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Open Letter to UNHCR António Guterres on Adamastor, ´Ethiopia´, and Ogadeni Immigrants in Kenya
17 August 2008
The Honorable António Guterres
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt
Suisse
Telephone: +41 22 739 8111
Your Excellency,
Having been the recipient of a great number of mails from Ogadeni immigrants currently hiding in Kenya, I feel obliged to write to you in public in order to report a very problematic situation ensuing from the malfunction of the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya; as a matter of fact, this situation consists in a dramatic injury for the UNHCR. It causes a grave, irreparable damage to the overall UNHCR image, minimizing the hopes and the expectations of millions of needy and persecuted people allover the world.
Let me first however express my great respect, high regard and profound admiration for the immense help that your organization has offered for so many decades to so many dozens of millions of mistreated, persecuted and dehumanized people allover the world.
My admiration for the service you have offered to the physically abused, the destitute, and the needy is the reflection of my consideration for your principles, and for the mission that the UN entrusted you with before precisely 58 years (http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/4565a5742.pdf).
That´s why I republish (in Appendix 2) excepts from your website, willing to propagate your mission and to illustrate the assistance you can offer to millions of persecuted, tyrannized, indiscriminately raped or peremptorily brutalized people in Abyssinia (a country that has been fallaciously re-baptized as ´Ethiopia´ – an act which is merely an aspect of the there ongoing systematic, spiritual, cultural and physical genocide of numerous African nations).
At this point, it is sufficient to quote from your Mission Statement the following, enlightening excerpt:
"UNHCR is an impartial organization, offering protection and assistance to refugees and others on the basis of their needs and irrespective of their race, religion, political opinion or gender".
To better understand the malfunction, poor performance, and temporary failure of the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya, one has to first assess correctly the troublesome nature of Abyssinia (fake ´Ethiopia´). Their failure is in fact the result of an erroneous assessment of the needs of the various citizens of Abyssinia (fake ´Ethiopia´) who, following a devastating and absolutely inhuman life experience, dare cross a vast, secluded province (Ogaden) to reach Kenya and there apply for refugee status.
Crossing Ogaden these days is a momentous attempt, as the tyrannical regime of the Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo – heretic) Abyssinian dictator Meles Zenawi has turned the tyrannized and secluded province into a shameful dungeon where the National Liberation Army of Ogaden (the military section of the ONLF) has been carrying out an epic struggle to eliminate the Tigray death squads and liberate the country.
A - The Troublesome Nature of Abyssinia (Fake ´Ethiopia´)
As it is well known, this country is an artificial colonial fabrication that simply cannot and must not further exist.
Its existence has (for more than 130 years of inhuman tyranny for some parts of its territory) been simply the result of the Abyssinian illegal occupation of foreign lands (which was never accepted by the subjugated nations) and of systematic genocide murderously practiced by the successive Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo – heretic) Abyssinian regimes (monarchical, pro-communist, pseudo-republican) at all levels, spiritual, cultural and physical.
Abyssinia expanded beyond the limits of the tiny Gondar state (in part of today´s Amhara province), and the merge with the small Tigray kingdom made of the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo – heretic) Abyssinian population the ruling elite in a disproportionately enlarged circumference which could never become - and never became - a country, remaining forever an inhuman prison, a place of torture, oppression, and extrajudicial killings.
B – Systematic Genocide against African Nations Executed by Amhara and Tigray
With the gradual expansion of Abyssinia, the Oromos, the Sidamas, the Afars, the Ogadenis, the Kaffas, the Kambaatas, the Shekachos, the Agaws, the Gedeos, the Hadiyas, the Wolayitas, the Bertas, the Gumuz, the Shinasha, the Nuer and the Anuak became slaves of the Monophysitic Abyssinians, although they always formed the outright majority of the country; today they represent ca. 70 – 71% of the entire population. This figure is simply the result of systematic physical genocide (practiced mainly but not exclusively at the moment of the military invasions) and extensive slavery trade (for which reparations were never paid by the racist regime of Abyssinia).
C – What happens today in ´Ethiopia´ is this:
The modern (21st century) form of slavery is deliberate and forcible emigration.
The gangsters who rule the colonial, underdeveloped and dark state of Abyssinia (fake ´Ethiopia´) have deliberately set up a dictatorial environment whereby life is impossible - except you are ready to accept that, in your occupied country, Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian death squads
1. rape your younger sister when she walks in the streets,
2. peremptorily imprison your old father and torture him to death – in your unbeknownst,
3. insult, offend and dishonor your old mother, who terrorized does not dare walk in the streets of your own town, if unaccompanied,
4. threaten – inside your home – and thus force your wife to admit that you belong to a liberation front and/or movement (so that they automatically imprison you in absolutely extrajudicial procedures),
5. sodomize and then kill your younger brother, when he works in the fields, and to complete the process, throw his dead body in the desert for hyenas and vultures to be fed on,
6. sequester the land of your elder sister and brother-in-law, thus leaving them without any possible income, and
7. burn your elder brother´s house, thus obliging him and his family to come and live in your own house, and in the process, peremptorily allocate the land around the burnt house to an Amhara or Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian family who move to live in his land, being of course allowed to cultivate it, make profit out of it, and carry weapons (to supposedly defend themselves) and use them at will (and if they do so killing somebody, no trial takes place against them).
The overall picture of racist and religious tyranny ´Ethiopia´ is completed with the ethno-religious minorities, who have long faced similarly inhuman treatment; the Amhara and Tigray Abyssinian Muslims total ca. 40% of the Abyssinian population, thus limiting the ruling Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian elite to ca. 18% of the country´s total population.
It would be essential to complete this brief presentation of the Abyssinian tyranny.
When physical genocide is not perpetrated, the spiritual and the cultural genocide represent the epitome of the Abyssinian (fake ´Ethiopian;) governmental policy, be it monarchical, communist or pseudo-republican of nature.
D – Spiritual and the Cultural Genocide
The essence of the spiritual – cultural genocide – inhumanly conceived and barbarically executed by the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian rulers – is revealed through the following measures, which all targeted the national identity, the religious authenticity, the cultural originality, and the historical continuation of the aforementioned subjugated nations:
1 - Prohibition of use of their language
2 - Prohibition of use of their writing system (if extant, otherwise prohibition of introduction of a writing system for their respective languages)
3 - Prohibition of practice of religious rituals, rites, ceremonies, and acts of faith
4 - Prohibition of practice of all traditional customs and procedures of social order (Gadaa system among the Oromos, Luwa system among the Sidamas, variants among the other subjugated nations)
5 - Prohibition of proper and genuine selection of true representatives empowered to represent the tyrannized nations at either national or international level
6 - Prohibition of the study of their past, history, language, culture and society
7 - Prohibition of attendance of the Primary and Secondary education, and Universities, except for few cases of culturally alienated renegades
8 - Imposition of an alien language and writing system (Amharic) as compulsory means of communication through all levels of education
9 - Imposition of an alien language and writing system (Amharic) as official language throughout the annexed territories of the tyrannized nations
10 - Selection and imposition of few renegades among the subjugated and oppressed nations so that they, functioning as fake representatives, facilitate the imposition of the state tyranny
11 - Promotion of High Treason practices among the subjugated Nations – up to the point that they appear as the only chance for materially respectable survival
12 - Expropriation of lands, forests and pasturages (leading automatically to desecration)
13 - Prohibition of any major economic activity for the entire population of all the subjugated nations (which leads to poverty, starvation and limitation of one´s existence to mere nutritional survival)
14 - Imposition of a bogus-historical dogma of purely Racist Nature
15 - Fabrication of a bogus-nation, called ´Ethiopian´, and totalitarian imposition of the pathetic concept on all the subjugated nations
16 - Usurpation of the Name of Ethiopia – strictly used throughout ages for Cushitic populations inhabiting the area of Ancient Sudan
17 - Imposition of a systematic policy of Abyssinianization at the levels of language, writing system, religion, culture, social-behavioural system, and political life, and
18 - Systematic, provocative and absolutely inhuman deprecation of all the subjugated peoples, and their cultures, languages, historical past, religions and social-behavioural systems, involving differentiation within purely racist context.
E – Ogadeni Immigrants´ Plight in Kenya
In fact, if all the terrorized people and ethno-religious groups of Abyssinia had the chance to speak a foreign language (mainly English) and to be able to collect some money (just a few hundreds of dollars), one would see dozens of millions of people entering Kenya and reaching the UNHCR Branch Office at Nairobi.
To say it otherwise, a brief definition of today´s fake state of ´Ethiopia´ can just be the following: the world´s most loathed state, deeply hated by more than 82% of its citizens, who all passionately desire to either eliminate it or emigrate and move abroad.
However, when the terrorized Ogadenis enter Kenya, and as long as they have to wait until they get refugee status (if they ever manage to) by the UNHCR Branch Office at Nairobi, they find themselves in a new, but definitely unsafe and insecure, environment whereby all sorts of threats and menaces can appear instantly. The lack of safety and specific acts of intimidation carried out against them turn them to extremely vulnerable beings who spend their days in the mystery and the darkness; only the Abyssinian jails are far, but this is not much of a consolation.
In a most revengeful and inhuman manner, the Amhara and Tigray Abyssinian death squads are replaced in Kenya by Abyssinian agents of the Secret Services whose exclusive task is to possibly identify, effectively contact, and mercilessly assassinate as many Ogadeni (and other) immigrants as possible.
The long lasting nightmare of the Ogadeni immigrants in Kenya can turn to Dante´s Inferno in case the UNHCR Nairobi authorities reject a demand for refugee status; quite unfortunately – and quite mysteriously – this happens very often.
Their lives, contrarily to the UNHCR promise for "protection and assistance to refugees and others on the basis of their needs", turn thus to be a space of time consumed in imposed lethargy.
Who can describe the Ogadeni immigrants´ Kenyan Inferno better than Dante?
To whom, if not to them, do the following verses fit best ?
Com´ io divenni allor gelato e fioco,
nol dimandar, lettor, ch´i´ non lo scrivo,
però ch´ogne parlar sarebbe poco.
Io non mori´ e non rimasi vivo;
pensa oggimai per te, s´hai fior d´ingegno,
qual io divenni, d´uno e d´altro privo.
(How frozen I became and powerless then,
Ask it not, Reader, for I write it not,
Because all language would be insufficient.
I did not die, and I alive remained not;
Think for thyself now, hast thou aught of wit,
What I became, being of both deprived.)
