|
His Excellency The Prime Minister
Rt Hon. Tony Blair
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
29th March 2007
Mr. Abdirahman M. Ahmed
Email:
freeogaden@hotmail.co.uk
Your
Excellency,
Firstly, I would like to convey my best
compliments. My name is Abdirahman Mohamed
Ahmed, I am part of the large British Ogaden
Community in the UK I am also a member of
the labour party.
I am writing with respect to a specific
issue that is of great concern to me and
most concerned and informed people in my
community, which is hardly ever addressed by
either your Government or any other member
of the International Community. This is the
long standing struggle for freedom and
Justice of the Ogaden Somali people.
The Ogaden
Somali Diaspora especially those of us
living in the West have seen what it is like
living under freedom, democracy and peace,
unfortunately these freedoms and
opportunities are lacking in our land of
origin and therefore feel we have the
responsibility to advocate for the people of
Ogaden Somali land in their struggle for
freedom and justice so that they too can
enjoy these same privileges. Taking into
consideration our own situation in a free
country, Many of us in Britain and in the
free countries of the world sometimes take
for granted the preciousness of our freedom
and democracy in which we live, raise our
families and flourish as people and as a
Nation. However, Its important to keep in
mind that we are the fortunate beneficiaries
of the hard work and sacrifice of many
honourable men and
women who have struggled for the life and
liberty that we now enjoy.
Therefore Sir,
I and many others in my community strongly
feel obliged to raise awareness and draw
the attention of all those who value real
freedom and human rights especially the
British Government, to the lack of freedom
and Justice in this unreported part of our
world and the atrocities committed against
the Ogaden Somali people by successive
Ethiopian regimes and the urgent action
needed to address this crisis.
I have
prepared some background information
regarding the people of the Ogaden and their
long struggle for freedom, Justice and human
rights in an attempt to help you understand
their desperate plight.
HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND OF THE OGADEN SOMALI LAND
An arid land
occupying the barren plain between the
Somalia-Ethiopia border and the Ethiopian
eastern highlands. It borders Djibouti to
the north, Kenya to the south and the Somali
Republic to the east. Its inhabitants are
predominantly ethnic Somali nomadic
pastoralists. This country, which is around
150,000 to 200,000 square kilometres has a
population of approximately 7,000,000
people. The country is at the centre of the
volatile Horn of Africa. It was colonized by
Britain as a protectorate from the last
quarter of the 19th Century
to the first half of the 20th Century.
ETHIOPIA’S
CENTURY OLD OCCUPATION
Ethiopia's
forefather Emperor Menelek among other
things, wrote in a letter dated 10th April
1891 to Heads of European states, “If
powers at a distance come forward to
partition Africa between them, I do not
intend to be an indifferent spectator".
An agreement
was signed in 1896 between Britain and the
Ogaden Somali chiefs which was thought to be
a guarantee of the sovereignty of their
land. However, it was soon realized that
Britain had no intention of living up to
this agreement.
To the shock
and dismay of the people, Britain
unexpectedly signed an agreement in 1897
with Ethiopia in which it recognized the
Ethiopian claims on Harar which it had
occupied a few years earlier. This was the
beginning of British retreat from the
Ogaden and eventual transfer to Ethiopia.
Suddenly
without the consent of the people, on the
24th Sept
1948 Britain acted unilaterally and
handed over to the empire state of Ethiopia
once again the Ogaden land and its people
and recognized it to be a possession of
Ethiopia despite never having been under the
administration or physical occupation of the
Ethiopian empire.
This was an
act of British government's betrayal at that
time, and its not at all surprising that
today the people of the Ogaden Somali land
entirely blame Britain for much of their
troubles in that their land was illegally
and secretly handed over to their
traditional enemy (Ethiopia), and the cost
in human misery is incalculable.
The 1896
agreement of protection between the Ogaden
Somali people and Britain had been
completely broken and they helplessly found
themselves under the occupation of an alien
power at a time when much of Africa was on
the verge of breaking the shackles of
colonialism.
