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State
Sanctioned Cross Border Abductions Continue Unabated |
In 1994, the minority Tigrian People's
Liberation Front (TPLF) dishonored its days
old, carefully crafted constitution whose
article 39 allowed each community, within
the Ethiopian community of nations, to hold
a referendum. Instead of allowing the ethnic
Somalis in Ogaden to exercise their
democratic rights as stipulated in the newly
adopted Ethiopian constitution, the ruling
Tigrian clique in Addis Ababa engaged in a
two-pronged, despicable revenge strategy
against the people of Ogaden.
The revenge strategy called for the
overwhelming use of deadly force against the
Ogaden civilians anytime the Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLF) attacked a
legitimate Ethiopian military target. It,
the Tigrian strategy, also called for the
enticement of the Somalis in the Ogaden
bordering regions to abduct on behalf of the
Tigrian clique and transfer to TPLF Ogaden
Somalis living peacefully or who happen to
be visiting these regions.
Knowing full well that such abductions
violated all the moral codes of the long
established Somali tradition of not harming
one's guest; TPLF hoped its cross border
abductions would at the very least create a
permanent animosity between Ogaden Somalis
and the people living in the Somali fiefdoms
surrounding the Ogaden border. At the very
best, TPLF wanted ONLF to retaliate
militarily against the Somali fiefdoms hence
reducing ONLF military pressure on the TPLF
led militias in Ogaden.
ONLF responded deftly to the machinations of
the TPLF clique by not militarily
retaliating against those in the
northwestern Somali fiefdom who abducted
throughout the 1990s, and transferred
repeatedly Ogaden civilians to the TPLF's
security and intelligence service. Instead
ONLF closed all the trade routes along the
northwestern border to show this authority
how helpless the TPLF regime was in
reopening this profitable trade route to the
Somali fiefdom.
Having failed in opening a military front
from the northwestern Somali fiefdom; and
having failed with its revenge strategies
against the unarmed Ogaden civilians, the
TPLF regime appears to have succeeded
recently in convincing the authorities in
the northeastern Somali region to abduct and
transfer Ogaden civilians to the TPLF. In
one such recent incident, on April 22nd, a
militia belonging to the head of the finance
ministry Mr. Maxamed Cali Yuusuf (Gaagaab)
abducted two members of the ONLF central
committee. These two members were
immediately transferred to the Ethiopian
intelligence service at the Ogaden border. A
similar abduction and transfer of Ogaden
civilians also happened at the start of this
month.
What these new abductions and illegal
transfers of Ogaden civilians to the TPLF
secret service reveal is a renewed strategy
to enlist the support of other Somali
regions bordering Ogaden to this illegal
human trade. These cross border state
sanctioned abductions are illegal both in
the spirit and the letter of the
international law.
These renewed cross border abductions come
at a time when the TPLF regime is facing
military defeat both in the hands of the
better trained and armed ONLF military
personnel in Ogaden, and against the ever
strengthening Somali freedom fighters who
rightly oppose the illegal presence of the
TPLF led Ethiopian forces in Somalia.
Since the Tigrian and Somali perpetrators of
this heinous crime of human abductions
across state lines are known; and to put a
complete stop to these despicable human
trade carried out by the TPLF and its proxy
militias in Somalia, the Ogaden Somalis in
the Diaspora should do the following:
- Bring
forth a strong legal case against the
state of Ethiopia, the Somali proxies
both in the northwestern and
northeastern Somalia in the European
court of Justice, in the International
court of Justice in The Hague, and in
local jurisdictions in North America.
-
Publicize the plight of the abducted
Ogaden Somalis in the hands of both TPLF
and its Somali proxies.
- Enlist
the support of the peace loving Somalis,
many of whom have already condemned
forcefully the despicable actions of the
two authorities in the northeastern and
northwestern regions, in bringing to a
complete stop the abductions and
transfers of Ogaden Somalis to the TPLF
regime in Addis Ababa.
The Ogaden Online Editorial Board (OEB)
hopes that the world community would
once and for all put the brakes on the
runaway train transporting TPLF's
genocidal actions against the Ogaden
civilians. OEB hopes that the Ogaden
Somalis in the Diaspora would pursue all
legal avenues through the international
courts to bring to justice the
instigators and perpetrators of the
state sanctioned abductions of the
Ogaden citizenry across state lines.
editorial@ogaden.com
Ogaden Online Editorial
May 21, 2008
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