F – The Agony of Ogadeni Immigrants in Kenya
The agony of the Ogadeni immigrants in Kenya is due to the following points:
1. Many of them have no passports or other identity documents. These had been previously confiscated by Abyssinian State Security forces and other elements of the tyrannical state. Depriving a tyrannized individual of his/her identity documents has always been common practice for tyrannical regimes allover the world.
2. Evidence of their presence in Kenya as immigrants is automatically used back in Abyssinia (fake ´Ethiopia´) as proof of an entire family´s ´guilt´. This sort of extrajudicial ´culpability´ means usually arrest, torture, and assassination for any other relative.
3. Illegitimate presence in Kenya signifies constant exposure to Kenyan Police´s investigation, subsequent detention, and – in case of best luck – release after fine payment option. Collection of the necessary amount of money, effectuated among penniless immigrants, means in this case reduced nutritional basis for all – and some of them had been victims of malnutrition for all their lives.
4. Deportation is incessantly lurking on them; and the return can only mean deterioration or death.
5. Declared Abyssinian policy to pursue, identify, and assassinate the immigrants. This barbaric and criminal policy is not a matter of general statement but specific pronouncement. In public meetings among the security forces, the appointed administrators, and the elders of a town, every now and then, the names of identified immigrants who originate from the town in question are stated, and threats are expressed against either the immigrants or their relatives.
6. Life under asphyxiating threat. Through interception of relatives´ mobile telephone calls, through excessive threats expressed against relatives living in Ogaden, agents Abyssinian Secret Services get the mobile telephone numbers of Ogadeni immigrants in Kenya, and sadistically terrorize them on regular basis.
Indicatively I mention here that Ahmed Ayub (see detailed narrative in Appendix 1), Ogadeni immigrant in Kenya, received last May a telephone call from Galkacyo (Puntland autonomous administration in Somalia); two people called him, a middle level agent of the Abyssinian Secret Services, named Shambel Hailu and an Ogadeni renegade, currently employed by the Abyssinian Secret Services as professional traitor, named Mawlid Shukri. Further threats were expressed against him through another telephone call made by an Abyssinian agent using a common Kenyan mobile line (Safaricom) more recently.
7. Frozen indifference with respect to the aforementioned points, from the part of the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya. With hundreds if not thousands of Ogadeni being in the same situation, and with UNHCR officers coldly responding to their demands for refugee status, an impossible, cruel and inhuman situation has been adjusted precisely on those who ought to be protected almost automatically.
8. The refugee camps are not safe and secure, but easily penetrable by the agents of the Abyssinian Secret Services. It is precisely this issue that has to be tackled with in the light of the aforementioned points B, C, and D.
G – Need for Immediate Investigation to Be Carried Out in the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya
Your Excellency,
The Ogadeni refugees in Kenya are convinced that the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya failed to offer them what other UNHCR offices wholeheartedly grant to other immigrants who happen to be in less critical situation than theirs.
The Ogadeni refugees in Kenya are convinced that the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya failed to address their cases according to the principles and the policies announced in the Mission Statement of the UNHCR.
The Ogadeni refugees in Kenya are convinced that the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya failed to offer "protection and assistance to refugees and others on the basis of their needs" – I repeat "on the basis of their needs".
Your Excellency,
There is a widespread rumor that the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya has been hijacked by the Abyssinian Secret Services, involving
1 - corrupt practices of bribery,
2 - biases in the HR hiring procedures,
3 - unfair treatment of cases,
4 - partial anti-Ogadeni attitude in the initial contact, and
5 - eventual leakage of life-sensitive information as regards Ogadeni applicants.
This rumor truly kills what you have tried hard to achieve over the span of the last three years atop the UNHCR.
I am sure that your outstanding previous experience in Portugal, in the Council of Europe, and in the Socialist International fully capacitate you to take action immediately through many possible ways that are certainly better known to you than to anyone else.
An investigative committee, an immediate dismissal of local clerks if proven counterproductive or refugee-unfriendly, an eventual replacement of the Branch Office Head or instant directives for a drastically different stance as regards the Ogadeni immigrants may be some of the measures taken.
People allover the world have admired your commitment with respect to the Somali immigrants in Kenya, and your presence in Dadaab raised their hopes for a great improvement in the humanitarian assistance delivered by the UNHCR.
But Somali population amounts to ca. 11 million people.
At this moment, more than 60 million of "citizens" (please read "prisoners") of fake ´Ethiopia´ want passionately to leave the Hell of the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian criminals who – to preserve their shameful privileges – insist on preserving the ´unity´ of the ´Ethiopian´ State which is a Plague for its own inhabitants.
In the Appendix 1, I publish part of a Mail – Complaint with UNHCR Kenya Office Practices and Procedures, which includes three brief narratives of Ogadenis who presented their papers to the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya in order to obtain refugee status, and have been met with silence for too long. I intend to further expand on the subject in future articles of mine, publishing narratives composed by other Ogadeni immigrants in Kenya who similarly have received no answer from the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya thus far.
In the Appendix 2, I republish excerpts from the UNHCR informative website that are necessary to any needy and persecuted individual originating from ´Ethiopia´. I find the occasion proper to call them to courageously confess their plight and write to you and your subordinates, completing the available interfaces here: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/contact?hq=y and http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/contact
Abyssinian Tyranny: 21st Century´s Adamastor?
Your Excellency,
Portuguese Literature has been for all my life an inexorable source of symbolism, imagery, metaphor and deep understanding of the Humanity.
That´s why I suppose that, when encountering the awful face of the Abyssinian tyranny denounced so devastatingly by the recent Human Rights Watch Report on Ogaden, you have expressed the same astonishment as Vasco da Gama did in Luís Vaz de Camões´ Os Lusiadas, when he met Adamastor:
potestade – disse - sublimada,
que ameaço divino ou que segredo
este clima e este mar nos apresenta,
que mor cousa parece que tormenta?
I am convinced that, while inestigating the inhuman face and nature of the colonial Abyssinian tyranny, its methods and policies, you certainly used descriptions composed for the first time by the greatest poet of Lusophony with respect to Adamastor, this incredibly inhuman beast: "filho aspérrimo da Terra", "disforme estatura", "barba esquálida", "cor terrena", and "cheios de terra e crespos os cabelos, a boca negra, os dentes, amarelos"
That is why, I believe that, dedicating yourself to the case of the destitute Ogadeni immigrants in Kenya, who are now located not far from the coast where Vasco da Gama met the mythologized as abominable Adamastor, you will remember the end of Canto IX of Os Lusiadas, and the great humanist preaching of Luís Vaz de Camões:
Impossibilidades não façais,
Que quem quis sempre pôde: e numerados
Sereis entre os heróis esclarecidos
E nesta Ilha de Vénus recebidos
(Impossible things do not do,
Who wanted always could: and numbered
You will be amongst the famous heroes
And in this Isle of Venus received.)
And your concern with the plight of the Ogadeni immigrants in Kenya will be Honras que a vida fazem sublimada.
Best Regards,
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Appendix 1
Mail – Complaint with UNHCR Kenya Office Practices and Procedures
The following persons are victims from Ogaden region.
The message below was also sent to the Human Rights Watch.
Having in mind the reluctant attitude of Nairobi UNHCR officers as regards Ogadeni refugees, and taking into consideration the questionable security of the various refugee camps in Kenya,
We, the below mentioned Ogadenis in Kenya, are appealing to the UNHCR and Human Rights NGOs, demanding an urgent, correct, just and fair treatment of our cases in view of the ensuing bestowal of the status of refugee upon us by the Nairobi UNHCR office.
By the virtue of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and
its 1967 Protocol, the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless
Persons, and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, we undersigned have applied for refugee status.
Case 1 - Judge Shukri Shafe Guled
I was born 1981 in Qabridahar, studied in the Primary School in Qabridahar and in the Secondary School in Jijiga. I was an Ethiopian Regional Supreme Court judge with legal immunity, and therefore I was illegally arrested on 08/09/2006 at Dire Dawa without any formal charge and trial. After 15 months of
imprisonment in different military camps and prisons, I was thence transferred to Jigjiga, where I was met by an ICRC delegation. An Ethiopian Federal Mobile High Court ordered my release, involving bail money, on 25/12/2007. Since this development took place unbeknownst to my earlier custodians, within hours after I was released, they attempted to arrest me again. It became thus clear that I had to find a secure place to live, and through a difficult and risky itinerary I managed to reach Nairobi, only to realize that here too I have to be greatly concerned with my personal security and safety.
Case 2 – Ahmed Ayub Aden
I was born in 1982 and grew in Fiiq town, Ogaden, Eastern Ethiopia. I pursued my Primary and Secondary Education at Jigjiga, the provincial capital of Somali administrative zone. In 2007, I enrolled at the Ethiopian Civil Service College in Addis Ababa, Faculty of Civil Engineering.
In mid 2007, a massive operation against the armed forces of the ONLF and their supporters took place in the Somali administrative zone; during this process, military and security agents of Ethiopia committed gross violations against civilians in the region, involving brutal means of interrogation, arrests, accusations of civil servants, and incommunicado. However, without any formal and legal procedure thousands of innocent people have been arrested during the same period in many places outside of Somali region as well.
Prior to these events, I had not been involved in any political activities in the region, neither had I been member of any opposition party. I had however been arrested in Jigjiga on 14/06/2003 when I was a mere schoolboy at the Jijiga Junior Secondary School. I was then taken to the heavily guarded camp of Jigjiga town (Garabase Military Camp) where I was subjected to brutal interrogation and torture on daily basis. Scars appearing on my left shoulder to this day date back to that period of imprisonment.
My torturers were constantly using threats to oblige me to admit that I was an ONLF member until I was forced to do so. I was locked in a very small underground cell. After three months, I was finally released on 30/09/2003. During the days of my imprisonment, the ICRC paid a visit to the Garabase Military Camp, and expressed their sorrow for the existing conditions of detainment. As it can be easily surmised, during this 3-month period, my family had absolutely no information about my whereabouts.
During the aforementioned period of massive operations against the armed forces of the ONLF, I was arrested in my College Campus in Addis Ababa on 01/09/2007. I was taken to the Shoramere Military Camp; without any trial and legal procedure I was released on 25/9/2007. After my release I pursued regularly my studies in the College, and everything seemed to go well.
