Nairobi - The United States is responsible for dozens of
unlawful detentions in Ethiopia since January, when scores of
suspected Islamist fighters fleeing war-torn Somalia were arrested on
the Kenyan border, a human rights group said Friday.
In a detailed report, Kenya's Muslim Human Rights Forum (MHRF)
lays out the fate of 152 men, women and children it said were stopped
by Kenyan authorities, 117 of whom were rendered either to Somalia or
Ethiopia.
Some have been released, but many are still being held without
charges or their whereabouts remain completely unknown.
'We can say without a doubt we are sure (this was US-led),' said
Al-Amin Kimathi, chairman of the group. 'Security personnel in Kenya
and Ethiopia have attested they were always working under US
authority.'
The report echoes other studies by international agencies like
Human Rights Watch earlier this year which said the US was
cooperating in the detentions and renditions of dozens of people from
21 countries including Canada, the US, Britain and Sweden.
Ethiopia, seen as Washington's strongest regional ally in its 'war
on terror,' stormed neighbouring Somalia in a US-blessed assault in
late December, ousting a popular Islamist group believed to have ties
to al-Qaeda.
In the ensuing chaos and bombardments, hundreds fled toward the
Kenyan border and dozens were arrested, sent to the capital Nairobi,
then in blindfolds to the Somali capital Mogadishu and then on to
detention facilities in Ethiopia, where many do not have access to
lawyers, the group said.
'No legal process has been observed in taking these people out of
Kenya,' Kimathi said.
The group said at least one person, Abdulmalik Mohamed, a Kenyan,
was deported to the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Ethiopia has admitted to holding 41 people, of whom between 24 and
37 have been released, according to MHRF, but the group said it
believes more people are being detained in the vast Horn of Africa
country.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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