ADDIS ABABA, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Ethiopia on Tuesday denied allegations it had used helicopter gun ships to attack civilians in its southeastern Ogaden region, where the military is fighting separatist rebels.
The government also said it had started delivering emergency food aid to the ethnically Somali region following United Nations reports that 953,000 people needed assistance.
The desolate region, mainly inhabited by wandering herders, hit the spotlight in April when Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration field and killed 74 people.
The ONLF has accused the government of human rights abuses in its military crackdown on insurgents, alleging this week that government helicopters attacked a number of remote villages in recent days, killing civilians.
"The so-called air and helicopter attacks in the Somali region never happened," Information Ministry spokesman Zemedkun Tekele said.
Ethiopian officials say tales of massive rights violations by its soldiers are a smokescreen to hide atrocities by the rebels against local people.
Sissaye Tadesse, spokesman for a government relief agency, said Ethiopia had sent some 260 trucks to move 7,358 tonnes of emergency assistance.
He added that 30 trucks of food a day would travel to Ogaden over the next two months until the estimated 17,407 tonnes of food aid needed was delivered.
The announcement came ahead of a two-day visit by U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs John Holmes to the region bordering Somalia later this month.
A UN statement on Tuesday said Holmes would meet local authorities and clan elders in the Ogaden, but made no mention of any contact with the ONLF.
Holmes is also due to meet Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, African Union officials and representatives of the U.N. Mission to Eritrea and Ethiopia.
The neighbours are involved in a border row that many diplomats worry may spark another war. (Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Editing by Barry Malone)
SOURCE: Reuters, November 20, 2007