Suddenly, one day, whilst I was waiting to take an exam, three (3) men of the Security Dept (Ministry of Interior), accompanied by two (2) men of the National Army came to the gate of university and contacted me via phone. They told me that I should go and meet them immediately, and I answered them that I was about to enter a classroom and take an exam, and that this was necessary for me. They repeated that I had to go and started threatening that they would punish me if I did not. I then went to meet them, missing my exam, and I was subsequently taken to a military camp.
They instructed me to cooperate with them by providing them with all necessary information about ONLF sympathizers in the College. I told them that I can't do this job; they then gave me a deadline of 10 days to cooperate with them, warning me of the dire consequences in case I failed to do so. In addition, they ordered me to open my email account´s inbox and asked me about the website Ogaden online. I told them that I don´t know the Ogaden online website; I then opened my email account where they checked every message. They realized that all the contacts were typically personal of character.
After this incident, I decided to leave Ethiopia and seek political asylum in Kenya. I left Addis Ababa, and I reached the immigration office at the Moyale border point on 28th December 2007, intending to ask an exit visa and proceed to Kenya. This point lies at a distance of 771 km in the southwest of Addis Ababa. There, unfortunately, as soon as the immigration officer heard my name, he confiscated all documents in my bag including my passport, my college ID, and a recommendation letter from the ICRC office in Jigjiga (the delegates who had paid a visit a few years earlier, when in September 2003 I was detained in the Garabase Military Camp).
Then, the immigration officer at Moyale ordered my arrest and immediate deportation back to Addis Ababa; first, I was however detained in Moyale for 2 days and then they took me, handcuffed, they placed me in a military lorry and thus I was returned to Addis Ababa. There, I was imprisoned in an underground cell of the Makalawe prison; so dark it was that I could not distinguish between day and night. In the first phase of his detainment none of my relatives had an idea about my situation and whereabouts. Later, my family came to know the details of my arrest and my situation, and they came to the prison where they were not allowed to meet me.
In the Makalawe prison, I was tortured with electric wires and I was repeatedly threatened by security agents; once I was even thrown in a cell full of snakes. I was continuously handcuffed during a period of three months. My family members submitted meanwhile an appeal to the court; I was then subsequently brought before the court without having a lawyer to defend me, and the end result was that I was released with the recommendation to work closely with security agents and inform them on the activities of the ONLF.
I went back to my College, but within 10 days, two (2) security agents and four (4) military men came again to the campus with the purpose to arrest me; as soon as I saw them coming to the entrance, I managed to escape from the backward gate, and I kept hiding myself in the city for 4 days and then I decided to leave Ethiopia for Kenya at all costs.
I crossed into Kenya on 24th April 2008, via Nagelle – Dolo – Sufka – Mandera – Nairobi, without any legal document, because - as I mentioned earlier - Ethiopian security agents had confiscated all my documents in Moyale, before my last arrival to and imprisonment in Addis Ababa.
In the course of this inhuman suffering, security agents repeatedly took pictures of mine, and I am sure they distributed them to various police offices in various locations throughout in Ethiopia so that my face be known to all the local authorities, as it had happened in Moyale. That event did actually affect me terribly at the psychological level because ever since I was awfully scared of the security agents, continuously imagining that were monitoring and following me closely.
Recently, I came to know that Ethiopian security agents arrested some of my relatives and even confiscated their phones; I got the information that they managed to find my telephone number in the mobile telephone of one of my relatives.
As a matter of fact, on May 22, 25 and 28, two unknown people, whom I have reasons to identify with Ethiopian security agents called me from Ethiopia and they threatened me saying that they know where precisely I am, adding that they intended to follow me wherever I may go.
The inhuman acts committed by Ethiopian security agents against innocent civilians from the Somali region (such as extrajudicial killings, detention and tortures) have been practiced at an unbelievably great scale, as don't differentiate among youth, women, elderly, children and employees.
During the last 10 months, an estimated 1000 students and a greater number of governmental employees and civilians originating from Ogaden have fled the country to find asylum in neighboring countries and thus escape from the extreme insecurity that prevails in Ethiopia and the continuous threats against their lives expressed by the security apparatus; such is the prevailing oppression in Ethiopia that even people held in governmental prisons are unable to get their own lawyers and be met with a fair trial.
During the period I was imprisoned in Makalawe prison, Mr. Bashir Ahmed
Maktal, Canadian citizen of Ogadeni origin, was arrested and locked a cell next to mine. He was there for at least 17 months without any trial and none of his relatives knew about him; and even if they had known his location they wouldn´t have had the chance to see him.
Ahmed Ayub Aden
E-mail axmedayuub77@yahoo.com
Case 3 – Seid Mohammoud Omer
I was born in 1983 in Aware District of Dhegahbur region of the Eastern Ethiopian province of Ogaden. Having arrived in Kenya in order to demand refugee status, I do hereby submit to you the testimony of my plight as I have been one of the many victims arrested, tortured and terrorized by Ethiopian security forces. I consequently left Ethiopia and came to Kenya, in search of safety and asylum.
I attended the Primary School at Aware, the Intermediate and Secondary School at Jijiga, and then I enrolled in the Unity University College, Faculty of Business and Economics (Department of Economics) where I completed my academic education. I was subsequently recruited by the Livestock Marketing Bureau of the Somali Regional State, and I worked as team leader for this office for one and a half years.
Then, I was arrested by the Ethiopian State Security on 01/06/2007, and spent some time in complete isolation in a dark cell in the Garabase Military Camp which is located at Jigjiga. In the camp I suffered a lot because of the torture and various types of physical punishment adjusted to me. They used to torture me with electric wires because they wanted to forcefully make me confess that I was a supporter of the ONLF, despite the fact that I was neither supporter nor member of the said group.
Later on, I was transferred to the Jigjiga Police where ICRC officials visited me on 24/06/2007; they assisted me by providing me with a mattress and various utensils as my family members were not allowed to visit me. Finally, I was released on 15/06/2008 under the condition to coordinate with State Security and Army officers, which was of course a very dangerous matter.
Two days after I was released, I was informed that I would be killed if I failed to cooperate with the assigned State Security and Army officers; I immediately understood that I had to leave the country. At the time security agents were looking for me, I managed to leave my home in Jijiga; I was hiding in the same city for two nights, and then I left for Kenya.
Ultimately, I arrived in Nairobi, looking for safety and hoping that the UNHCR will grant me the status of refugee, thus offering a peaceful sanctuary to live my life in dignity. Here in Nairobi, I have faced a lot of difficulties, living with terrible anxiety because of the free movement and the unlawful activities of many Ethiopian security agents.
Therefore, I present this request to the UNNCR Branch Office in Kenya, asking refugee status and humanitarian assistance.
Best Regards,
Seid Mohammoud Omar
siciid800@hotmail.com
Appendix – 2
UNHCR – An Overview
1. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres
http://www.unhcr.org/admin/3bb311511a.html
Mr. António Guterres started as UN High Commissioner for Refugees on June 15, 2005, succeeding Mr. Ruud Lubbers of the Netherlands. A former Portuguese prime minister, Mr. Guterres was elected by the UN General Assembly to a five-year term and is the UN refugee agency's 10th High Commissioner.
As High Commissioner, he heads one of the world's principal humanitarian agencies. UNHCR has twice won the Nobel Peace Prize and its 6,300 staff members currently work in over 110 countries providing protection and assistance to nearly 33 million refugees and others of concern. More than 80 percent of its staff works in the field, often in difficult and dangerous duty stations. The agency's total budget for 2007 is more than $1 billion.
Before joining UNHCR, Mr. Guterres spent more than 20 years in government and public service. He served as Portuguese prime minister from 1996 to 2002, during which he was strongly involved in the international effort to resolve the crisis in East Timor. As president of the European Council in early 2000, he led the adoption of the so-called Lisbon Agenda and co-chaired the first EU-Africa summit. He also founded the Portuguese Refugee Council in 1991, and was part of the Council of State of Portugal from 1991 to 2002.
From 1981 to 1983, Mr. Guterres was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as chairman of the Committee on Demography, Migration and Refugees. In addition, he has been active in Socialist International, acting as the organisation's vice-president from 1992 to 1999 before taking over as its president until June 2005.
Mr. Guterres was born on April 30, 1949, in Lisbon and educated at the Instituto Superior Técnico, where he is an invited professor.
He is married and has two children.
2. Basic Facts
http://www.unhcr.org/basics.html
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country.
In more than five decades, the agency has helped an estimated 50 million people restart their lives. Today, a staff of around 6,300 people in more than 110 countries continues to help 32.9 million persons.
3. Mission Statement
http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/4565a5742.pdf
UNHCR - The United Nations Refugee Agency
UNHCR is mandated by the United Nations to lead and coordinate international action for the worldwide protection of refugees and the resolution of refugee problems.
UNHCR´s primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. In its efforts to achieve this objective, UNHCR strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, and to return home voluntarily. By assisting refugees to return to their own country or to settle permanently in another country, UNHCR also seeks lasting solutions to their plight.
UNHCR´s efforts are mandated by the organization´s Statute, and guided by the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. International refugee law provides an essential framework of principles for UNHCR´s humanitarian activities.
In support of its core activities on behalf of refugees, UNHCR´s Executive Committee and the UN General Assembly have authorized the organization´s involvement with other groups. These include former refugees who have returned to their homeland; internally displaced people; and people who are stateless or whose nationality is disputed.
UNHCR seeks to reduce situations of forced displacement by encouraging States and other institutions to create conditions which are conducive to the protection of human rights and the peaceful resolution of disputes. In pursuit of the same objective, UNHCR actively seeks to consolidate the reintegration of returning refugees in their country of origin, thereby averting the recurrence of refugee-producing situations.
UNHCR is an impartial organization, offering protection and assistance to refugees and others on the basis of their needs and irrespective of their race, religion, political opinion or gender. In all of its activities, UNHCR pays particular attention to the needs of children and seeks to promote the equal rights of women and girls.
In its efforts to protect refugees and to promote solutions to their problems, UNHCR works in partnership with governments, regional organizations, international and non-governmental organizations. UNHCR is committed to the principle of participation, believing that refugees and others who benefit from the organization´s activities should be consulted over decisions which affect their lives.
