by Dr. Said Issa Mohamud *
Between May 24, 2015 a nd June 5, 2015, The Ethiopian paramilitary militia known as the Liyu Police crossed the border between the Galgaduud Region of Somalia and the Somali Eastern region in Ethiopia. During that period, hundreds of the Liyu Police guerrillas raided 18 villages at the border and demanded unconditional levy, bribery money and vehicles. The villagers refused to comply with the unlawful demands and resisted the forceful means of the invaders. The Liyu Police militia then launched retaliatory operations in those villages, where they indiscriminately massacred hundreds of innocent civilians. During those operations the Liyu Police militia committed genocide against civilians including children, women, disabled elders, and seniors. Hundreds of inhabitants of those villages were killed, their properties were looted, and their homes were burned down. Those who survived the reprisal operations have been uprooted and now have to seek refuge inside the Galgaduud region of Somalia. There is undeniable evidence of mass killings in those operations in which about 50 people who were in the custody of the Liyu Police militia were ferociously slaughtered and beheaded. Besides that, many people in those villages were abducted and supposedly imprisoned in the notorious prison known as Jail Ogaden in Jigjiga, the capital region of Eastern Somali territory in Ethiopia. This brutal prison is a corpse jail that the Liyu Police militia control. There, they commit physical tortures, and mental cruelties before they execute inmates. The refusal of the inhabitants of those villages to pay unlawful levies doesn’t justify the brutal retaliation of the Liyu Police militia. Please note the link below, from Aljazeera news, regarding the massacre committed by the Liyu Police militia in one village during their reprisal operations in remote villages of the Galgaduud region of Somalia: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qho4_oMZgm0
The Ethiopian regime uses the Liyu Police militia as repressive guerrillas against oppositional Somali ethnic insurgents, who are seeking independence from Ethiopian annexation. The word Liyu means “special” in Amharic language and they are an authorized, Ethiopian-backed paramilitary militia who are accredited to do the dirty jobs of murders, executions, massacres, and all kinds of human rights violations in the region. In addition, they are also authorized to imprison people without charges or trial, and keep inmates in jails for long unlawful detention. The Ethiopian government-backed paramilitary militia receives training, uniforms, arms, and salaries from the Ethiopian regime and the Ethiopian regime provides directions via the manipulation of what it calls autonomous Somali regional authority. The Liyu Police militia is recruited and led by the brutal, notorious regional chief, Abdi Mohamed Omar, best known as Abdi Iley. Abdi Iley is a notorious war criminal known for his records of heinously committing crimes against humanity, such as indiscriminate extrajudicial massacres.
On behalf of the Somali People’s Party, we strongly condemn those atrocities committed by the Liyu Police militia and we are convinced that the Ethiopian regime is fully accountable for those crimes against humanity. We call the international community led by the UN and human rights organizations to send a fact-finding mission to the remote villages of the Galgaduud region of Somalia. We are asking the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial and Summary Executions, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Genocide Watch, and war Crimes Commission to investigate those heinous human rights violations committed against the civilian population in the remote rural villages of the Galgaduud region of Somalia. In particular, we request the War Crimes Commission to launch an extraordinary, scrupulous investigation against the brutal, notorious Abdi Mohamed Omar and his militia commander, Abdirahman Laba Go’le, for their committed genocide against the innocent civilian population in the Galgaduud region of Somalia. There is no mistake that the Ethiopian regime is behaving unfriendly towards the independent human right organizations and investigative media that challenge Ethiopia through analytical reports, and it does all possible to impose access restrictions to reporters and monitors who are doing further detailed investigation of those events.
The Somali People’s Party denounce the Somali government’s and the international community’s silence about the massacres committed by the Liyu Police militia against the innocent civilian population in the remote villages of the Galgaduud region at the border of Ethiopia. The party strongly believes that the Ethiopian regime approves all kinds of conspiracy against Somali populations in Ethiopia, through manipulations of notorious, brutal chiefs of the so-called Somali regional authority in Ethiopia. We are appealing to the civic world to react strongly against those unconventional malpractices deployed by the Ethiopian paramilitary militia before it is too late and they begin similar operations of massacring Somali nomadic inhabitants in different regions alongside the border line of Ethiopia and Somalia. The Somali People’s Party is demanding from the African Union and the United Nations Security Council to ask the Ethiopian regime to stop hostile policies against non-allied Somali clans living along the border regions of Somalia, to inquire about the relevance of its active participation in the Somali’s political processes, and finally to instigate the complete withdrawal of all Ethiopian military force present on the Somali soil.
Dr. Said Issa Mohamud
*President of the Somali People’s Party
Candidate of the Somali Presidential Election in 2012
Email: Saciidciise258@aol.comEthiopian Paramilitary Militia Genocide
