(C-AL7-01035): ETHIOPIA: GOE ORDERS ICRC TO CLOSE

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 ADDIS ABABA 002376 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR AF, AF/E, INR/AA, AND PRM/AFR LONDON, PARIS, ROME FOR AFRICA WATCHER CJTF-HOA AND USCENTCOM FOR POLAD E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/27/2017 TAGS: PREF PHUM PINS MOPS EAID ET SUBJECT: (C-AL7-01035): ETHIOPIA: GOE ORDERS ICRC TO CLOSE OFFICES IN SOMALI REGION REF: A. ADDIS ABABA 2369 ¶B. ADDIS ABABA 2361 ¶C. ADDIS ABABA 2343 ¶D. ADDIS ABABA 1308 Classified By: ERIC WONG, ACTING DCM. REASON: 1.4 (D). ¶1. (S) SUMMARY. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirms that Ethiopian officials have ordered the ICRC to close its two offices in the Somali Region, and to immediately dismiss all of its staff in the Somali Region. While portrayed as a decision by regional-level authorities, federal officials in the Prime Minister's office have informed ICRC that they are not only not inclined to review the regional government's decision, but may also take "additional measures" against the ICRC. As the Somali Region is a priority for the ICRC's activities in Ethiopia, the ICRC may decide to curtail its activities throughout the rest of the country, or reduce them to a minimum. ICRC has been expelled from Ethiopia twice before: in 1988 by the Dergue, and again in 1998 (from Tigray) during the war with Eritrea. Tensions between the ICRC and the GOE, regarding the Ogaden, have grown since early 2007, and may have been prompted by the ICRC's submission in May 2007 of a confidential human rights report on Ethiopian military abuses to the ENDF Chief of General Staff, who then terminated ICRC's access to military camps. According to the ICRC, its official contacts with insurgents of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) were limited to technical discussions intended to ensure the security of ICRC staff; the only exception were discussions in London relating to the release of Chinese workers held in ONLF custody in April 2007. As one of the few humanitarian organizations specifically mandated with protection issues, the ICRC's departure from the Ogaden threatens to hamper the international community's ability to assess the human rights situation and the scope of the ongoing counterinsurgency in the Somali Region. Separately, the World Food Programme (WFP) informed donors and UN agencies on July 26 that progress had been toward delivering emergency food relief to the 5 conflict-stricken zones of the Ogaden, as the federal government's Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA) had issued tenders for trucks to transport food aid to the Ogaden, and expected deliveries from stockpiles in Dire Dawa to reach the Ogaden within the next few days. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) On July 27, Ambassador, A/DCM, REFCOORD, and poloff met with Juan Pedro Schaerer (STRICTLY PROTECT),Addis Ababa-based Head of Delegation for the ICRC. Schaerer discussed the GOE's July 21 decision to expel the ICRC from Ethiopia's Somali Region, explaining that regional government officials had ordered ICRC to close its offices (located in Jijiga and Gode),and to dismiss all its staff in the Somali Region, with seven days. Within the Somali Region, ICRC therefore needed to withdraw 10 international staff, and was terminating contracts with nearly all of its 80 local staff (including guards). Local ICRC staff working in Jijiga and Gode all hailed from the Somali Region, but it was unknown how many were ethnic Ogadeni. Schaerer said three local ICRC staff would be given "the opportunity to live elsewhere," due to possible persecution for unspecified activities they had implemented "on instruction" of the ICRC. The removal of ICRC vehicles and physical assets, including communications equipment, from the ICRC offices would require three days; evacuation by road would be by routes to the south, rather than through the conflict areas of the Ogaden. -------------- -------------- PM'S OFFICE THREATENS "ADDITIONAL MEASURES" AGAINST ICRC -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C) The president of the ICRC had sought to appeal what was nominally a regional government decision (in Jijiga) to federal government authorities (in Addis Ababa). Schaerer said the Somali Regional president had noted the possibility of the ICRC remaining in