2007年VOA标准英语-UN Assessing Needs of Civilians in Ethiopia's O

By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi
31 August 2007

A United Nations fact-finding mission is in Ethiopia's restive¹ Ogaden region to assess the food, water and health needs of civilians³ caught amid a military campaign against local separatist rebels. Human rights groups accuse the government of committing serious human rights violations⁴ against the civilians. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu recently spoke⁵ to several eyewitnesses⁶ from the Ogaden region whose accounts of abuse conflict with Ethiopian government assurances that civilians are not being targeted in its crackdown on the rebels.    

The eyewitnesses from the Ogaden region say they are ordinary people with no ties to the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), the ethnic⁷ Somali separatist group the government in Addis Ababa has been fighting since the mid-1980s.

The eyewitnesses are living in exile now, after barely escaping what they say is a brutal⁸ government crackdown.  They say Ethiopian troops are punishing entire villages and towns in an effort to wipe out the ONLF insurgency⁹ once and for all.

The Ogadenis agreed to speak on the condition that VOA does not reveal their full names.  They say they fear government agents from Addis Ababa may find them and kill them, or members of their family still in the Ogaden, for revealing what they have seen and experienced.

College student Ahmed, 27, recalls the day, nearly three months ago, when several dozen Ethiopian troops arrived near his village, 250 kilometers northwest of the town of Dhagahbur.

Ahmed acknowledges that ONLF fighters, believed to number several thousand, sometimes hide in villages, after conducting hit-and-run attacks on the Ethiopian military.

Ahmed says that day in June, he saw soldiers setting fire to everything until his village and other villages nearby were reduced to ashes.  He says the soldiers then gave everyone an ultimatum¹⁰: leave the area within five days.  Anyone who stayed would be killed.

Ahmed obeyed the order and fled into the bush, but he says many others refused to leave. 

Ahmed says the soldiers punished the defiant¹¹ villagers, killing¹² the men, beating and raping¹³ the women, and slaughtering¹⁴ their livestock¹⁵.  He says he later helped collect the bodies for burial.   

In another interview, Nur, 23, says he worries constantly about his mother and several other family members he has not seen since mid-June. 

He says that was when Ethiopian soldiers accused them of being ONLF supporters and took them away to a military barrack to be interrogated¹⁶.

Around the same time, Nur says he too, was arrested on similar charges and interrogated with about a half a dozen other men.

Nur says during the interrogation, they watched as Ethiopian soldiers killed four of the men by strangling them with sharp metal wires.  Nur says the soldiers used so much force the wires cut open their throats.  The soldiers warned Nur that the same fate awaited anyone who supported and aided the ONLF.

VOA has not been able to independently verify these accounts. But human rights groups say similar reports of murder, rape¹⁷, torture, and other serious violations against civilians in the Ogaden have risen sharply since Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi launched the military campaign nearly three months ago.

In April, suspected ONLF rebels attacked a Chinese-run oil field in the Ogaden and killed 74 people, including dozens of Ethiopian guards. 

That incident is widely believed to have triggered the crackdown against the ONLF, which has also included food and trade blockades in the remote southern region.   

Human rights groups say the blockades are causing hunger and widespread civilian² suffering. The Ethiopian government defends the blockades as a way to stop weapons from reaching the rebels. 

Addis Ababa calls the ONLF a terror group and says it is being armed and funded by Ethiopia's archrival in the Horn of Africa, Eritrea.

The director of the London-based Center for Development Research and Advocacy, Farah Abdulsamed Farah, says his group has investigated human rights abuse allegations in the Ogaden many times before.

But he says what is happening there now is far beyond mere¹⁸ allegations.  He accuses Prime Minister Meles' ethnically¹⁹ Tigrayan-dominated regime of attempting to wipe out the entire Somali population in the Ogaden.

"This campaign has been conducted in a wrong way to punish the people," he said.  "There is no assistance or logistics Ogaden [people] can provide to the ONLF.  The reason behind targeting the civilians is race, 'You are an Ogaden, the ONLF is Ogaden.  I have to kill you.'  It has the same scale of crisis, which we consider genocide."

The senior advisor²⁰ to Prime Minister Meles, Bereket Simon, says nothing can be farther from the truth.

"This is a far-fetched story circulated by the human rights organizations," he said.  "There is no genocide. There is no attack on civilians, any crime whatsoever²¹. We have singled out the terrorists and we are not attacking civilians. The civilians are on our side, so simply this is an outrageous²² accusation²³."

The weeklong U.N. fact-finding mission that began on Thursday is primarily focused on assessing the food, water and health needs of civilians in the Ogaden.

But the mission is also under enormous pressure to begin investigating war crimes and genocide allegations against the Ethiopian government and its military.

1 restive   

adj.不安宁的，不安静的

参考例句：

• The government has done nothing to ease restrictions and manufacturers are growing restive.政府未采取任何措施放松出口限制,因此国内制造商变得焦虑不安。
• The audience grew restive.观众变得不耐烦了。

2 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

3 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

4 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 eyewitnesses   

目击者( eyewitness的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The examination of all the eyewitnesses took a week. 对所有证人的质询用了一周的时间。
• Several eyewitnesses testified that they saw the officers hit Miller in the face. 几位目击证人证明他们看见那几个警官打了米勒的脸。

7 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

8 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

9 insurgency   

n.起义；暴动；叛变

参考例句：

• And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. 而在中国，动乱甚至暴乱都普遍存在。 来自互联网
• Dr Zyphur is part an insurgency against this idea. 塞弗博士是这一观点逆流的一部分。 来自互联网

10 ultimatum   

n.最后通牒

参考例句：

• This time the proposal was couched as an ultimatum.这一次该提议是以最后通牒的形式提出来的。
• The cabinet met today to discuss how to respond to the ultimatum.内阁今天开会商量如何应对这道最后通牒。

11 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。

12 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

13 raping   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的现在分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• In response, Charles VI sent a punitive expedition to Brittany, raping and killing the populace. 作为报复，查理六世派军讨伐布列塔尼，奸淫杀戮平民。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The conquerors marched on, burning, killing, raping and plundering as they went. 征服者所到之处烧杀奸掠，无所不做。 来自互联网

14 slaughtering   

v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The Revolutionary Tribunal went to work, and a steady slaughtering began. 革命法庭投入工作，持续不断的大屠杀开始了。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
• \"Isn't it terrific slaughtering pigs? “宰猪的！ 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

15 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

16 interrogated   

v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询

参考例句：

• He was interrogated by the police for over 12 hours. 他被警察审问了12个多小时。
• Two suspects are now being interrogated in connection with the killing. 与杀人案有关的两名嫌疑犯正在接受审讯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

18 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

19 ethnically   

adv.人种上，民族上

参考例句：

• Ethnically, the Yuan Empire comprised most of modern China's ethnic groups. 元朝的民族成分包括现今中国绝大多数民族。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
• Russia is ethnically relatively homogeneous. 俄罗斯是个民族成分相对单一的国家。 来自辞典例句

20 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

21 whatsoever   

adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么

参考例句：

• There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
• All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样，你就怎样对人。

22 outrageous   

adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的

参考例句：

• Her outrageous behaviour at the party offended everyone.她在聚会上的无礼行为触怒了每一个人。
• Charges for local telephone calls are particularly outrageous.本地电话资费贵得出奇。

23 accusation   

n.控告，指责，谴责

参考例句：

• I was furious at his making such an accusation.我对他的这种责备非常气愤。
• She knew that no one would believe her accusation.她知道没人会相信她的指控。