June
11, 2007
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (AFP)
Ethiopian Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi said Saturday
his government had launched
a crackdown on a rebel group
blamed for several attacks
in the country's eastern
Ogaden region.
Ethiopian Prime
Minister Meles
Zenawi gives a press
conference in Addis
Ababa. Zenawi said
Saturday his
government had
launched a crackdown
on a rebel group
blamed for several
attacks in the
country's eastern
Ogaden region.(AFP/Jose
Cendon)
"We have launched a
political and military
operation to try to contain
the activities of the ONLF
(Ogaden National Liberation
Front) in the region," Meles
told a news conference.
"As for the military plans,
over the past few days they
have started to be
implemented," he added.
Last month the ONLF and
another rebel movement, the
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF),
said they had killed 157
Ethiopian troops in joint
attacks in the eastern part
of the country, but the
government denied the claim.
In April, the ONLF carried
out a lethal attack on a
Chinese-run oil site in
eastern Ethiopia in which 77
people died -- 68 Ethiopians
and nine Chinese.
The separatist group, formed
in 1984, says the Ogaden
people have been
marginalised by Ethiopia and
is fighting for the
independence of ethnic
Somalis in Ethiopia's Ogaden
region.
Ogaden, an arid area in the
Somali state of Ethiopia, is
believed to be contain large
quantities of oil.
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