LAND FULL of VIOLENCE:War crimes 'rampant' in Somalia

All sides have committed war crimes in Somalia's conflict this year, according to lobby group Human Rights Watch.It says the worst abuses have been by Ethiopian soldiers, who are supporting the government against insurgents.Ethiopians have often indiscriminately attacked civilian areas and looted hospitals, its report says.While insurgents have fired mortars into residential areas and executed civilians, since Islamists were driven from power in Mogadishu last December.Both Ethiopia and the Somali government have denied the claims,reports Reuters news agency. In the latest violence, at least five people have been killed in two separate incidents in the Somali capital.More than 1,000 people were killed this year in the heaviest fighting since 1991, as Ethiopian and government troops tried to drive the insurgents out of Mogadishu. "The insurgency placed civilians at grave risk by deploying among them," said Human Rights Watch executive director Ken Roth."But that is no justification for Ethiopia's calculated shelling and rocketing of whole neighborhoods." "Commanders who knowingly or recklessly order indiscriminate attacks are responsible for war crimes," the report said.But these charges were denied by Ethiopia."As usual, Human Rights Watch is engaged in its now well-known fabrication, and in misinforming the world in unsubstantiated fairy-tales," Bereket Simon, special adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, told Reuters.Somali government troops played a "secondary" role, backing up the Ethiopians but failed to help civilians, said the report - Shell-Shocked: Civilians Under Siege in Mogadishu.Somali government spokesman Abdi Haji Gobdon told Reuters the government's only goal was "to restore sanity" not "massacre its own people".
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