the region, if "an apology" were submitted. However, the office of Prime Minister Meles had informed ICRC that it was not only "not interested" in reviewing the regional authorities' decision, but also was considering taking "additional measures" against the ICRC, ADDIS ABAB 00002376 002 OF 004 Schaerer said. ¶4. (C) Just one day prior to the regional government's July 21 decision, the foreign ministry had informed the ICRC that it had asked GOE bodies to review their cooperation with the ICRC; a letter from Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin had cited "lack of discretion" several years earlier with regard to relations between the ICRC and the GOE. Nevertheless, Schaerer said, the ICRC had seen the FM's letter as positive, following a July 12 meeting with the MFA in which the ICRC had raised three issues: regaining access to federal prisons (suspended since political unrest in 2005); access to the Somali Region; and the detention of 180 named fighters (primarily ethnic Oromos from Ethiopia, as well as Kenyans and Somalis) who had been captured in either Somalia or Kenya, and whom ICRC believed remained in Ethiopian custody. Schaerer noted that apart from an unspecified number of foreign fighters "from the Middle East," foreign fighters with U.S. or European citizenship were believed to have all been deported already from Ethiopia. -------------- -------------- EXPULSION COULD PROMPT ICRC DRAWDOWN THROUGHOUT ETHIOPIA -------------- -------------- ¶5. (C) Citing the ICRC's lack of access to federal prisons throughout the country since 2005, due to restrictions imposed by the federal government, and the current order to end all ICRC activities in the Somali Region, Schaerer questioned whether ICRC could maintain its presence in other areas of the country. "We are not present where we should be," he said, noting that the Somali Region was a priority for ICRC. If the GOE failed to accept ICRC's neutrality in the Somali Region or Ogaden, then how could ICRC continue in other parts of Ethiopia, he said. Schaerer said he would travel to ICRC headquarters in Geneva in the following week, to discuss options for ICRC's future in Ethiopia. While ICRC's total withdrawal from Ethiopia was unlikely, due to the difficulty of returning following such a decision, downsizing ICRC activities in Ethiopia "to the minimum possible" was an option, Schaerer said. Schaerer had not personally traveled to the Somali Region since the beginning of the counterinsurgency; he anticipated personally departing Addis Ababa in October to assume an Iraq-related position in Amman. ¶6. (C) The GOE had expelled the ICRC twice before, Schaerer said: once in 1988 (during the former Communist Dergue regime); and again in 1998, when ICRC was expelled from Tigray Region following the outbreak of hostilities with neighboring Eritrea. Questioned about expulsion from other countries, Schaerer noted that the ICRC had been asked to leave Myanmar, following the ICRC's decision to denounce human rights conditions in that country publicly. -------------- -------------- TENSIONS FOLLOWED SUBMISSION OF HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT TO ENDF -------------- -------------- ¶7. (S) Tensions between the GOE and ICRC had arisen earlier this year, Schaerer said. -- In March-April 2007, a contact close to the GOE had informed the ICRC that the GOE was upset about a supposed ICRC report that had been submitted to Geneva. Further investigation suggested that the GOE had incorrectly attributed a report of the London-based Ogadeni Human Rights Committee to the ICRC; with the exception of a single public case, the additional human rights cases mentioned in this NGO report did not appear in ICRC reports. -- In May 2007, Schaerer submitted a confidential report--on "the behaviour" of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) in the Ogaden during 2006 and on "problems civilians were facing"--to ENDF Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Samora Yonus. According to Schaerer, the report was given only to General Samora. Samora asserted that previous ICRC reports on alleged ENDF abuses had included false allegations; he then subsequently denied ICRC any further access to ENDF military camps. ADDIS ABAB 00002376 003 OF 004 -- The GOE also required, at the beginning of its counterinsurgency campaign in the Ogaden (following the April 24 ONLF