By virtue of its activities on behalf of refugees and displaced people, UNHCR also endeavours to promote the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter: maintaining international peace and security; developing friendly relations among nations; and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
4. How Are Refugees Protected?
http://www.unhcr.org/basics/BASICS/4034b6a34.pdf
Governments normally guarantee the basic human rights and physical security of their citizens. But when civilians become refugees this safety net disappears. Without some sort of legal status in their asylum country, they would be exceptionally vulnerable to exploitation and other forms of ill treatment, as well as to imprisonment or deportation.
Governments bear the prime responsibility for protecting refugees on their territory, and often do so in concert with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs). However, in many countries, UNHCR staff also work alongside NGOs and other partners in a variety of locations ranging from capital cities to remote camps and border areas. They attempt to promote or provide legal and physical protection, and minimize the threat of violence – including sexual assault – which many refugees are subject to, even in countries of asylum.
5. The importance of the 1951 Refugee Convention
The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol are the cornerstones of modern refugee protection, and the legal principles they enshrine have permeated into countless other international, regional and national laws and practices governing the way refugees are treated.
One of the most crucial principles laid down in the 1951 Convention is that refugees should not be expelled or returned "to the frontiers of territories where [their] life or freedom would be threatened." The Convention also outlines the basic rights which states should afford to refugees, and it defines who is a refugee – and who is not (for example it clearly excludes fighters, terrorists or people guilty of serious crimes).
The 1951 Convention was never intended to sort out all migration issues. Its sole aim was – and still is – to protect refugees. The challenge is to find other efficient mechanisms to manage economic migration and maintain border security – legitimate state concerns that need to be carefully balanced with their responsibility to protect refugees.
By September 2007, a total of 147 countries had signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol (see separate brochure on the 1951 Refugee Convention for more details).
6. What is UNHCR?
UNHCR is the United Nations refugee agency (its full name is the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). The agency was created by the UN General Assembly in 1950, but actually began work on 1 January 1951. States still recovering from the devastation of World War II wanted to make sure that they had a strong and effective organization to look after the interests of – or ´protect´ – refugees in the countries where they had sought asylum. UNHCR was also charged with helping governments to find ´permanent solutions´ for refugees.
UNHCR´s original mandate was limited to a three year program to help the remaining World War II refugees. However, the problem of displacement not only failed to disappear, it turned into a persistent worldwide phenomenon. In December 2003, the UN General Assembly finally abolished the requirement for the agency to keep renewing its mandate every few years.
UNHCR´s statute was drafted virtually simultaneously with the 1951 Refugee Convention, and as a result the key international legal instrument, and the organization designed to monitor it, are particularly well synchronized. Article 35 of the 1951 Convention makes the relationship explicit, and requests states to co-operate with UNHCR in matters relating to the implementation of the Convention itself and to any laws, regulations or decrees that states might draw up that could affect refugees.
7. How UNHCR´s Role Has Evolved
Concerning refugees:
UNHCR is engaged in a constant effort, alongside states, to explain, clarify and build upon the existing body of international law spawned by the 1951 Refugee Convention. In recent years, it has launched a series of initiatives that aim both to bolster the Convention and to encourage the search for permanent and safe solutions for the world´s uprooted peoples.
In 2001, the most important global refugee conference in half a century adopted a landmark declaration reaffirming the commitment of signatory states to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Through a process of global consultations, UNHCR drew up a set of objectives called the ´Agenda for Protection´ which continues to serve as a guide to governments and humanitarian organizations in their efforts to strengthen worldwide refugee protection.
Concerning other groups of disadvantaged people:
Over the years, the agency has taken on responsibilities for a number of other groups that are similar to refugees in some ways, but which were not explicitly woven into its mandate at the time of its founding – most notably becoming the UN agency responsible for monitoring the situation of stateless people (in 1974).
More recently it became a major player in the UN´s new ´cluster approach´ designed to improve the delivery of protection and assistance for internally displaced people, who – unlike refugees – have never had a single agency wholly dedicated to their well-being. UNHCR has been involved with IDPs to some extent for at least two decades, but on a much more ad hoc basis.
In general, nowadays, UNHCR plays a more prominent role in the countries where the displacement is occurring – either because of its substantial involvement in helping returning refugees settle back into their home areas, or because of its increased activities on behalf of IDPs.
Occasionally, UNHCR´s particular expertise has led to its being given an even broader role. In the 1990s, for example, UNHCR ran the world´s longest-ever airlift as part of its operation to assist besieged populations, as well as displaced ones, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And more recently – although it is not normally involved in natural disaster relief – UNHCR launched major operations after the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, because in both cases the sheer scale of destruction meant that any major agency that could help was asked to do so, and shelter and camp management – UNHCR´s two assistance specialties – were at a premium.
8. Assisting Refugees
Protection and material help are interrelated. UNHCR can best provide effective legal protection if a person´s basic needs – shelter, food, water, sanitation and medical care – are also met.
The agency therefore coordinates the provision and delivery of such items, manages – or helps manage – individual camps or camp systems, and has designed specific projects for vulnerable women, children and the elderly who comprise 80 percent of a ´normal´ refugee population. Education is a major priority once the dust has settled slightly.
UNHCR also seek ways to find durable solutions to refugees´ plight, by helping them repatriate to their homeland if conditions warrant, or by helping them to integrate in their countries of asylum or to resettle in third countries (see below).
9. Finding Durable Solutions
The un refugee agency´s mandate also includes actively looking for solutions to refugees´ plight. Three main options exist:
Voluntary repatriation is the preferred long-term solution for the majority of refugees. Most refugees prefer to return home as soon as circumstances permit (generally when a conflict has ended), and a degree of stability has been restored. UNHCR encourages voluntary repatriation as the best solution for displaced people, providing it is safe and their reintegration is viable. The agency often provides transportation and a start-up package which may include cash grants, income-generation projects and practical assistance such as farm tools and seeds.
Sometimes, along with its many NGO partners, it extends this help to include the rebuilding of individual homes, as well as communal infrastructure such as schools and clinics, roads bridges and wells. Such projects are often designed to help IDPs as well as returning refugees – while also benefiting other impoverished people in the area who may never have moved anywhere. Field staff monitor the well-being of returnees in delicate situations. Longer term development assistance is provided by other organizations.
In all, some 734,000 refugees repatriated voluntarily to 57 countries during 2006. Globally, an estimated 11.6 million refugees have returned home over the past 10 years, 63 per cent of them with UNHCR assistance.
10. Local integration and resettlement
Some refugees cannot go home or are unwilling to do so, usually because they would face continued persecution. In such circumstances, UNHCR helps to find them new homes, either in the asylum country where they are living (and in an increasingly crowded world, relatively few countries are prepared to offer this option), or in third countries where they can be permanently resettled.
Only a small number of nations take part in UNHCR resettlement programmes and accept quotas of refugees on an annual basis. In 2006, for example, some 71,700 people were resettled in 15 countries – 27,700 of them with UNHCR assistance, the rest directly by the resettlement countries.
11. Who benefits from resettlement?
People facing particular problems or continued threats to their safety in their first asylum countries are foremost among those who can benefit from resettlement. In some cases it is an essential life-saving option – or the only way to save a particular refugee from having to resort to desperate measures (one unfortunately common example is the rape victim who has been rejected by her family and society, and has nowhere else to turn). Some very specific refugee populations are also on occasion beneficiaries of group resettlement programmes. In 2006, refugees from Myanmar were the largest group to benefit from resettlement with 5,700 being transported to a new life outside their first asylum countries, followed by Somalis (5,200), Sudanese (2,900), refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2,000), and Afghans (1,900).
12. Some Frequently Asked Questions About Refugees
What rights and obligations does a refugee have?
A refugee has the right to seek asylum. However, international protection involves more than just physical safety: refugees should receive at least the same basic rights and help as any other foreigner who is a legal resident, including freedom of thought, of movement and freedom from torture and degrading treatment. They should also benefit from the same fundamental economic and social rights. In return, refugees are required to respect the laws and regulations of their country of asylum.
What´s the difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee?
When people flee their own country and seek sanctuary in another state, they often have to officially apply for asylum. While their case is still being decided, they are known as asylum seekers. If asylum is granted, it means they have been recognized as refugees in need of international protection.
What happens when governments can´t or won´t provide help?
In certain circumstances, when adequate government resources are not available (for example after the sudden arrival of large numbers of uprooted people),
UNHCR and other international organizations provide assistance such as food, tools and shelter, schools and clinics.
Are people fleeing war zones refugees?
The 1951 Convention does not specifically address the issue of civilians fleeing conflict, unless they fall within a particular group being persecuted within the context of the conflict. However, UNHCR´s long-held position is that people fleeing conflicts should be more generally considered refugees, if their own state is unwilling or unable to protect them. Regional instruments, such as the 1969 Organization of African Unity Convention on refugees and the Cartagena Declaration in Latin America, explicitly support this stance.
Can governments deport people who are found not to be refugees?
People who have been determined, under a fair procedure, not to be in need of international protection are in a situation similar to that of illegal aliens, and may be deported. However, UNHCR advocates that a fair procedure has to include the right to a review before they are deported, since the consequences of a faulty decision may be disastrous for the individuals concerned.
Can a war criminal or terrorist be a refugee?
No. People who have participated in war crimes and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law – including acts of terrorism – are specifically excluded from the protection accorded to refugees.
Can a soldier be a refugee?
Only civilians can be refugees. A person who continues to pursue armed action from the country of asylum cannot be considered a refugee. However, soldiers or fighters who have laid down their arms may subsequently be granted refugee status, providing they are not excludable for other reasons.
Do all refugees have to go through an asylum determination process?
In many countries, people who apply for refugee status have to establish individually that their fear of persecution is well-founded. However, during major exoduses involving tens or even hundreds of thousands of people, individual screening may be impossible. In such circumstances, the entire group may be granted ´prima facie´ refugee status.
What is ´temporary protection?´
Nations sometimes offer ´temporary protection´ when their regular asylum systems risk being overwhelmed by a sudden mass influx of people, as happened during the 1990s conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. In such circumstances people can be rapidly admitted to safe countries, but without any guarantee of permanent asylum. Temporary protection can work to the advantage of both governments and asylum seekers in specific circumstances. But it only complements – and does not substitute for – the wider protection measures, including formal refugee status, offered by the 1951 Convention. UNHCR advocates that, after a reasonable period of time has passed, people benefiting from temporary protection who are still unable to return home should be given the right to claim full refugee status.
