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BYLINE: Aaron
Maasho
DATELINE: JIJIGA, Ethiopia, Jan 28 2008
BODY:
Ahmed Nour Abdi sighs heavily when asked to
describe his futile attempts at mediation, a
customary practice among elders in the
restive Ogaden region of Ethiopia.
"The other side refused to meet us," he
says, referring to the Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLF, rebellion), with
whom he planned to negotiate a peace deal.
"We went as far away as London, Stockholm,
Copenhagen, and Washington but nothing was
achieved," he adds.
Lying just 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of
Somaliland, Jijiga thrives from cross-border
trade with its neighbor, a self-declared
independent region from Somalia, but has
been unable to avoid a spate of sporadic
violence that has rocked the Ogaden.
Through respected elders like Nour Abdi, the
Ethiopian government claims to have made
attempts to negotiate with the ONLF, but
accuses them of flouting such pleas.
Formed two decades ago, the secessionist
group has been carrying out a rebellion
against the government in response to what
it asserts is systematic marginalisation by
Addis Ababa. A massive clampdown was
launched by the army following an ONLF
attack on a Chinese-run oil venture that
killed 77 people in March last year.
But despite government claims of victory
against the rebel group, hit-and-run attacks
have been hard to curb throughout the
region, and humanitarian aid has faced some
slowdowns because of the military
operations, according to the UN and
humanitarian agencies.
In one of the latest attacks on January 17,
"a bomb was thrown in a place where
merchants and innocent people lived, two
children got leg injuries," says Haji Ali
Gurez, an elder from one of the Ogaden's
biggest clans, the Jedwaq.
Police officials, traffic police and senior
officials were among those who were often
targetted last year.
"We have managed to destroy the ONLF in the
bush, but some of the remnants manage to
commit terror attacks in the city," police
chief Abdi Mohammed Omar admits. "Some of
them hide among the population and it takes
time to clean everything."
The UN agencies have charged that the
military operations in Ogaden have hampered
food distribution to displaced people,
estimated at more than 650,000 in the Somali
region, and "endangered the food security"
there.
The government on January 10 rejected this,
saying that the UN agencies' statement was
"an exaggerated story, (...) it should be
realised that there does not exist any
chronic shortage of food in the Ogaden
region".
Recently, Ethiopia expelled two
international aid agencies from the region,
prompting fears that a major humanitarian
crisis was about to unfold in the
strife-torn region.
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent
(ICRC) and Doctors Without Borders Belgium (Medecins
Sans Frontiers Belgium, MSF) were both
barred for allegedly aiding the rebels.
"They (ICRC) provided satellite phones to
anti-peace elements in the bush. They were
even giving them access to their vehicles
and information about the whereabouts of
regional officials," said regional president
Abdullahi Hassan, who himself survived an
assassination attempt during a rally last
year.
But aid has now resumed through UN and
Ethiopian state agencies. By early this
month, almost 17,000 tonnes of relief food
had been delivered by the government to the
five zones under military operation.
Despite delays due to shortage of military
escorts in some areas, the feared major food
crisis seems to have been held off.
The government also hopes to reap benefits
from the region's untapped resources,
notably oil and gas reserves, as well as
water resources.
Multi-million dollar schemes on water
facilities are well underway, albeit heavily
guarded by rifle-brandishing soldiers.
But for most Ogadenis, one thing dominates
above all.
"Food does come these days," says a street
vendor in the neighboring region of
Degahabur. "But peace is what we need."
LOAD-DATE: January 28, 2008
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