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Organized a group of residents in the territory of the Ogaden Forum in Geneva, Switzerland for the definition of the suffering of the inhabitants of the territory of Ethiopia, which is inhabited by the population of ethnic Somalis and the international community demanding an end to what they called a "forgotten humanitarian crisis." Stresses Fawzeya Abdul Qadir, active in human rights, the problem is that they "suffer twofold: the Ethiopian regime of discrimination on the one hand, and the carelessness of the international community, on the other."
They came from all regions of Switzerland - although few in number - to hear testimony about the abuses suffered by their compatriots in the territory of the Ogaden by the Ethiopian forces. They are the people of the community of descent of a vast territory of the Ogaden Somali, who are not in Switzerland, more than 150 people.

The concern is that the participants in the search for ways to move the conscience of public opinion and international human rights forums, interesting daily violations against the population of Somalis in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia is under control, a subject of dispute with its neighbor Somalia for decades.

The most miserable, which is known in Africa
When she meets Bnactp in human rights, such as Ms. Fawzia Abdul Kader of the region interested in the immigrant community of the Ogaden and living in Ottawa, Canada, which had been invited to carry out the intervention in the symposium which was held in Geneva on July 25, 2009, and ask about the truth of the human rights situation in the region do not Feel free to answer as "the most miserable, which is known even in countries in Africa and the Sahara."

Due to the fact that - in addition to the factors leading to the deterioration of the human rights situation in the countries of Africa and the Sahara and is also available in a province Awagadin poverty and underdevelopment - are "discriminated against, and is still being exposed to the population of the Territory of Somali origin by successive Ethiopian regimes" , and adds that the Ogaden, "the region is less developed, even for the level of development in Ethiopia, which is the region that have the least number of hospitals and schools."

Intended to isolate ...
Ogaden region, home to some 4.5 million Muslims of Somali origin, there is a focus of conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia for more than thirty years. But the Ethiopian intervention in Somalia and the defeat of the Islamic Courts in Mogadishu led to the transformation of these courts to the militias fighting the Ethiopian regime in Somalia and Ogaden regions.

There is no doubt that the largest known group of armed resistance in the Ogaden region is "the Ogaden National Liberation Front", which entered the Ethiopian troops in direct confrontation with them in the month of June 2007 in the wake of the oil-extraction plant to the attack led to the deaths of 74 people, including 9 Chinese.

According to Ms. Fawzia Abdul Qadir, "the reaction of the current Ethiopian regime has always been his predecessors, such as segregation and exclusion of the Somali region and not be treated as a continued to Ethiopia, and this is what makes the Territory's population living on the margins of the Ethiopian community."

... The continuing violations of
Has the Commission on Human Rights in the Ogaden since 1995 documenting the violations committed in the territory. If these reports are organized each year, the active Fawziya Abdel Kader believes that "the issuance of the Organization for Human Rights Watch, recently, a report entitled (collective punishment and war crimes in the Ogaden), and although not something new we do not know, it was allowed to graduate these violations to light ".

Ms. Fawzia says that these violations "include political and social rights and economic," and emphasizes that "recent years, known to increase in cases of rape recorded in one year more than 2000 cases of rape by members of the Ethiopian army in the right of women and girls of all ages."

It is the complications resulting from rape in the absence of adequate health care there, "the increasing incidence of HIV infection," said Ms. Fawzia enumerated other violations in the Ogaden region, including the "arbitrary detention and arbitrary closure of the commercial shops and the confiscation of livestock and agricultural crops."

Silence ..
One of the phenomena of concern, which prompted the members of the community residing in Switzerland to carry out this action despite the lack of resources, the silence that surrounds the status of the population of the territory of the Ogaden despite the knowledge of what happens when all of the violations.

Says Ms. Fawzia Abdul Qadir, "can not be said that the international community does not know what is happening on the ground in the Ogaden, they are well aware of this, but what is lacking is the failure to take practical action to improve the situation. Therefore, we are the movements of this kind of definition of what is happening to us is the most miserable of what is happening in Darfur, despite the significant publicity received by the conditions of Darfur, even if I am not sure whether the people of Darfur have benefited from this massive propaganda. "

And whether the desire of the inhabitants of the territory (or at least the desire, which leads the movements of military confrontation in the region, such as the Ogaden National Liberation Front), is to break away from Ethiopia, Ms. Fawzia touch only as active in the defense of human rights to the "first in the desire to put an end of violations against the population, and an end to the starvation death of the population in an area rich in agriculture and livestock, not desert, "and then conclude with swisinfo.ch she said:" What can be said in this context is the desire to open a dialogue in order to achieve self-determination for the people of the region either through independence or to remain associated with Ethiopia, as full-fledged right to citizenship ... and that can not happen, however, international intervention, as happened in the south and west of Sudan. "

Mohamed Sharif - swissinfo..ch - Geneva