By Daniel Wallis
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Friday a report by ahuman rights group accusing its military of war crimes during acampaign against rebels was fabricated and slanderous.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Western donors on Thursdayof failing to condemn systematic atrocities committed byEthiopian forces in the country's eastern Ogaden region.
The government said the U.S.-based group's "groundless"report was based on information provided by sympathisers of theseparatist Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).
"Ethiopia will not tolerate fabricated reports andslandering campaigns aimed at satisfying somebody'sgeo-political agenda," the Information Ministry said in astatement reported by the state news agency ENA.
"It is clear that such a campaign of defamation is the workof anti-peace forces that hate to see Ethiopia on the righttrack of development and democracy and the success of thepeoples of Ethiopia in all sectors."
Ethiopia, an important regional ally of Washington, accusesthe rebels of abusing residents. It launched its latestoffensive after ONLF fighters attacked a Chinese-run oil fieldin the region in April 2007, killing more than 70 people.
HRW accused Western donors, including the United States,Britain and the European Union, of maintaining a conspiracy ofsilence over the behaviour of the Ethiopian military.
The U.S.-based group issued two reports it said documentedattacks on civilians in Ogaden, one based on witness accountsand another using satellite imagery to show villages that hadbeen burned.
It said the government was limiting access to the region,that the violence was continuing and staff believed theirfindings represented only a fraction of the actual abuses.
(Editing by Wangui Kanina and Andrew Dobbie)
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