Warning to Petronas: Stay out of Ogaden, and deal with the ONLF, not illegal tyrant Zenawi!

Continuing the publication of parts of the Report issued by the Ogaden Human Rights Committee, we reproduce the entire chapter on ecological damages caused in Ogaden by the alien Tigray thugs of Africa’s cruelest dictator.

Environmentalists and NGOs committed to ecological protection in Africa, particularly those concerned with the Great Lakes ecosystem – which is not too far from Ogaden – should read the following lines carefully and exercise their influence as best they can, demanding the immediate removal of the Abyssinian soldiers from Ogaden’s territory, and their replacement by UN forces that will facilitate an environmental protection and restoration force to first carry out a survey, and second issue a plan of environmental rehabilitation.

On the other hand, this part of the report offers a most convincing proof of the nature of the Abyssinian occupation of Ogaden; never did the Abyssinian monarchical (Haile Selassie), communist (Mengistu) and bogus-federal / republican (Meles Zenawi) rulers feel Ogaden as their own land; to them, it remained always a foreign territory where they imposed their rules, from where they tried to extract all possible natural resources, and to where they exported their racism, thuggish Amhara / Tigray administrators, and useless language.

If the tyrannical Semitic rulers of Abyssinia – falsely re-baptized ‘Ethiopia’ – had truly felt Ogaden as their land, they would have never introduced such methods that not only massively exterminate populations but also indiscriminately provoke desertification, deforestation, and overall environmental disintegration.

At this point, it should be necessary to advise the Malaysian company Petronas to stay out of Ogaden, before it becomes the target of legitimate Ogadenis’ reprisals to their eventual contribution to illegal exploitation of Ogaden’s natural resources.

Ecological Damage

Article 55 -Protection of the natural environment -of the Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 states that: "Care shall be taken in warfare to protect the natural environment against widespread, long-term and severe damage. This protection includes a prohibition of the use of methods or means of warfare, which are intended or may be expected to cause such damage to the natural environment and thereby to prejudice the health or survival of the population. Attacks against the natural environment by way of reprisals are prohibited."

In the Ogaden, the poor and the fragile ecological balance has been devastated by widespread exploitation and depletion of forests for military purposes, fire-wood and charcoal by the Ethiopian government forces and Tigrean dealers, who have been given concessions and game-licenses by the Ethiopian government. This exploitation exacerbated an already precarious ecological situation that was under severe pressure from overpopulation and overgrazing. Due to this misuse and the absence of any sound range management policies on the part of the government, the rich flora and fauna of the region, including big game, game birds, forests and water resources have all suffered irreparable damage under the current Ethiopian government.

Without the knowledge and consent of the local population, the Ethiopian government signed agreements and gave concessions to foreign oil companies to explore oil, natural gas and other minerals in the Ogaden.

As a result of the illegal and shady deals between the Ethiopian government and overseas companies such as; Chinese Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, Malaysian state-owned Petronas, Indian owned Gail India Limited and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited and Swedish Lundin Petroleum, the Ethiopian government forces evicted a large number of nomads from their ancestral grazing lands. Around the exploration sites the poor vegetation, which is essential for the nomads and their livestock was burned or removed.

While drought, war and the Ethiopian government’s poor human rights record are primary causes of human sufferings in the Ogaden, the foreign oil companies’ presence has exacerbated an already unstable situation socially, economically and politically.

Until the protracted struggle for self-determination in this region is resolved and lasting peace is negotiated, the Ogaden Human Rights Committee calls for the immediate cessation of all oil and other mineral exploration activities in the Ogaden, and urges the governments of Sweden, Malaysia, India and china to stop collaborating with the current Ethiopian government, which violates the basic human rights of its very people, including the duly elected Members of the parliament. (See Ogaden: Overseas Oil Companies Exacerbate an Already Precarious Human Rights Situation ref: OHRC/PRO/0407).

Today, the situation in the Ogaden is very tense and alarming. The ongoing struggle for self-determination and independence in the Ogaden continues to cause more human suffering and threatens peace and stability in the volatile region of the Horn of Africa.

The Ogaden conflict is not different from other conflicts in the world, which the international community is involved and committed to resolving as a mediator or facilitator. The last conflict in Africa, which was resolved through negotiation with the help of the international community, was the war in the Southern Sudan. The conflict in the Ogaden deserves the attention and the positive intervention of the international community.