RICH YET POOR
The Ogaden
people are well aware of the value and
significance of the highly prospective and
under explored oil reserves which their
indigenous land sits on. They eagerly
welcome the development of their people and
land and have great aspirations for the
potential prosperity that such God given
treasures which they feel deeply protective
and proud of can bring. However, they are
also aware of the insincere intentions of
the Ethiopian government which appear to be
putting “the cart before the horse”
i.e. financial
gain for themselves before real freedom and
Justice for the indigenous people.
The long
history of successive Ethiopian regimes
wanting to prospect gas and oil in the
Ogaden is well known.
In 1943 an Italian company found Oil in the
Ogaden areas such as Kalub and
Hilala . And in 1944 the American –owned
Sinclair Oil company backed by the US state
department begun secret negotiations with
emperor Haile Selassie.
In 1974 Tenneco made a
discovery in the Ogaden Somali land with
estimated reserves of 2.4 billion cubic
feet of natural gas. This, the largest
sedimentary basin, contains a commercial
discovery in the form of a gas condensate
field, the Kalub indigenously known
as (Jehdin) gas Field is situated in
the Korahay region and Hilala
is situated in the Godey region.
The basin has an area of 350,000
square kilometres and
sedimentary thickness of up to
10,000 meters.
Recently the Ethiopian regime
has selected potential petroleum development
areas without any consultation with the
indigenous people and has made these open
for private investment. Some of the
Petroleum companies currently engaged in oil
and gas exploration activities in the Ogaden
Basin are Malaysian Petronas, Pexco and the
Swedish owned Lundin petroleum.
It fills me and others
concerned with great sadness that the
Ethiopian regime in their desperate attempt
to rob whatever they can, continue to
mislead foreign oil companies to exploit the
precious natural resources in the Ogaden
Basin while the indigenous people of the
land remain in crippling poverty.
Unfortunately, the engagement of such
companies in the exploration activities at
the present time is only encouraging the
Ethiopians to violate the rights of the
indigenous people even further, in the sense
that they are cooperating with the
Ethiopians to rob the Ogaden people their
natural resources.
This is not
surprising as it’s always been the colonial
desire of Ethiopia to exploit these fertile
gas and oil fields not for the benefit of
the indigenous people who are extremely
impoverished and underdeveloped due to years
of direct subjugation of Ethiopia, but
rather to enrich themselves.
Incredibly the
Ogaden people under such harsh
circumstances, have the ability, expertise
and courage required to bring about positive
change in their society. Therefore, in order
to bring about the change needed to progress
to a better future, one of the points they
will be focusing on is forming
international allies and developing strong
socio-economic relations with the developed
countries.
Given
the world’s growing need for energy and the
highly promising resource potential of
petroleum and other types of energy in the
Ogaden Basin, the Ogaden people are willing
to trade their precious natural resources
for their freedom, and are therefore
prepared to negotiate with any foreign
investors wishing to prospect oil and gas in
their land. They would like to invite
particularly Western governments and private
enterprises such as (British Petroleum)
to enter into profit sharing agreements
provided that they will be operating in an
honest and fair manner that will benefit
both parties, but above all else provided
that they are willing to assist them in
achieving their ultimate goal,
independence and full
sovereignty.
JUST LIKE
DARFUR, OGADEN CRIES FOR THE HELP OF THE
WORLD!
Ethiopia is a
state founded on colonial doctrine. It’s
rule is based on the use of force and
emergency measures for oppressing the
majority of the people and exploiting them.
The Ogaden people are constantly denied any
basic human rights and face inhumane
oppression and absolute alienation in their
historical homeland.
Unique human
rights violations and tactics of oppression
are common in the Ogaden. Torture, rape,
arbitrary detention, confiscations of
property, disappearance and extra-judicial
killings are the norm. Most of the Ogaden
Somali land is administered under an
undeclared martial law and no independent
media are allowed. Such violations of human
rights could and should have warranted
international humanitarian intervention,
unfortunately it is not even reported. It’s
also worth mentioning the extreme
deprivations of basic life necessities
caused directly by subjugation of the
Ethiopian government. This is a country
where the majority of its society is
illiterate because it’s a land where the
most basic education and health
infrastructures are non existent.
