Council on ICRC operations. He says six of the 12 largest
ICRC missions are in AU countries, including Libya, particularly its
embattled city Misrata.
"The ICRC is trying to work on both sides, on the side controlled by the TNC
but also on the side controlled by the government in Tripoli. In recent
times we've had a special focus on Misrata. It's still difficult for us to
have an overall assessment," Kellenger explained. "Because we could visit
part of the city but could not make an overall assessment."
Kellenberger says ICRC activities in Libya include evacuating migrant
workers and people critically wounded in fighting, as well as visiting
detainees being held by the rebel Transitional National Council. He said
negotiations have not been completed with the Tripoli government to visit
detainees they hold.
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