07/04/07 (B390) ALL AFRICA Human Rights Watch (HRW) Appel à toutes les forces en présence en Somalie pour qu’elles cessent des attaques tous azimuths, afin d’épargner la vie des populations civiles (Info lectrice)

PRESS RELEASE

The Ethiopian military, Somali government, and insurgent groups operating
in Mogadishu must cease all indiscriminate attacks, Human Rights Watch said
today. Human Rights Watch called on the parties to the conflict to take all
necessary steps to protect the civilian population from further fighting,
including ensuring access to humanitarian assistance.

Fighting between Ethiopian armed forces and insurgent groups in Mogadishu
escalated between March 29 and April 2 and resulted in deaths and injuries
to hundreds of civilians, including from indiscriminate shelling and mortar
attacks on heavily populated areas. According to United Nations estimates,
100,000 people have fled the Somali capital since February, including tens
of thousands in the past week. A ceasefire is currently in effect but further
fighting is anticipated.

« Civilians in Mogadishu are paying an intolerable price for the failure
of all sides to abide by the rules of warfare, » said Georgette Gagnon,
deputy Africa director of Human Rights Watch. « The warring parties are
legally obliged to protect civilians and to stop indiscriminate attacks. »

The escalation in fighting in Mogadishu followed weeks of increasing attacks
by insurgents and counter-attacks by Ethiopian armed forces supporting the
Somali Transitional Federal Government. Residents living in targeted areas
of Mogadishu, primarily in the southwestern and central quarters of the town,
have described near constant artillery and rocket fire from Ethiopian forces
between March 29 and April 2, as the three-day ceasefire came into effect.

The insurgents are believed to include remnants of the Union of Islamic Courts
militia as well as other clan militia, and are reportedly armed with heavy
weaponry, including anti-aircraft guns, mortars and some artillery. In response
to the insurgent attacks, Ethiopian forces used helicopter gunships and sent
barrages of artillery and Katyusha rockets into neighborhoods thought to be
insurgent strongholds.

The densely populated areas around Mogadishu stadium, Tawfiq, Hamar-Bile,
Hararyaale, Ali Kamiin, Suuq Ba’aad, and other Mogadishu neighborhoods have
been specifically targeted. After several days of shelling, Somali government
officials publicly ordered residents to vacate entire neighborhoods alongside
the 21st October Road of Mogadishu in order to flush out the armed attackers.
One government official told the media: « We call on the civilians living
in terrorist-held areas in Mogadishu to abandon their houses because it is
possible that government troops may target these areas any time. »

The laws of war require parties to a conflict, to the extent feasible, to
remove civilians under their control from the vicinity of military targets
and to give effective advance warnings of attacks. However, doing so does
not relieve an attacking force of the obligation against conducting attacks
that cannot discriminate between combatants and civilians or would be expected
to cause disproportionate civilian harm.

« Ordering people out of their homes doesn’t allow an army to ignore the
fate of those who remain, » said Gagnon. « The Somali government should
ensure that Somali and Ethiopian forces in Mogadishu respect the laws of war,
especially to protect civilians. »

Most of the people displaced from Mogadishu have fled to neighboring towns
such as Afgoe and Balad. There are also reports that hundreds of displaced
people have traveled as far as Dhobley, near the Kenyan border. The Kenyan
government closed the border with Somalia in January, after Ethiopian forces
attacked and ousted the Union of Islamic Courts from most of southern Somalia
in a rapid military campaign.

The Somali government has apparently closed many of the airstrips around Mogadishu
– including for humanitarian agencies – and there are concerns that thousands
of residents and displaced people outside the town are without vital humanitarian
aid, including water, food, and shelter. Where civilians are displaced for
security or imperative military reasons, the laws of war require that all
possible measures be taken so that they receive satisfactory conditions of
shelter, hygiene, health, safety and nutrition.

On April 4, a joint committee of Hawiye clan elders and the Ethiopian military
toured the frontline areas following a temporary ceasefire agreement in order
to retrieve and bury the dead. Eyewitnesses described bodies littered alongside
the main street linking Mogadishu’s football stadium and Florence junction
in Wardhigley district.