attack on a Chinese oil facility),that the ICRC provide 3 days advance notification of any travel in the Region, a condition that the ICRC accepted. -- More recently, the GOE had suspected that the ICRC was the "prominent country director" quoted in a press article criticizing the effects of the counterinsurgency in the Ogaden, a charge Schaerer denied. The GOE also accused local ICRC staff (in the Somali Region) of assisting the ONLF; one local staff member had been arrested two weeks ago. ¶8. (S) Citing the GOE's recent detention (and release) of several U.S. persons in the Ogaden, and press articles referring to the continued detention of an Amcit in Harar, Ambassador noted the suspicion of some senior GOE principals (refs A-B) that foreigners--including humanitarian agencies, NGOs, and international media--were assisting the ONLF. -------------- LIMITED ICRC CONTACTS WITH ONLF AND UWSLF -------------- ¶9. (S) Recent ICRC contacts with the ONLF had been "irregular," occurring outside Ethiopia, and limited to technical discussions to assure ICRC's safety in the Ogaden area, Schaerer said. He acknowledged that in 1998, the ICRC had provided the ONLF with unspecified "communications equipment" to allow it to maintain contact with ICRC, but said that none had been provided recently. The ICRC had played a role in negotiating the release of 7 Chinese workers taken into ONLF custody following the April 24 attack in the Ogaden (REF D),but all related communications had occurred in London. The ICRC had sought to keep a "low profile," and had kept public statements related to the "hostage" situation to a minimum. The ICRC had provided a satellite phone to an unspecified member of the United Western Somali Liberation Front (UWSLF),Schaerer said. Questioned about contacts with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) (which the GOE asserts is assisting the ONLF),Schaerer said that except for possible camps in Kenya and the Bale Zone of Oromiya Region, the ICRC assessed that the OLF was largely not active militarily. -------------- DETAINEES HELD IN MILITARY CAMPS -------------- ¶10. (C) Addressing human rights conditions in the Ogaden and Somali Region, Schaerer said that as the region's only prison was in the capital, Jijiga, many detainees were held in military camps and police stations. Under Ethiopian law, the military was empowered to arrest individuals, but could not detain them, and was supposed to transfer them to police custody. Schaerer noted that elsewhere in Ethiopia, detainees were physically held by the military but were technically "under authority" of the federal police; in such cases, ICRC had no access to them (as the GOE had barred ICRC access to federal prisons since 2005). ICRC had been able to visit military camps until May 2007; it now no longer had such access. Food was reaching towns, but not rural areas, he added. ¶11. (C) COMMENT. Although the ICRC has been asked to close its two offices in the Ogaden area, its other extensive activities throughout Ethiopia currently continue. While the human rights situation in the Ogaden remains a concern, it does not appear to be as grim as portrayed by recent media reports. However, the departure of ICRC from the Somali Region--coupled with the voluntary decision by Medecins Sans Frontieres-Holland to depart Warder Zone following a July 24 ONLF attack (ref C) on the garrison town there--will severely reduce the presence of international NGOs or humanitarian agencies actively operating in the Ogaden. ICRC is one of the few organizations with a protection mandate; remaining NGOs in the Ogaden are focused primarily on health and nutrition. ¶12. (SBU) COMMENT CONTINUED. Separately, WFP Country ADDIS ABAB 00002376 004 OF 004 Director Mohamed Diab informed donors and UN agencies on July 26 that progress had been made toward delivering emergency food relief to the 5 conflict-stricken zones of the Ogaden, as the federal government's Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA) had issued tenders for trucks to transport food aid to the Ogaden, and expected deliveries from stockpiles in Dire Dawa to reach the Ogaden within the next few days. Ambassador has raised the issue of the Ogaden and humanitarian access with the Prime Minister and other senior officials (refs A-B),and Post will continue to pursue this issue aggressively with all GOE contacts. END COMMENT. YAMAMOTO