Kick the Tigray Murderous Tyrant Zenawi out of Ogaden!

In two previous articles, we published the introductory parts (Executive Summary and Recommendations / Appeals) of the recently published Report of the Ogaden Human Rights Committee (August 8th, 2007 - OHRC/AR/07). The Report entitled "Ogaden: Ethiopian Government Forces: Massacre, Displace and Starve Out the Civilian Population with Impunity" contains descriptions of some of the most critical violations of Human Rights perpetrated in the 21st century. In this article, after focusing on the pioneering Ogadeni Human Rights organization OHRC, we will publish the First Part of the Report (entitled ‘Background’) which illuminates the overall appalling situation in Ogaden, which is the result of the almost century long Abyssinian, tribal (Amhara – Tigray) tyranny.

We utterly believe this Report should be the first reading for the American and the European administrations, statesmen and politicians, political and Human Rights activists, intellectuals and every concerned person. Nothing illuminates better than this Report the criminal deeds perpetrated by monarchical (Menelik to Haile Selassie), communist (Mengistu) and pseudo-republican (Meles Zenawi) Amhara and Tigray tribal Abyssinian rulers in Ogaden.

For any person sticking to Moral Standards and Humanism, this Report consists in the Tombstone put on the inhuman, bogus-Ethiopian, and bogus-federal, tyrannical regime.

"Ethiopia" cannot be maintained anymore.

The Ogaden Human Rights Committee

The Ogaden Human Rights Committee (OHRC) is an independent, voluntary, non-political non-profit making organisation, founded on June 13th 1995, in Godey, Ogadenia, to monitor and promote the observance of internationally accepted human rights standards in the Ogaden. It investigates all allegations of human rights abuses, and when it is satisfied that the claim is authentic, documents it.

The Ogaden Human Rights Committee prepares reports, press releases and appeals to publicise human rights violations in the Ogaden by the Ethiopian government. It campaigns for the improvement and respect of basic human rights by educating the people and putting the spotlight on the Ethiopian human rights record in the Ogaden.

The Ogaden Human Rights Committee is supported by contributions from its members. It accepts unconditional funds from private individuals and foundations.

The Organisation is based in Godey, Ogadenia, and has branches throughout the Ogaden.

The Ogaden Human Rights Committee has associate members in Switzerland, Germany, Norway, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, USA, Australia, Africa, and the Middle East.

To learn more, visit now: http://www.ogadenrights.org/
E-mail: ohrc@ogadenrights.org

Ogaden – Background of the "Ethiopian" inhuman tyranny

The Somali people in the Ogaden have never accepted the Ethiopian occupation of their country. Therefore, the national resistance against the foreign occupation has never ceased for more than a century. But its intensity varied from time to time, according to local, regional and international circumstances.

All Successive Ethiopian governments’ military campaigns to quell the insurgence in the Ogaden had caused enormous human suffering including the current government’s military campaign, which is going on vigorously as this writing.

In the past Ethiopian governments transferred thousands of Ethiopian settlers into the Ogaden in an attempt to change the demographic nature of the region, eliminate the Somali national identity and to transform the Ogaden into a region of Ethiopia, in which indigenous Somalis will be an insignificant minority.

When the transformation and assimilation policies failed the Ethiopian governments adopted a policy of intimidation and physical elimination, which resulted in enormous human suffering which has no parallel in the world.

Razing entire towns to the ground, extrajudicial killings, mass arrests, disappearances, rape of women, confiscating private property, dusk to dawn curfew and martial law were and are the order of the day.

Since the current Ethiopian government came to power in 1991, hundreds of Ogadenis, including women, children, elderly people, politicians and religious scholars, have been killed, disappeared, tortured or remain under incommunicado detention without charges or trial.

The Ethiopian administration in the Ogaden treats the Somali in the Ogaden as second class citizens in their own country, exploits the country for Ethiopian gains, and deprives the Ogaden people of their fundamental human rights, including their inalienable right to independence and self -determination.

