Ogaden Somalis file Ethiopia ICC complaint

Nairobi (Keydmedia) - The Ogaden Somali Community in South Africa has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC), urging an investigation into the actions of the Ethiopian government against the Ogaden people.

Editorial Keydmedia Online
15 February 2012

In a statement released on Tuesday on behalf of the community, a South African media advocacy group, Media Review Network, called on ICC authorities to probe complaints of alleged crimes in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia.

The crimes include extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, rape, torture, disappearances, the destruction of livelihood, the burning of villages and the destroying of life stock, the statement said.

"South Africa is the best place in Africa to file this complaint, especially in terms of law and and human respect; we believe that South Africans still remember what they underwent during Apartheid, just as how we are under minority rule in our region," Mohamed Fadel Abdullahi, a Somali Ogaden activist based in Johannesburg, told Al Jazeera.

The complaint, comprising 700 pages of evidence, was also lodged with the director of public prosecutions.