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Ogaden Communities
in Europe
C.P 2064
2000 Neuchâtel
Switzerland
Email: communauteogaden@net2000.ch
The Rt Hon Gordon Brown
British Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
SW1A 2AA
London, United Kingdom
Oct 12, 2007 |
Your Excellency,
We the Ogaden Communities in Europe like to
express our deep concern and apprehension
about the gross human rights violations
which are taking place in our homeland,
which is under Ethiopian military
occupation.
Injustices and human rights abuses inflicted
upon the Somali people in the Ogaden date
back to the Ethiopian occupation of the last
part of the Ogaden in 1955.
Successive Ethiopian governments including
the current EPRDF/TPLF government of Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi violates the basic
human rights of the Somali people in the
Ogaden repeatedly and persistently. The
Somalis are considered and treated as aliens
in their own country.
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 and
independence 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 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.
Since then the Ogaden has been a virtually
closed military zone, where bloody battles
were being fought between Ethiopian People's
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)
forces and combatants of The Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLF).
In the Ogaden, summary executions, torture
of detainees to death, gang raping of women,
child molestation, arbitrary detentions
without charge or trial, looting and illegal
confiscation of properties are commonplace,
and are daily practiced by Ethiopian armed
and security forces with impunity. In order
to eliminate the credible eye witness, the
Ethiopian regime expelled from Ogaden, the
Medecins Sans Frontiers and the
International Committee of the Red Cross,
the rare NGOs who have been working in Ogaden.
As a part of the Ethiopian government’s
policy of starving out the civilian
population in the Ogaden, its army has
imposed an economic blockade on many towns
and villages in the region. This blockade
has caused an enormous human suffering. The
most affected areas by the military siege
are: the regions of Dhagaxbuur, Fiiq,
Qabridaharre, Wardheer, Godey, Afdheer and
some parts of Jigjiga, where many villages
were depopulated and razed to the ground by
the government troops. More then six hundred
thousand people are displaced in Ogaden with
out getting any aid.
The United Nations fact finding mission who
visited the Ogaden between 30 August and 5
September this year, received reports of
serious violations of human rights abuses,
and recommended an independent United
Nations fact finding mission to be sent to
Ogaden.
Your Excellency, we request you kindly that
the British government to:
-
refrain from aiding and supporting the
Ethiopian regime as long as it violates
human rights and fundamental freedoms of
the Somali people in the Ogaden.
- Put a
pressure on the Ethiopian regime to
allow all humanitarian and relief
organisations to operate immediately and
freely in the Ogaden as well as
international and local human rights
organisations and the international
press.
- assist
the displaced in the Ogaden 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.
- Help
Ogaden Somali people to get their
rights, including the right of the self
determination accordingly to the
Ethiopian constitution.
We are hopeful that our request will get
your full attention and consideration
Thank you very much in advance
Yours sincerely,
Ogaden Community in Europe
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