Ogaden Human Rights Committee Proposals for Peace in Ogaden

Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

September 21, 2007

In an earlier article entitled ‘Neo-Nazi Methods in Use by Tigray Tyrant Zenawi of ‘Ethiopia’ in Ogaden’, we published the first part of a Press Release issued by the Ogaden Human Rights Committee yesterday (19 September 2007) with regard to the recent visit in Ogaden (ended on September 6) of U.N. aid officials and Human Rights investigators whose mission was hindered by the tyrannical government of the Abyssinian dictator Meles Zenawi in various ways

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=38116

We believe the Abyssinian rulers’ inimical attitude towards the UN bears witness to the tragic dimensions the daily life of Abyssinia’s oppressed Somalis has taken at Ogaden. This sort of attitude reveals guilt and fear. It unveils the ‘hidden’ reality that it is crystal clear for the gangsters around Meles Zenawi that they – with their own hands - perpetrate impermissible crimes against the Mankind by unashamedly tyrannizing the Ogadenis, by illegally exploiting the natural resources of a country that does not belong to them, and by inhumanly perpetuating the occupation of this sizeable part of Somalia.

Due to this indirect and subliminal admittance of guilt, the UN and the international community must step in, and prevent the deterioration of this most preoccupying situation. Ogaden never accepted it annexation to the colonial tyranny of Amhara-ruled Abyssinia. The various successive Abyssinian (Amhara and Tigray) tyrannical rulers and elites never displayed any real interest for Ogaden, deliberately prevented any local improvement and progress, and unethically exploited the rich natural resources of a country of which they have never been the legitimate representatives and owners.

With the vicinity of the underground Islamists of Somalia, still controlled to large scale by the ominous Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, it is essential for the international community to prevent any connection and interaction between Aweys’ Islamists and the heroic fighters of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, who have engaged a battle of National Independence that has all the characteristics of National Revolution and not a single trait of religious fanaticism and extremism.

With the traditional tolerant African Islam prevailing among Ogadenis – in contrast with the Arabic speaking fanaticized and intolerant peoples of the Middle Eastern, supposedly US-friendly countries –, one has to help fast achieve the independence of Ogaden, and its greater involvement in the Somali politics, in order to offer once for all a chance to the Somali moderates to unify their country to the common benefit of the people of Somalia and the international community.

That is why today the proposals enunciated by the Ogaden Human Rights Committee in yesterday’s Press Release become extremely meaningful and significant. We therefore publish them integrally herewith.

Press Release - Ref: OHRC/PRO6/0907

Ethiopia: Attempts to render meaningless the UN Mission’s work in the Ogaden

In order to improve the human rights situation and to resolve the protracted conflict in the region, the Ogaden Human Rights Committee recommends and requests the following:

To: the International Community, Donor Countries, United Nations, Ethiopian Government and Ogaden National Liberation Front:

The international community intervene to stop human sufferings and senseless carnage in the Ogaden. The sooner the better.

United Nations Security Council designate a safe heaven for the civilian population fleeing from Ethiopian armed forces’ onslaught and atrocities.

The United Nations appoint a Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Ogaden.

The Ethiopian government should be held responsible for infamous mass killings; disappearances, rape, arbitrary arrests, torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and perpetrators of those atrocities should be brought before an international tribunal.

The international community refrain from aiding and supporting the Ethiopian government as long as it violates human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Somali people in the Ogaden.

The Ethiopian government and the Ogaden National Liberation Front, declare immediate, comprehensive and unconditional cease-fire in the Ogaden.

The international community exert more pressure on all the parties to the conflict in the Ogaden in order to reach a peacefully negotiated and just settlement.

Since there is no confidence between the warring sides the Ogaden Human Rights Committee urges the United States and European Union to act as mediators and facilitators in order to put an end to the human suffering in the Ogaden.

The international donor community helps the Ogaden people generously and directly through international NGOs in order to assure the reach of the food aid to the victims of the famine; otherwise the relief will end up in military barracks as usual.

The Ogaden Human Rights Committee urges the Ethiopian government, the Ogaden National Liberation Front to allow all humanitarian and relief organisations to operate freely in the Ogaden as well as international and local human rights organisations and the international press.

The Ogaden Human Rights Committee deplores the Ethiopian government’s decision to expel ICRC and MSF from the Ogaden and demands its reversal as well as allowing more humanitarian and relief organisations to operate in the Ogaden without restrictions, regardless of nationality or religion.

Ogaden Human Rights Committee

www.ogadenrights.org

E-mail: [email protected]

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