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The West Must
Forcefully Act on the HRW Report |
For 17 years, the current Tigrian People's
Liberation Front (TPLF) regime in Addis
Ababa succeeded in denying Western reporters
or human rights activists from setting foot
in Ogaden. The objective was to prevent the
outside world from getting a glimpse of the
state sanctioned human rights atrocities
that have been taking place in Ogaden ever
since the TPLF clique designated it as a
closed military zone.
Despite all its extraordinary efforts in
denying the world community a chance to see
firsthand what was going in Ogaden, the
international community is now getting a
clearer picture of the fate that had
befallen on the Ogaden populace in the hands
of the TPLF regime thanks to a number of
extraordinary organizations and individuals.
First, it was the brave reporters from the
New York Times (NYT) who first breached the
TPLF imposed embargo on travel to Ogaden.
Not only did the NYT team led by Jeffrey
Gettleman, the NYT's East Africa Bureau
Chief, report gruesome details of detentions
without trials, extra judicial killings,
extreme torture, rape, and maiming, but also
the TPLF militias deployed in the city of
Dhagax Bur subjected them to some of the
same brutal TPLF tactics reported by the
Ogaden citizens in the areas visited by the
NYT team.
Second, it was reputable non-governmental
organizations such as the Doctors Without
Borders, with firsthand information due to
their presence in many parts of Ogaden at
the time, who went public with their moral
misgivings about the total blockade that was
imposed on the Ogaden populace late last
year; and the innumerable incidents of
collective civilian punishments carried out
by the TPLF militias throughout Ogaden.
Third, it was the successful month long
sojourn of a crew from the Aljazeera
television station which documented in depth
the extent of the Woyane army brutality
against the unarmed Ogaden populace. When
the TPLF regime could not succeed in
pressuring the Qatari Kingdom to intercede
on their behalf, and to stop Aljazeera from
airing the documentary from Ogaden, the TPLF
clique in Addis Ababa cut its token
diplomatic ties with the Qatari kingdom.
Fourth, it was the painstaking research and
documentation that was carried out by the
reputable Human Rights Watch (HRW)
organization which led to the most accurate,
articulate, and complete rights report
detailing the "war crimes and crimes against
humanity in the Ogaden area of Ethiopia's
Somali Regional State" ever written by a
Western human rights organization. The
136-page HRW report has left no stone
unturned in articulating the plight of the
people of Ogaden and the ‘crimes against
humanity' perpetrated by the TPLF regime
with the ‘complicity' of the Western donor
nations who continue to subsidize the TPLF
regime.
With the HRW report in hand, and with the
compilation of all the recent sources that
set foot in Ogaden such as the NYT and the
Aljazeera TV crew, the Western countries
mainly the European Union, the United
States, and the Canadian governments have
today a complete picture of the extent of
the state sanctioned genocide in Ogaden
perpetrated by the TPLF clique in Addis
Ababa. With such important data, NOW is the
time for these donor nations to forcefully
act in prosecuting all the TPLF planners and
executioners of the genocide in Ogaden.
The Ogaden Editorial Board, OEB, hopes that
the donor nations will fulfill their moral
responsibilities in bringing to book all the
planners and perpetrators of the Ogaden
genocide. OEB would like to offer these
nations an independently verifiable compiled
list of all the heads of the TPLF militias
who are and have been directing the Ogaden
genocide for the past 17 years.
OEB asks all Ethiopians in the Diaspora to
engage their respective governments in
making sure that the plight of the people of
Ogaden is not forgotten. OEB inherently
believes that there is no more room for more
moral ambiguity in Western governments'
dealings with the TPLF clique in Addis
Ababa. OEB believes that TODAY is the day
that the Western nations must forcefully act
on the recommendations of HRW report.
editorial@ogaden.com
Ogaden Online Editorial
June 15, 2008 |
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