Discrimination and segregation against Somalis, in terms of education, health care, employment and economic development is the corner stone of the current Ethiopian government ' s policy.

Government offices in the Ogaden have been purged of anyone whose views were judged hostile to the state, and replaced by Tigreans or those who support the government policies.

Such an overt policy of targeting one group for their political orientation, and preferring others for their pro-government views, has obviously caused widespread and deep resentment throughout the region. A particular target of this policy appears to be suspected supporters of the ONLF or other opposition parties.

Both the 1991 Charter and the new Constitution, which was adopted and ratified by the Constituent Assembly on 8 December 1994, guarantee a right to secession of a people if they are, "Convinced that their rights are denied, abridged or abrogated," and this applies to the Ogadeni case.

Article l of the International Covenant On Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states that the right to self -determination is universal and calls upon States to promote the realization of that right and to respect it. The article provides that:

"All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic cooperation, based upon the principle of mutual benefit, and international law. In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence.

The States parties to the present Covenant, including those having responsibility for the administration of non-self- governing and trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations."

Article 39(1) of the Ethiopian Constitution states that: "Every nation, nationality and people in Ethiopia has an unconditional right to self-determination, including the right to secession."

On May 10th 1994, the Regional Assembly has passed a unanimous resolution in accordance with the Transitional Charter, demanding a referendum on self-determination for the Ogaden people, under the auspices of international and regional bodies such as United Nations, Organization of African Unity, European Union, and other independent non-governmental organizations.

The Ethiopian government in Addis Ababa reacted swiftly and severely by overthrowing and virtually disbanding all democratically elected national institutions in the Ogaden, including the Regional Parliament.

On 30th May 1994, the president of the Regional Parliament, Vice-President and several members of the parliament (MPs), were arrested and transferred to prison in Addis Ababa. Mass arrests and indiscriminate killings also took place.

Since early 1992 when the Ogaden National Liberation Front called for referendum on self-determination and independence for the Ogaden, the region has been a virtually closed military zone, where bloody battles were being fought between Ethiopian armed forces and combatants of the ONLF.

In retaliation to Ogaden National Liberation Front's attack on a Chinese oil exploration field, in Cobolle, on 24th April 2007.The Ethiopian government forces launched a ruthless military campaign which resulted in displacing thousands of civilians, razing to the ground entire towns, villages, hamlets and nomadic settlements as well as killing many fleeing civilians and their animals.

The TPLF/EPRDF government in Ethiopia is copying tactics of the former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam’s Dergue government in the 1980s. At the time the communist Dergue government evicted thousands of civilians from their towns and villages in Tigray and resettled them in southern regions in order to deprive Meles Zenawi’s Tigray People’s Liberation Front of the local population’s support.

Article 54 -Protection of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population -of the protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 states that "Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited. It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motives."

In May 1996, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) called on African States not to cut off water supplies to civilians as a tactic in their wars.

However, Ethiopian armed forces indiscriminately mined areas where civilians frequent, particularly around water wells and caravan routes, which lead to neighboring countries, in order to stop trade movements and starve out the Ogaden people.

In addition to that the Ethiopian government armed forces have blocked up all internal and external commercial roads leading to Dhagaxbuur, Fiiq, Qabridaharre, Wardheer, Godey and Afdheer regions and some parts of Jigjiga region. Caravans and commercial convoys intended to supply basic necessities to the civilian population are stranded in border between Somalia and the Ogaden region.

Ethiopian armed forces looted at gunpoint and burned down civilian food storehouses and confiscated lorries carrying food supplies to the starving civilian population as well. The entire Ogaden Region is virtually under military siege.

There is no doubt that the humanitarian situation will continue to deteriorate dramatically in the Ogaden, and there will be a man –made- famine worse than the one of the year 2000 unless the international community steps in to stop the inhuman, genocidal policies of the Ethiopian government in the region.