Note
Picture: High Commissioner António Guterres talks with Somali refugees in Dadaab, Kenya (From: http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/485935d12.html)
17 August 2008
The Honorable António Guterres
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt
Suisse
Telephone: +41 22 739 8111
Your Excellency,
Having been the recipient of a great number of mails from Ogadeni immigrants currently hiding in Kenya, I feel obliged to write to you in public in order to report a very problematic situation ensuing from the malfunction of the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya; as a matter of fact, this situation consists in a dramatic injury for the UNHCR. It causes a grave, irreparable damage to the overall UNHCR image, minimizing the hopes and the expectations of millions of needy and persecuted people allover the world.
Let me first however express my great respect, high regard and profound admiration for the immense help that your organization has offered for so many decades to so many dozens of millions of mistreated, persecuted and dehumanized people allover the world.
My admiration for the service you have offered to the physically abused, the destitute, and the needy is the reflection of my consideration for your principles, and for the mission that the UN entrusted you with before precisely 58 years (http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/4565a5742.pdf).
That´s why I republish (in Appendix 2) excepts from your website, willing to propagate your mission and to illustrate the assistance you can offer to millions of persecuted, tyrannized, indiscriminately raped or peremptorily brutalized people in Abyssinia (a country that has been fallaciously re-baptized as ´Ethiopia´ – an act which is merely an aspect of the there ongoing systematic, spiritual, cultural and physical genocide of numerous African nations).
At this point, it is sufficient to quote from your Mission Statement the following, enlightening excerpt:
"UNHCR is an impartial organization, offering protection and assistance to refugees and others on the basis of their needs and irrespective of their race, religion, political opinion or gender".
To better understand the malfunction, poor performance, and temporary failure of the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya, one has to first assess correctly the troublesome nature of Abyssinia (fake ´Ethiopia´). Their failure is in fact the result of an erroneous assessment of the needs of the various citizens of Abyssinia (fake ´Ethiopia´) who, following a devastating and absolutely inhuman life experience, dare cross a vast, secluded province (Ogaden) to reach Kenya and there apply for refugee status.
Crossing Ogaden these days is a momentous attempt, as the tyrannical regime of the Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo – heretic) Abyssinian dictator Meles Zenawi has turned the tyrannized and secluded province into a shameful dungeon where the National Liberation Army of Ogaden (the military section of the ONLF) has been carrying out an epic struggle to eliminate the Tigray death squads and liberate the country.
A - The Troublesome Nature of Abyssinia (Fake ´Ethiopia´)
As it is well known, this country is an artificial colonial fabrication that simply cannot and must not further exist.
Its existence has (for more than 130 years of inhuman tyranny for some parts of its territory) been simply the result of the Abyssinian illegal occupation of foreign lands (which was never accepted by the subjugated nations) and of systematic genocide murderously practiced by the successive Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo – heretic) Abyssinian regimes (monarchical, pro-communist, pseudo-republican) at all levels, spiritual, cultural and physical.
Abyssinia expanded beyond the limits of the tiny Gondar state (in part of today´s Amhara province), and the merge with the small Tigray kingdom made of the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo – heretic) Abyssinian population the ruling elite in a disproportionately enlarged circumference which could never become - and never became - a country, remaining forever an inhuman prison, a place of torture, oppression, and extrajudicial killings.
B – Systematic Genocide against African Nations Executed by Amhara and Tigray
With the gradual expansion of Abyssinia, the Oromos, the Sidamas, the Afars, the Ogadenis, the Kaffas, the Kambaatas, the Shekachos, the Agaws, the Gedeos, the Hadiyas, the Wolayitas, the Bertas, the Gumuz, the Shinasha, the Nuer and the Anuak became slaves of the Monophysitic Abyssinians, although they always formed the outright majority of the country; today they represent ca. 70 – 71% of the entire population. This figure is simply the result of systematic physical genocide (practiced mainly but not exclusively at the moment of the military invasions) and extensive slavery trade (for which reparations were never paid by the racist regime of Abyssinia).
C – What happens today in ´Ethiopia´ is this:
The modern (21st century) form of slavery is deliberate and forcible emigration.
The gangsters who rule the colonial, underdeveloped and dark state of Abyssinia (fake ´Ethiopia´) have deliberately set up a dictatorial environment whereby life is impossible - except you are ready to accept that, in your occupied country, Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian death squads
1. rape your younger sister when she walks in the streets,
2. peremptorily imprison your old father and torture him to death – in your unbeknownst,
3. insult, offend and dishonor your old mother, who terrorized does not dare walk in the streets of your own town, if unaccompanied,
4. threaten – inside your home – and thus force your wife to admit that you belong to a liberation front and/or movement (so that they automatically imprison you in absolutely extrajudicial procedures),
5. sodomize and then kill your younger brother, when he works in the fields, and to complete the process, throw his dead body in the desert for hyenas and vultures to be fed on,
6. sequester the land of your elder sister and brother-in-law, thus leaving them without any possible income, and
7. burn your elder brother´s house, thus obliging him and his family to come and live in your own house, and in the process, peremptorily allocate the land around the burnt house to an Amhara or Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian family who move to live in his land, being of course allowed to cultivate it, make profit out of it, and carry weapons (to supposedly defend themselves) and use them at will (and if they do so killing somebody, no trial takes place against them).
The overall picture of racist and religious tyranny ´Ethiopia´ is completed with the ethno-religious minorities, who have long faced similarly inhuman treatment; the Amhara and Tigray Abyssinian Muslims total ca. 40% of the Abyssinian population, thus limiting the ruling Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian elite to ca. 18% of the country´s total population.
It would be essential to complete this brief presentation of the Abyssinian tyranny.
When physical genocide is not perpetrated, the spiritual and the cultural genocide represent the epitome of the Abyssinian (fake ´Ethiopian;) governmental policy, be it monarchical, communist or pseudo-republican of nature.
D – Spiritual and the Cultural Genocide
The essence of the spiritual – cultural genocide – inhumanly conceived and barbarically executed by the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian rulers – is revealed through the following measures, which all targeted the national identity, the religious authenticity, the cultural originality, and the historical continuation of the aforementioned subjugated nations:
1 - Prohibition of use of their language
2 - Prohibition of use of their writing system (if extant, otherwise prohibition of introduction of a writing system for their respective languages)
3 - Prohibition of practice of religious rituals, rites, ceremonies, and acts of faith
4 - Prohibition of practice of all traditional customs and procedures of social order (Gadaa system among the Oromos, Luwa system among the Sidamas, variants among the other subjugated nations)
5 - Prohibition of proper and genuine selection of true representatives empowered to represent the tyrannized nations at either national or international level
6 - Prohibition of the study of their past, history, language, culture and society
7 - Prohibition of attendance of the Primary and Secondary education, and Universities, except for few cases of culturally alienated renegades
8 - Imposition of an alien language and writing system (Amharic) as compulsory means of communication through all levels of education
9 - Imposition of an alien language and writing system (Amharic) as official language throughout the annexed territories of the tyrannized nations
10 - Selection and imposition of few renegades among the subjugated and oppressed nations so that they, functioning as fake representatives, facilitate the imposition of the state tyranny
11 - Promotion of High Treason practices among the subjugated Nations – up to the point that they appear as the only chance for materially respectable survival
12 - Expropriation of lands, forests and pasturages (leading automatically to desecration)
13 - Prohibition of any major economic activity for the entire population of all the subjugated nations (which leads to poverty, starvation and limitation of one´s existence to mere nutritional survival)
14 - Imposition of a bogus-historical dogma of purely Racist Nature
15 - Fabrication of a bogus-nation, called ´Ethiopian´, and totalitarian imposition of the pathetic concept on all the subjugated nations
16 - Usurpation of the Name of Ethiopia – strictly used throughout ages for Cushitic populations inhabiting the area of Ancient Sudan
17 - Imposition of a systematic policy of Abyssinianization at the levels of language, writing system, religion, culture, social-behavioural system, and political life, and
18 - Systematic, provocative and absolutely inhuman deprecation of all the subjugated peoples, and their cultures, languages, historical past, religions and social-behavioural systems, involving differentiation within purely racist context.
E – Ogadeni Immigrants´ Plight in Kenya
In fact, if all the terrorized people and ethno-religious groups of Abyssinia had the chance to speak a foreign language (mainly English) and to be able to collect some money (just a few hundreds of dollars), one would see dozens of millions of people entering Kenya and reaching the UNHCR Branch Office at Nairobi.
To say it otherwise, a brief definition of today´s fake state of ´Ethiopia´ can just be the following: the world´s most loathed state, deeply hated by more than 82% of its citizens, who all passionately desire to either eliminate it or emigrate and move abroad.
However, when the terrorized Ogadenis enter Kenya, and as long as they have to wait until they get refugee status (if they ever manage to) by the UNHCR Branch Office at Nairobi, they find themselves in a new, but definitely unsafe and insecure, environment whereby all sorts of threats and menaces can appear instantly. The lack of safety and specific acts of intimidation carried out against them turn them to extremely vulnerable beings who spend their days in the mystery and the darkness; only the Abyssinian jails are far, but this is not much of a consolation.
In a most revengeful and inhuman manner, the Amhara and Tigray Abyssinian death squads are replaced in Kenya by Abyssinian agents of the Secret Services whose exclusive task is to possibly identify, effectively contact, and mercilessly assassinate as many Ogadeni (and other) immigrants as possible.
The long lasting nightmare of the Ogadeni immigrants in Kenya can turn to Dante´s Inferno in case the UNHCR Nairobi authorities reject a demand for refugee status; quite unfortunately – and quite mysteriously – this happens very often.
Their lives, contrarily to the UNHCR promise for "protection and assistance to refugees and others on the basis of their needs", turn thus to be a space of time consumed in imposed lethargy.
Who can describe the Ogadeni immigrants´ Kenyan Inferno better than Dante?
To whom, if not to them, do the following verses fit best ?
Com´ io divenni allor gelato e fioco,
nol dimandar, lettor, ch´i´ non lo scrivo,
però ch´ogne parlar sarebbe poco.
Io non mori´ e non rimasi vivo;
pensa oggimai per te, s´hai fior d´ingegno,
qual io divenni, d´uno e d´altro privo.
(How frozen I became and powerless then,
Ask it not, Reader, for I write it not,
Because all language would be insufficient.
I did not die, and I alive remained not;
Think for thyself now, hast thou aught of wit,
What I became, being of both deprived.)
