Ogaden Online: The official homepage of Ogaden on the Internet

Ogaden and Oromo communities of Minnesota staged well organized protests in front of a venue where a delegation said to be visiting from Ethiopia was holding a meeting. The meeting was billed as a ‘meeting of the minds’ to discuss investment opportunities inside Ethiopia.

Hours before the meeting was to start, Oromo and Ogaden community members who have succeeded in obtaining a legal permit to protest in and around the meeting venue, have gathered. They appeared to be well organized. Many of the community members were dressed in Oromia and Ogaden national attires from head to toe.

Reliable sources have intimated with the Ogaden Online reporter in Minneapolis that when on the eve of the meeting, the organizers realized that they would not get even one third of the projected attendance, because conflict between Abdi Iley, the so called Ogaden region president’s organizers that occurred last few days.

They were carrying Oromo and Ogaden flags. Many of the protesters were carrying placards denouncing the Ethiopian regime. Some even hard banners accusing the Ethiopian regime of having perpetrated genocide in Ogaden. Some of the protesters stood the major intersections to distribute fliers some of which were titled “Highlighting the Hidden Genocide in Ogaden”.

The protesters had microphones and sound amplifiers that reached the hotel and its surroundings. While the protesters numbered in the hundreds – some estimates put the number at 2000 – the meeting attendees were, in the best estimate, said to number no more than 30 individuals.

The Ogaden Online reporter was present at the meeting venue two hours prior to the start of the meeting and lingered until it ended. The reporter who was stationed at the main entrance of the hotel, counted 10 individuals five of whom were said to be from the Tigrean.

While the protesters demonstrated outside, those in attendance in the meeting listened to prepared statements from the Ethiopian officials. Although many topics ranging from politics to economic investment were discussed, the most important item on the agenda appeared to be the delegation’s recommendation and insistence that those present and the Ethiopian Diaspora in general should invest in the Ethiopian central bank.
They have highlighted how redirecting the millions in money remittance that now goes through the informal, trust based Hawala system would benefit both the senders and the Ethiopian economy.

An attendee who was later interviewed by the Ogaden online reporter summed up his feelings this way: “Only an irrational individual would want to send his hard earned cash through the Ethiopian central bank.” He continued to add, “This is the same bank where billions worth of gold bars in reserve were looted and replaced with fake replicas instead of the gold bars that were deposited in the system.” 

The most eloquent reason why such moniker should stick was provided by one of the protest leaders. He did indicate that Meles did perpetrate the same war crimes in Ogaden that the Sudanese president, Al Bashir, is alleged to have committed in Darfur. Yet, he said, “Due to an unashamed Western hypocrisy Mr. Al Bashir is threatened with arrest should he leave Sudan, while Meles continue to commit war crimes in Ogaden”

Given how organized and disciplined the Ogaden protesters were, and due to the messages they were relaying in their loudspeakers, these protesters attracted a lot of media attention. Many of the protest leaders were interviewed live on many local Radio and television stations. They were pictured numerous times.

A BBC Somali reporter named Mr. Shiino approached Ogaden protesters and tried to interview them, however due to BBC’s unfair reporting and its hostility towards Ogaden people, protesters chased him and refused to give him any interview.

Many attendees left the meeting due to lack of understanding the language of the meeting which was an Amharic.

In related news, over 270 guests who were staying Hilton Hotel moved out after learning that Hilton Hotel associated itself with the Ethiopian delegation that have terrible human rights record. These have an effect on its business repetition and image thereafter.

Some other words that were quite pronounced during the seven plus hours of protest were ' Stop Rapin Women, free Ogadenia, No Place for War Criminals, the Unindicted Ethiopian War Criminals.'  The protesters were quite forceful in making sure the many American media outlets present at the protest sites used the ‘war criminal’ moniker when referring to Mr. Abdi Iley and Meles, the Ethiopian premier.

A 12 year old grade seven Ogaden American protester summed up the mood of the protesters when he proclaimed that the American government had a responsibility to detain and prosecute Abdi Iley for war crimes instead of hosting him at one of the finest hotels in Minneapolis.