May 18, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — An Ethiopian opposition website reported that Ethiopian army burnt down the entire town of Laasdoole in Ogaden, in Eastern Ethiopia. It said that all the meagre resources owned by the local citizenry were burnt down as well.

The report said there were also human casualties, including the former chairman of the town council, Duulane Guuleed Carab. Some of the names of the dead civilians who have been extrajudicially killed include Adan Mohamed Canshuur and Jaacuur Fataax.

According to a reporter of the opposition Ogaden Online in the city of Wardheer, the displaced civilians from Laasdoole are now squatting outside the town with no access to shelter, food and drinking water.

The rebel Ogaden National Liberation Army (ONLA), is said to have responded to the extrajudicial killings and mass civilian displacement carried out by the Ethiopian military. Eyewitnesses confirm that heavily armed contingent of ONLA attacked the Ethiopians who carried out the mass murder.

At the end of April, the Ogaden rebels captured seven Chinese oil workers during an attack on an oil venture. The attack took place early Tuesday April 24, in Abole, a small town 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Addis Ababa in Somali Regional State and close to the Somali border.

(Ogaden Online /ST)