F – The Agony of Ogadeni Immigrants in Kenya
The agony of the Ogadeni immigrants in Kenya is due to the following points:
1. Many of them have no passports or other identity documents. These had been previously confiscated by Abyssinian State Security forces and other elements of the tyrannical state. Depriving a tyrannized individual of his/her identity documents has always been common practice for tyrannical regimes allover the world.
2. Evidence of their presence in Kenya as immigrants is automatically used back in Abyssinia (fake ´Ethiopia´) as proof of an entire family´s ´guilt´. This sort of extrajudicial ´culpability´ means usually arrest, torture, and assassination for any other relative.
3. Illegitimate presence in Kenya signifies constant exposure to Kenyan Police´s investigation, subsequent detention, and – in case of best luck – release after fine payment option. Collection of the necessary amount of money, effectuated among penniless immigrants, means in this case reduced nutritional basis for all – and some of them had been victims of malnutrition for all their lives.
4. Deportation is incessantly lurking on them; and the return can only mean deterioration or death.
5. Declared Abyssinian policy to pursue, identify, and assassinate the immigrants. This barbaric and criminal policy is not a matter of general statement but specific pronouncement. In public meetings among the security forces, the appointed administrators, and the elders of a town, every now and then, the names of identified immigrants who originate from the town in question are stated, and threats are expressed against either the immigrants or their relatives.
6. Life under asphyxiating threat. Through interception of relatives´ mobile telephone calls, through excessive threats expressed against relatives living in Ogaden, agents Abyssinian Secret Services get the mobile telephone numbers of Ogadeni immigrants in Kenya, and sadistically terrorize them on regular basis.
Indicatively I mention here that Ahmed Ayub (see detailed narrative in Appendix 1), Ogadeni immigrant in Kenya, received last May a telephone call from Galkacyo (Puntland autonomous administration in Somalia); two people called him, a middle level agent of the Abyssinian Secret Services, named Shambel Hailu and an Ogadeni renegade, currently employed by the Abyssinian Secret Services as professional traitor, named Mawlid Shukri. Further threats were expressed against him through another telephone call made by an Abyssinian agent using a common Kenyan mobile line (Safaricom) more recently.
7. Frozen indifference with respect to the aforementioned points, from the part of the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya. With hundreds if not thousands of Ogadeni being in the same situation, and with UNHCR officers coldly responding to their demands for refugee status, an impossible, cruel and inhuman situation has been adjusted precisely on those who ought to be protected almost automatically.
8. The refugee camps are not safe and secure, but easily penetrable by the agents of the Abyssinian Secret Services. It is precisely this issue that has to be tackled with in the light of the aforementioned points B, C, and D.
G – Need for Immediate Investigation to Be Carried Out in the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya
Your Excellency,
The Ogadeni refugees in Kenya are convinced that the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya failed to offer them what other UNHCR offices wholeheartedly grant to other immigrants who happen to be in less critical situation than theirs.
The Ogadeni refugees in Kenya are convinced that the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya failed to address their cases according to the principles and the policies announced in the Mission Statement of the UNHCR.
The Ogadeni refugees in Kenya are convinced that the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya failed to offer "protection and assistance to refugees and others on the basis of their needs" – I repeat "on the basis of their needs".
Your Excellency,
There is a widespread rumor that the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya has been hijacked by the Abyssinian Secret Services, involving
1 - corrupt practices of bribery,
2 - biases in the HR hiring procedures,
3 - unfair treatment of cases,
4 - partial anti-Ogadeni attitude in the initial contact, and
5 - eventual leakage of life-sensitive information as regards Ogadeni applicants.
This rumor truly kills what you have tried hard to achieve over the span of the last three years atop the UNHCR.
I am sure that your outstanding previous experience in Portugal, in the Council of Europe, and in the Socialist International fully capacitate you to take action immediately through many possible ways that are certainly better known to you than to anyone else.
An investigative committee, an immediate dismissal of local clerks if proven counterproductive or refugee-unfriendly, an eventual replacement of the Branch Office Head or instant directives for a drastically different stance as regards the Ogadeni immigrants may be some of the measures taken.
People allover the world have admired your commitment with respect to the Somali immigrants in Kenya, and your presence in Dadaab raised their hopes for a great improvement in the humanitarian assistance delivered by the UNHCR.
But Somali population amounts to ca. 11 million people.
At this moment, more than 60 million of "citizens" (please read "prisoners") of fake ´Ethiopia´ want passionately to leave the Hell of the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian criminals who – to preserve their shameful privileges – insist on preserving the ´unity´ of the ´Ethiopian´ State which is a Plague for its own inhabitants.
In the Appendix 1, I publish part of a Mail – Complaint with UNHCR Kenya Office Practices and Procedures, which includes three brief narratives of Ogadenis who presented their papers to the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya in order to obtain refugee status, and have been met with silence for too long. I intend to further expand on the subject in future articles of mine, publishing narratives composed by other Ogadeni immigrants in Kenya who similarly have received no answer from the UNHCR Branch Office in Kenya thus far.
In the Appendix 2, I republish excerpts from the UNHCR informative website that are necessary to any needy and persecuted individual originating from ´Ethiopia´. I find the occasion proper to call them to courageously confess their plight and write to you and your subordinates, completing the available interfaces here: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/contact?hq=y and http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/contact
Abyssinian Tyranny: 21st Century´s Adamastor?
Your Excellency,
Portuguese Literature has been for all my life an inexorable source of symbolism, imagery, metaphor and deep understanding of the Humanity.
That´s why I suppose that, when encountering the awful face of the Abyssinian tyranny denounced so devastatingly by the recent Human Rights Watch Report on Ogaden, you have expressed the same astonishment as Vasco da Gama did in Luís Vaz de Camões´ Os Lusiadas, when he met Adamastor:
potestade – disse - sublimada,
que ameaço divino ou que segredo
este clima e este mar nos apresenta,
que mor cousa parece que tormenta?
I am convinced that, while inestigating the inhuman face and nature of the colonial Abyssinian tyranny, its methods and policies, you certainly used descriptions composed for the first time by the greatest poet of Lusophony with respect to Adamastor, this incredibly inhuman beast: "filho aspérrimo da Terra", "disforme estatura", "barba esquálida", "cor terrena", and "cheios de terra e crespos os cabelos, a boca negra, os dentes, amarelos"
That is why, I believe that, dedicating yourself to the case of the destitute Ogadeni immigrants in Kenya, who are now located not far from the coast where Vasco da Gama met the mythologized as abominable Adamastor, you will remember the end of Canto IX of Os Lusiadas, and the great humanist preaching of Luís Vaz de Camões:
Impossibilidades não façais,
Que quem quis sempre pôde: e numerados
Sereis entre os heróis esclarecidos
E nesta Ilha de Vénus recebidos
(Impossible things do not do,
Who wanted always could: and numbered
You will be amongst the famous heroes
And in this Isle of Venus received.)
And your concern with the plight of the Ogadeni immigrants in Kenya will be Honras que a vida fazem sublimada.
Best Regards,
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Appendix 1
Mail – Complaint with UNHCR Kenya Office Practices and Procedures
The following persons are victims from Ogaden region.
The message below was also sent to the Human Rights Watch.
Having in mind the reluctant attitude of Nairobi UNHCR officers as regards Ogadeni refugees, and taking into consideration the questionable security of the various refugee camps in Kenya,
We, the below mentioned Ogadenis in Kenya, are appealing to the UNHCR and Human Rights NGOs, demanding an urgent, correct, just and fair treatment of our cases in view of the ensuing bestowal of the status of refugee upon us by the Nairobi UNHCR office.
By the virtue of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and
its 1967 Protocol, the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless
Persons, and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, we undersigned have applied for refugee status.
Case 1 - Judge Shukri Shafe Guled
I was born 1981 in Qabridahar, studied in the Primary School in Qabridahar and in the Secondary School in Jijiga. I was an Ethiopian Regional Supreme Court judge with legal immunity, and therefore I was illegally arrested on 08/09/2006 at Dire Dawa without any formal charge and trial. After 15 months of
imprisonment in different military camps and prisons, I was thence transferred to Jigjiga, where I was met by an ICRC delegation. An Ethiopian Federal Mobile High Court ordered my release, involving bail money, on 25/12/2007. Since this development took place unbeknownst to my earlier custodians, within hours after I was released, they attempted to arrest me again. It became thus clear that I had to find a secure place to live, and through a difficult and risky itinerary I managed to reach Nairobi, only to realize that here too I have to be greatly concerned with my personal security and safety.
Case 2 – Ahmed Ayub Aden
I was born in 1982 and grew in Fiiq town, Ogaden, Eastern Ethiopia. I pursued my Primary and Secondary Education at Jigjiga, the provincial capital of Somali administrative zone. In 2007, I enrolled at the Ethiopian Civil Service College in Addis Ababa, Faculty of Civil Engineering.
In mid 2007, a massive operation against the armed forces of the ONLF and their supporters took place in the Somali administrative zone; during this process, military and security agents of Ethiopia committed gross violations against civilians in the region, involving brutal means of interrogation, arrests, accusations of civil servants, and incommunicado. However, without any formal and legal procedure thousands of innocent people have been arrested during the same period in many places outside of Somali region as well.
Prior to these events, I had not been involved in any political activities in the region, neither had I been member of any opposition party. I had however been arrested in Jigjiga on 14/06/2003 when I was a mere schoolboy at the Jijiga Junior Secondary School. I was then taken to the heavily guarded camp of Jigjiga town (Garabase Military Camp) where I was subjected to brutal interrogation and torture on daily basis. Scars appearing on my left shoulder to this day date back to that period of imprisonment.
My torturers were constantly using threats to oblige me to admit that I was an ONLF member until I was forced to do so. I was locked in a very small underground cell. After three months, I was finally released on 30/09/2003. During the days of my imprisonment, the ICRC paid a visit to the Garabase Military Camp, and expressed their sorrow for the existing conditions of detainment. As it can be easily surmised, during this 3-month period, my family had absolutely no information about my whereabouts.
During the aforementioned period of massive operations against the armed forces of the ONLF, I was arrested in my College Campus in Addis Ababa on 01/09/2007. I was taken to the Shoramere Military Camp; without any trial and legal procedure I was released on 25/9/2007. After my release I pursued regularly my studies in the College, and everything seemed to go well.
