Chaos in Ogaden – Tyrant Zenawi resorts to Genocide, triggering Islamic Radicalism

By: Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
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[ Posted On: 2007-07-01 ]

The Ogadenis never accepted Ogaden's illegal annexation to Abyssinia that contradicts all principles of International Law, Human Rights, Democratic and Humanist Principles. By now, most of Ogaden's territory that is the Abyssinian passageway to Somalia has gone out of the control of Meles Zenawi, the bloodthirsty African Hitler.

That is why the alien Amhara and Tigray soldiers of the criminal Abyssinian dictator apply in the part of Ogaden that they still control the most inhuman methods of tyranny in order to prolong their illegal presence on Ogadeni territory, involving detention, abduction, looting, torture, summary executions, and extrajudicial killings in thousands.

Three days ago, the Ogaden Communities in Europe addressed an Open Letter to the tyrannical Tigray chieftain Meles Zenawi who impersonates the most repugnant and appalling prime minister on earth. They openly accused him of crimes worse than those perpetrated by Saddam Hussein and the Afghani Taliban. The extent of the dehumanizing attempt seems to be beyond what the most daring imagination could grasp.

The Ogaden Communities in Europe advise Abyssinian dictator Meles Zenawi to immediately enter into negotiations with the ONLF, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the only legitimate representative of the Ogadeni people. The Open Letter was sent to a number of key international recipients, and its annex makes available classified lists of victims of human rights abuses in Ogaden.

The international community should take action immediately, before the tortured Ogadeni masses come to realize that their unique supporter are the Islamic extremists. We reproduce here the entire Open Letter and the list of the addressees at its end.

His Excellency Meles Zenawi
Office of the Prime Minister
PO Box 1031
Addis-Ababa
Ethiopia
Neuchâtel le, 28.06.2007

Subject: Concerns about Human Rights Violations in Ogaden

Mr. Prime Minister,

We the Ogaden Communities in abroad would like to express our deep concern and apprehension about the gross human rights violations that are taking place in our homeland under your military occupation.

Injustices and human rights abuses inflicted upon our people date back to the Ethiopian occupation of the first part of the Ogaden more than a century ago.

The Somali people in the Ogaden didn't choose to be part of your country, but your government annexed their land without their consent in collusion with European colonial powers. The last portion of the Ogaden was handed over to your government 1954 by the British Government. Since then the Ogaden people are fighting for their right to self-determination.

All Ethiopian governments including current government which you lead treat us as a negligible minority, who have no rights whatsoever in our homeland.

On May 10th 1994, the Regional Assembly in the Ogaden passed a unanimous resolution in accordance with the Transitional Charter and the Ethiopian Constitution, 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. But your government reacted swiftly and severely by overthrowing and virtually disbanding all democratically elected national institutions in the region, including the Regional Parliament. Since then you made the Ogaden a closed military zone, where bloody battles are being fought between your Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) forces and combatants of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).

International and local human rights organizations report a gross human rights violations in the Ogaden, including illegal imprisonment without charge or trial, enforced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial executions, abduction, forced labour, hostage-taking, abusive dismissals, ethnic discrimination and religious persecution carried out by your forces under a policy put in place by your government.

These human rights organizations documented so far: 2036 extrajudicial killings; 2940 disappearance cases; 1870 rape and child molestation cases; 15332 cases of unlawful private property confiscation; and demolition of 9484 houses owned by innocent civilians. According to the Ogaden Human Rights committee, which monitors the human rights violations in the region, these violations took place between 1992 and 2005, in rural areas as well as urban areas, no one has been charged for this horrendous crimes.

Since 2005, the human rights situation was deteriorating dramatically in the Ogaden.

On 09th June 2007, you have declared in a news conference, that you have launched a political and military operation to contain the activities of the ONLF. As you have done in the past, you have massed thousands of heavily armed forces in the region, in addition to the thousands who were already stationed there.

Mr. Prime Minister,

Reports coming from the Ogaden confirm that between the19th and the 20th of June 2007, your armed forces have massacred more than 70 defenceless civilians in Dhagaxbuur, Yoocaale, Gumarey, Qabridaharre and Dhuxun. The victims were children, women and elderly people. Many villages were razed to the ground such as, Cayuun, Dar Salaam and Wabiyar. No prior warning was given to the villagers, and their properties and food supplies were reduced into ashes. Your government imposed a dusk to dawn curfew on main towns and evicted the residents of Qamuuda, Leheloow and Jaleelo from their houses. The displaced civilians have nowhere to go. Impounding livestock, destroying food supplies and subjecting towns to military siege in order to starve out the civilian population is the order of the day.

Mass arrests are taking place everywhere in the Ogaden. Military barracks, jails and police stations are overcrowded. Many detainees were transferred to unknown locations and their families and relatives are concerned about their safety and well-being.

Widespread looting, rape, torture and ill-treatment of detainees are also taking place. It's clear that your government has decided to annihilate the Somali people in the Ogaden.

But the international community would no longer tolerate the genocide to go on in the Ogaden.

Mr. Prime Minister,

We would like to remind you that your government has signed several international conventions, and you have the obligation to fulfil it. The Somali people in the Ogaden want nothing else but their right to decide their own future like other nations in the world, we therefore recommend and request you the following:

• Stop immediately the senseless carnage in the Ogaden.

• Release all detainees in your detention camps or give them a fair and public hearing in an independent and impartial tribunal.

• An independent commission to investigate the atrocities committed in the Ogaden by your security and armed forces.

• Negotiate in good faith with the ONLF to put an end the conflict in the Ogaden.

We are hopeful that our request will get your full attention and consideration.

Thank you very much in advance.

Yours sincerely.
Ogaden Communities in Europe

Annex: Classified lists of victims of human rights abuses in Ogaden.

Copies sent to:

The president of the European Commission
M. José Manuel Barraso
1049 Brussels
Belgium
UK Foreign Minister

The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP Secretary of State
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street,
London, SW1A 2AH, United Kingdom

Madame Louise Arbour
Haut Commissaire aux droits de l'homme
Haut Commissariat aux droits de l'homme
Office des Nations Unies à Genève
1211 Genève 10
SUISSE

African Union chairman
H.E. Mr. Alpha Oumar Konare
African Union Headquarters
P.O. Box 3243
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

Commission on Human and People's rights
Banjul, The Gambia
Tel: 00220 392 962
Fax: 00220 390 764
E-mail: achpr@achpr.org

South African president
H.E. Mr, Thabo Mvuvelwa Mbeki
Private Bag x 1000, Pretoria, 0001
Union Buildings, Government Avanue, Pretoria
South Africa

Le procureur général du
Tribunal Pénal International
Mme, Carla del Ponte
Maanweg 174, 2516 AB
La Haye
Pays-Bas

Mme, Micheline Calmy-Rey
La Présidente de la Confédération
Palais fédéral
CH-3003 Berne
Suisse

And the international media

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis - is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 49, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages.

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