Unfortunately
Ethiopia receives a large portion of the
total financial aid given to Africa, While
this aid never actually reaches the people
most of whom remain in abject poverty and
underdevelopment. Meanwhile most
international donors are keeping up or even
increasing their aid to Ethiopia, Britain
for example, is currently increasing its aid
from £60m last year to £130m
this year, on the other hand recent reports
indicate that the amount of money coming
from Ethiopia to banks in Western countries
has substantially increased. Even more
disturbing is the fact that Ethiopia is
using this financial aid for military
programmes directed at oppressing the Ogaden
Somali people and others under its colonial
rule.
Its worth to
note that the world often cries over
atrocities that take place in Darfur and
rightly so, however it puzzles me and
others concerned when similar if not worse
human rights abuses are being orchestrated
by the Ethiopian regime against the innocent
people of the Ogaden, yet no one raises an
eyebrow. Sadly Ethiopia is getting bolder
and bolder to commit these crimes against
humanity in the Ogaden because of the lack
of international community intervention
over its human rights violations.
It gives me
and others concerned the impression that as
long as you are a western ally no one will
question or criticise let alone condemn your
actions no matter how inhumane they may be.
The question that I and no doubt many others
often ask ourselves is, do the interests of
those in the free world have to conflict
with those who are struggling for freedom,
justice and democracy in Ethiopia? Surely
there’s a way to stand up for what we in the
free societies believe not only for
ourselves but for others too.
I think its
time for the world to recognise Ethiopia's
corrupt and dictatorial regime for what it
really is and the crimes against humanity it
constantly commits against the poor
stateless and defenceless people of the
Ogaden Somali land. A genocide is unfolding
right in front of us whether we choose to
see it or not is another story, but the
world must act sooner rather than latter to
save what’s left of the Ogaden people before
its too late!
Through no
fault of their own, the Ogaden Somali people
today find themselves in a very awkward and
rather unfortunate situation of having to
re-claim what’s rightfully theirs, because
they recognise freedom's a basic human
necessity and cannot be compromised.
Essentially, in order for any society to
develop and for its people to have a life of
some quality, first it has to be free.
Unfortunately the Ogaden Somali people know
too well the cost of freedom and justice as
they’ve already paid and continue to pay a
heavy price in their search for freedom. Yet
they remain undeterred in their legitimate
refusal to be
colonized by a
fellow African nation in this modern day and
age of the 21st Century
and are determined to gain their
independence. It’ should be clarified that
the Ogaden cause is not a territorial
dispute between Ethiopia and Somalia as is
often heard, but rather a legitimate
struggle for the self-determination of the
Ogaden people.
Therefore, the
Ogaden Somali people appeal to the
international community and in particular to
Great Britain's people and their present
Government to rectify the remnants of the
nineteenth century's wrongs which their
forefathers had done to this innocent
generation who are daily suffering the
baseless punishing verdict. They also appeal
to the international community to recognise
the corruption and colonial nature of
Ethiopia and its brutal repression and hold
it accountable for its actions.
Its my
strongly held view that the people of Ogaden
Somali land should be assisted to prepare
for their future and be given training for
good governance to be administered by United
Kingdom under the United Nations mandate and
trusteeship for a period of four years, and
this should be set as benchmark for them to
become an independent republic and a full
common wealth member living peacefully side
by side with their Ethiopian and Somali
republic neighbours.
Your
Excellency, the Ogaden Somali people will
undoubtedly have difficulties in realizing
their dream without the help and support of
influential esteemed world leaders such as
yourself. Therefore Sir, considering the
level of diplomatic relations that exist
between Ethiopia and your government, as
well as the substantial amount of aid
provided by the UK, I am requesting you to
use your influence to ensure that the Ogaden
Somali people are given their undeniable
right to self-determination.
Finally Sir, I
respectfully request you once again to
kindly consider how you can help revive the
hope among the people of the Ogaden Somali
land that they can and will achieve the
dream they have sought for so long and how
you can help them build a free, peaceful and
prosperous future for their children.
Your
Excellency,
On behalf of
the British-Ogaden community, I thank you
very much in advance and I apologise for
taking up so much of your valuable time.
Best Regards,
Abdirahman M. Ahmed | 