Suddenly, one day, whilst I was waiting to take an exam, three (3) men of the Security Dept (Ministry of Interior), accompanied by two (2) men of the National Army came to the gate of university and contacted me via phone. They told me that I should go and meet them immediately, and I answered them that I was about to enter a classroom and take an exam, and that this was necessary for me. They repeated that I had to go and started threatening that they would punish me if I did not. I then went to meet them, missing my exam, and I was subsequently taken to a military camp.
They instructed me to cooperate with them by providing them with all necessary information about ONLF sympathizers in the College. I told them that I can't do this job; they then gave me a deadline of 10 days to cooperate with them, warning me of the dire consequences in case I failed to do so. In addition, they ordered me to open my email account´s inbox and asked me about the website Ogaden online. I told them that I don´t know the Ogaden online website; I then opened my email account where they checked every message. They realized that all the contacts were typically personal of character.
After this incident, I decided to leave Ethiopia and seek political asylum in Kenya. I left Addis Ababa, and I reached the immigration office at the Moyale border point on 28th December 2007, intending to ask an exit visa and proceed to Kenya. This point lies at a distance of 771 km in the southwest of Addis Ababa. There, unfortunately, as soon as the immigration officer heard my name, he confiscated all documents in my bag including my passport, my college ID, and a recommendation letter from the ICRC office in Jigjiga (the delegates who had paid a visit a few years earlier, when in September 2003 I was detained in the Garabase Military Camp).
Then, the immigration officer at Moyale ordered my arrest and immediate deportation back to Addis Ababa; first, I was however detained in Moyale for 2 days and then they took me, handcuffed, they placed me in a military lorry and thus I was returned to Addis Ababa. There, I was imprisoned in an underground cell of the Makalawe prison; so dark it was that I could not distinguish between day and night. In the first phase of his detainment none of my relatives had an idea about my situation and whereabouts. Later, my family came to know the details of my arrest and my situation, and they came to the prison where they were not allowed to meet me.
In the Makalawe prison, I was tortured with electric wires and I was repeatedly threatened by security agents; once I was even thrown in a cell full of snakes. I was continuously handcuffed during a period of three months. My family members submitted meanwhile an appeal to the court; I was then subsequently brought before the court without having a lawyer to defend me, and the end result was that I was released with the recommendation to work closely with security agents and inform them on the activities of the ONLF.
I went back to my College, but within 10 days, two (2) security agents and four (4) military men came again to the campus with the purpose to arrest me; as soon as I saw them coming to the entrance, I managed to escape from the backward gate, and I kept hiding myself in the city for 4 days and then I decided to leave Ethiopia for Kenya at all costs.
I crossed into Kenya on 24th April 2008, via Nagelle – Dolo – Sufka – Mandera – Nairobi, without any legal document, because - as I mentioned earlier - Ethiopian security agents had confiscated all my documents in Moyale, before my last arrival to and imprisonment in Addis Ababa.
In the course of this inhuman suffering, security agents repeatedly took pictures of mine, and I am sure they distributed them to various police offices in various locations throughout in Ethiopia so that my face be known to all the local authorities, as it had happened in Moyale. That event did actually affect me terribly at the psychological level because ever since I was awfully scared of the security agents, continuously imagining that were monitoring and following me closely.
Recently, I came to know that Ethiopian security agents arrested some of my relatives and even confiscated their phones; I got the information that they managed to find my telephone number in the mobile telephone of one of my relatives.
As a matter of fact, on May 22, 25 and 28, two unknown people, whom I have reasons to identify with Ethiopian security agents called me from Ethiopia and they threatened me saying that they know where precisely I am, adding that they intended to follow me wherever I may go.
The inhuman acts committed by Ethiopian security agents against innocent civilians from the Somali region (such as extrajudicial killings, detention and tortures) have been practiced at an unbelievably great scale, as don't differentiate among youth, women, elderly, children and employees.
During the last 10 months, an estimated 1000 students and a greater number of governmental employees and civilians originating from Ogaden have fled the country to find asylum in neighboring countries and thus escape from the extreme insecurity that prevails in Ethiopia and the continuous threats against their lives expressed by the security apparatus; such is the prevailing oppression in Ethiopia that even people held in governmental prisons are unable to get their own lawyers and be met with a fair trial.
During the period I was imprisoned in Makalawe prison, Mr. Bashir Ahmed
Maktal, Canadian citizen of Ogadeni origin, was arrested and locked a cell next to mine. He was there for at least 17 months without any trial and none of his relatives knew about him; and even if they had known his location they wouldn´t have had the chance to see him.
Ahmed Ayub Aden
E-mail axmedayuub77@yahoo.com
Case 3 – Seid Mohammoud Omer
I was born in 1983 in Aware District of Dhegahbur region of the Eastern Ethiopian province of Ogaden. Having arrived in Kenya in order to demand refugee status, I do hereby submit to you the testimony of my plight as I have been one of the many victims arrested, tortured and terrorized by Ethiopian security forces. I consequently left Ethiopia and came to Kenya, in search of safety and asylum.
I attended the Primary School at Aware, the Intermediate and Secondary School at Jijiga, and then I enrolled in the Unity University College, Faculty of Business and Economics (Department of Economics) where I completed my academic education. I was subsequently recruited by the Livestock Marketing Bureau of the Somali Regional State, and I worked as team leader for this office for one and a half years.
Then, I was arrested by the Ethiopian State Security on 01/06/2007, and spent some time in complete isolation in a dark cell in the Garabase Military Camp which is located at Jigjiga. In the camp I suffered a lot because of the torture and various types of physical punishment adjusted to me. They used to torture me with electric wires because they wanted to forcefully make me confess that I was a supporter of the ONLF, despite the fact that I was neither supporter nor member of the said group.
Later on, I was transferred to the Jigjiga Police where ICRC officials visited me on 24/06/2007; they assisted me by providing me with a mattress and various utensils as my family members were not allowed to visit me. Finally, I was released on 15/06/2008 under the condition to coordinate with State Security and Army officers, which was of course a very dangerous matter.
Two days after I was released, I was informed that I would be killed if I failed to cooperate with the assigned State Security and Army officers; I immediately understood that I had to leave the country. At the time security agents were looking for me, I managed to leave my home in Jijiga; I was hiding in the same city for two nights, and then I left for Kenya.
Ultimately, I arrived in Nairobi, looking for safety and hoping that the UNHCR will grant me the status of refugee, thus offering a peaceful sanctuary to live my life in dignity. Here in Nairobi, I have faced a lot of difficulties, living with terrible anxiety because of the free movement and the unlawful activities of many Ethiopian security agents.
Therefore, I present this request to the UNNCR Branch Office in Kenya, asking refugee status and humanitarian assistance.
Best Regards,
Seid Mohammoud Omar
siciid800@hotmail.com
Appendix – 2
UNHCR – An Overview
1. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres
http://www.unhcr.org/admin/3bb311511a.html
Mr. António Guterres started as UN High Commissioner for Refugees on June 15, 2005, succeeding Mr. Ruud Lubbers of the Netherlands. A former Portuguese prime minister, Mr. Guterres was elected by the UN General Assembly to a five-year term and is the UN refugee agency's 10th High Commissioner.
As High Commissioner, he heads one of the world's principal humanitarian agencies. UNHCR has twice won the Nobel Peace Prize and its 6,300 staff members currently work in over 110 countries providing protection and assistance to nearly 33 million refugees and others of concern. More than 80 percent of its staff works in the field, often in difficult and dangerous duty stations. The agency's total budget for 2007 is more than $1 billion.
Before joining UNHCR, Mr. Guterres spent more than 20 years in government and public service. He served as Portuguese prime minister from 1996 to 2002, during which he was strongly involved in the international effort to resolve the crisis in East Timor. As president of the European Council in early 2000, he led the adoption of the so-called Lisbon Agenda and co-chaired the first EU-Africa summit. He also founded the Portuguese Refugee Council in 1991, and was part of the Council of State of Portugal from 1991 to 2002.
From 1981 to 1983, Mr. Guterres was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as chairman of the Committee on Demography, Migration and Refugees. In addition, he has been active in Socialist International, acting as the organisation's vice-president from 1992 to 1999 before taking over as its president until June 2005.
Mr. Guterres was born on April 30, 1949, in Lisbon and educated at the Instituto Superior Técnico, where he is an invited professor.
He is married and has two children.
2. Basic Facts
http://www.unhcr.org/basics.html
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country.
In more than five decades, the agency has helped an estimated 50 million people restart their lives. Today, a staff of around 6,300 people in more than 110 countries continues to help 32.9 million persons.
3. Mission Statement
http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/4565a5742.pdf
UNHCR - The United Nations Refugee Agency
UNHCR is mandated by the United Nations to lead and coordinate international action for the worldwide protection of refugees and the resolution of refugee problems.
UNHCR´s primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. In its efforts to achieve this objective, UNHCR strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, and to return home voluntarily. By assisting refugees to return to their own country or to settle permanently in another country, UNHCR also seeks lasting solutions to their plight.
UNHCR´s efforts are mandated by the organization´s Statute, and guided by the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. International refugee law provides an essential framework of principles for UNHCR´s humanitarian activities.
In support of its core activities on behalf of refugees, UNHCR´s Executive Committee and the UN General Assembly have authorized the organization´s involvement with other groups. These include former refugees who have returned to their homeland; internally displaced people; and people who are stateless or whose nationality is disputed.
UNHCR seeks to reduce situations of forced displacement by encouraging States and other institutions to create conditions which are conducive to the protection of human rights and the peaceful resolution of disputes. In pursuit of the same objective, UNHCR actively seeks to consolidate the reintegration of returning refugees in their country of origin, thereby averting the recurrence of refugee-producing situations.
UNHCR is an impartial organization, offering protection and assistance to refugees and others on the basis of their needs and irrespective of their race, religion, political opinion or gender. In all of its activities, UNHCR pays particular attention to the needs of children and seeks to promote the equal rights of women and girls.
In its efforts to protect refugees and to promote solutions to their problems, UNHCR works in partnership with governments, regional organizations, international and non-governmental organizations. UNHCR is committed to the principle of participation, believing that refugees and others who benefit from the organization´s activities should be consulted over decisions which affect their lives.
By virtue of its activities on behalf of refugees and displaced people, UNHCR also endeavours to promote the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter: maintaining international peace and security; developing friendly relations among nations; and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
4. How Are Refugees Protected?
http://www.unhcr.org/basics/BASICS/4034b6a34.pdf
Governments normally guarantee the basic human rights and physical security of their citizens. But when civilians become refugees this safety net disappears. Without some sort of legal status in their asylum country, they would be exceptionally vulnerable to exploitation and other forms of ill treatment, as well as to imprisonment or deportation.
Governments bear the prime responsibility for protecting refugees on their territory, and often do so in concert with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs). However, in many countries, UNHCR staff also work alongside NGOs and other partners in a variety of locations ranging from capital cities to remote camps and border areas. They attempt to promote or provide legal and physical protection, and minimize the threat of violence – including sexual assault – which many refugees are subject to, even in countries of asylum.
5. The importance of the 1951 Refugee Convention
The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol are the cornerstones of modern refugee protection, and the legal principles they enshrine have permeated into countless other international, regional and national laws and practices governing the way refugees are treated.
One of the most crucial principles laid down in the 1951 Convention is that refugees should not be expelled or returned "to the frontiers of territories where [their] life or freedom would be threatened." The Convention also outlines the basic rights which states should afford to refugees, and it defines who is a refugee – and who is not (for example it clearly excludes fighters, terrorists or people guilty of serious crimes).
The 1951 Convention was never intended to sort out all migration issues. Its sole aim was – and still is – to protect refugees. The challenge is to find other efficient mechanisms to manage economic migration and maintain border security – legitimate state concerns that need to be carefully balanced with their responsibility to protect refugees.
By September 2007, a total of 147 countries had signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol (see separate brochure on the 1951 Refugee Convention for more details).
6. What is UNHCR?
UNHCR is the United Nations refugee agency (its full name is the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). The agency was created by the UN General Assembly in 1950, but actually began work on 1 January 1951. States still recovering from the devastation of World War II wanted to make sure that they had a strong and effective organization to look after the interests of – or ´protect´ – refugees in the countries where they had sought asylum. UNHCR was also charged with helping governments to find ´permanent solutions´ for refugees.
UNHCR´s original mandate was limited to a three year program to help the remaining World War II refugees. However, the problem of displacement not only failed to disappear, it turned into a persistent worldwide phenomenon. In December 2003, the UN General Assembly finally abolished the requirement for the agency to keep renewing its mandate every few years.
UNHCR´s statute was drafted virtually simultaneously with the 1951 Refugee Convention, and as a result the key international legal instrument, and the organization designed to monitor it, are particularly well synchronized. Article 35 of the 1951 Convention makes the relationship explicit, and requests states to co-operate with UNHCR in matters relating to the implementation of the Convention itself and to any laws, regulations or decrees that states might draw up that could affect refugees.
7. How UNHCR´s Role Has Evolved
Concerning refugees:
UNHCR is engaged in a constant effort, alongside states, to explain, clarify and build upon the existing body of international law spawned by the 1951 Refugee Convention. In recent years, it has launched a series of initiatives that aim both to bolster the Convention and to encourage the search for permanent and safe solutions for the world´s uprooted peoples.
In 2001, the most important global refugee conference in half a century adopted a landmark declaration reaffirming the commitment of signatory states to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Through a process of global consultations, UNHCR drew up a set of objectives called the ´Agenda for Protection´ which continues to serve as a guide to governments and humanitarian organizations in their efforts to strengthen worldwide refugee protection.
Concerning other groups of disadvantaged people:
Over the years, the agency has taken on responsibilities for a number of other groups that are similar to refugees in some ways, but which were not explicitly woven into its mandate at the time of its founding – most notably becoming the UN agency responsible for monitoring the situation of stateless people (in 1974).
More recently it became a major player in the UN´s new ´cluster approach´ designed to improve the delivery of protection and assistance for internally displaced people, who – unlike refugees – have never had a single agency wholly dedicated to their well-being. UNHCR has been involved with IDPs to some extent for at least two decades, but on a much more ad hoc basis.
In general, nowadays, UNHCR plays a more prominent role in the countries where the displacement is occurring – either because of its substantial involvement in helping returning refugees settle back into their home areas, or because of its increased activities on behalf of IDPs.
Occasionally, UNHCR´s particular expertise has led to its being given an even broader role. In the 1990s, for example, UNHCR ran the world´s longest-ever airlift as part of its operation to assist besieged populations, as well as displaced ones, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And more recently – although it is not normally involved in natural disaster relief – UNHCR launched major operations after the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, because in both cases the sheer scale of destruction meant that any major agency that could help was asked to do so, and shelter and camp management – UNHCR´s two assistance specialties – were at a premium.
8. Assisting Refugees
Protection and material help are interrelated. UNHCR can best provide effective legal protection if a person´s basic needs – shelter, food, water, sanitation and medical care – are also met.
The agency therefore coordinates the provision and delivery of such items, manages – or helps manage – individual camps or camp systems, and has designed specific projects for vulnerable women, children and the elderly who comprise 80 percent of a ´normal´ refugee population. Education is a major priority once the dust has settled slightly.
UNHCR also seek ways to find durable solutions to refugees´ plight, by helping them repatriate to their homeland if conditions warrant, or by helping them to integrate in their countries of asylum or to resettle in third countries (see below).
9. Finding Durable Solutions
The un refugee agency´s mandate also includes actively looking for solutions to refugees´ plight. Three main options exist:
Voluntary repatriation is the preferred long-term solution for the majority of refugees. Most refugees prefer to return home as soon as circumstances permit (generally when a conflict has ended), and a degree of stability has been restored. UNHCR encourages voluntary repatriation as the best solution for displaced people, providing it is safe and their reintegration is viable. The agency often provides transportation and a start-up package which may include cash grants, income-generation projects and practical assistance such as farm tools and seeds.
Sometimes, along with its many NGO partners, it extends this help to include the rebuilding of individual homes, as well as communal infrastructure such as schools and clinics, roads bridges and wells. Such projects are often designed to help IDPs as well as returning refugees – while also benefiting other impoverished people in the area who may never have moved anywhere. Field staff monitor the well-being of returnees in delicate situations. Longer term development assistance is provided by other organizations.
In all, some 734,000 refugees repatriated voluntarily to 57 countries during 2006. Globally, an estimated 11.6 million refugees have returned home over the past 10 years, 63 per cent of them with UNHCR assistance.
10. Local integration and resettlement
Some refugees cannot go home or are unwilling to do so, usually because they would face continued persecution. In such circumstances, UNHCR helps to find them new homes, either in the asylum country where they are living (and in an increasingly crowded world, relatively few countries are prepared to offer this option), or in third countries where they can be permanently resettled.
Only a small number of nations take part in UNHCR resettlement programmes and accept quotas of refugees on an annual basis. In 2006, for example, some 71,700 people were resettled in 15 countries – 27,700 of them with UNHCR assistance, the rest directly by the resettlement countries.
11. Who benefits from resettlement?
People facing particular problems or continued threats to their safety in their first asylum countries are foremost among those who can benefit from resettlement. In some cases it is an essential life-saving option – or the only way to save a particular refugee from having to resort to desperate measures (one unfortunately common example is the rape victim who has been rejected by her family and society, and has nowhere else to turn). Some very specific refugee populations are also on occasion beneficiaries of group resettlement programmes. In 2006, refugees from Myanmar were the largest group to benefit from resettlement with 5,700 being transported to a new life outside their first asylum countries, followed by Somalis (5,200), Sudanese (2,900), refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2,000), and Afghans (1,900).
12. Some Frequently Asked Questions About Refugees
What rights and obligations does a refugee have?
A refugee has the right to seek asylum. However, international protection involves more than just physical safety: refugees should receive at least the same basic rights and help as any other foreigner who is a legal resident, including freedom of thought, of movement and freedom from torture and degrading treatment. They should also benefit from the same fundamental economic and social rights. In return, refugees are required to respect the laws and regulations of their country of asylum.
What´s the difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee?
When people flee their own country and seek sanctuary in another state, they often have to officially apply for asylum. While their case is still being decided, they are known as asylum seekers. If asylum is granted, it means they have been recognized as refugees in need of international protection.
What happens when governments can´t or won´t provide help?
In certain circumstances, when adequate government resources are not available (for example after the sudden arrival of large numbers of uprooted people),
UNHCR and other international organizations provide assistance such as food, tools and shelter, schools and clinics.
Are people fleeing war zones refugees?
The 1951 Convention does not specifically address the issue of civilians fleeing conflict, unless they fall within a particular group being persecuted within the context of the conflict. However, UNHCR´s long-held position is that people fleeing conflicts should be more generally considered refugees, if their own state is unwilling or unable to protect them. Regional instruments, such as the 1969 Organization of African Unity Convention on refugees and the Cartagena Declaration in Latin America, explicitly support this stance.
Can governments deport people who are found not to be refugees?
People who have been determined, under a fair procedure, not to be in need of international protection are in a situation similar to that of illegal aliens, and may be deported. However, UNHCR advocates that a fair procedure has to include the right to a review before they are deported, since the consequences of a faulty decision may be disastrous for the individuals concerned.
Can a war criminal or terrorist be a refugee?
No. People who have participated in war crimes and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law – including acts of terrorism – are specifically excluded from the protection accorded to refugees.
Can a soldier be a refugee?
Only civilians can be refugees. A person who continues to pursue armed action from the country of asylum cannot be considered a refugee. However, soldiers or fighters who have laid down their arms may subsequently be granted refugee status, providing they are not excludable for other reasons.
Do all refugees have to go through an asylum determination process?
In many countries, people who apply for refugee status have to establish individually that their fear of persecution is well-founded. However, during major exoduses involving tens or even hundreds of thousands of people, individual screening may be impossible. In such circumstances, the entire group may be granted ´prima facie´ refugee status.
What is ´temporary protection?´
Nations sometimes offer ´temporary protection´ when their regular asylum systems risk being overwhelmed by a sudden mass influx of people, as happened during the 1990s conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. In such circumstances people can be rapidly admitted to safe countries, but without any guarantee of permanent asylum. Temporary protection can work to the advantage of both governments and asylum seekers in specific circumstances. But it only complements – and does not substitute for – the wider protection measures, including formal refugee status, offered by the 1951 Convention. UNHCR advocates that, after a reasonable period of time has passed, people benefiting from temporary protection who are still unable to return home should be given the right to claim full refugee status.
Note
Picture: High Commissioner António Guterres talks with Somali refugees in Dadaab, Kenya (From: http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/485935d12.html)
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