Bad Consequences of the Ethiopian Occupation of Ogaden

[Bashir Hussein <bashir@popcsi.unian.it>]

nuuradiin@my-deja.com
  Ethiopia Occupation of Ogaden Region !!!!!!!!


THE ETHIOPIAN OCCUPATION OF OGADEN REGION HAVE CAUSED POVERTY AND
DESTRUCTION FOR MORE THAN
CENTURY .

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION ???

[OGADENIA FREEDOM CAMPAIGN ORGANIZATION ]

PRESS RELEASE !!!!

8/6/2000

The history of the Somali Ogaden is often associated with a dark picture
of war disaster, drought and famine. But
to be able to understand why this particular area of the Somali Ogaden
Region is condemned to this destitute
environmental, one need to look at the history of the Ogaden Region from
a colonial perspective.

The root causes of the past, present and the future conflicts in the
Ogaden can be entirely blamed on the
European colonial designs and the legacy they left behind. In particular
the inhuman division of the Somali Nation.

The Somali Nation had no power to resist these influences and was
subjected to agreement favorable to the
Europeans. These agreements was one sided and favored the colonized
powers.

for example, The Ogaden Somalis have had several agreements with the
British Empire, consequently, in 1896 an
agreement was signed between the OGADEN CHIEF and her majesty the queen
of the British Empire, Queen
Victoria.

The agreement: " I Ahmed Murgan (Magan), Chief of the Ogaden , do hereby
place myself, my people, and the country, with its dependants, under
the protection of Britannic Majesty the Queen, and hereby declare and I
will not, nor shall my successor nor any of my people cede, or alienate
any
portion of my territories or dependencies, or make any foreign state or
person, without the previous knowledge and sanction of her Majesty's
Governmnet."( reproduced in FitzGibbon, 1985, page 18 ).

It came as a surprise and petrayal to the Somali Ogaden WHEN THE British
handed over their country to the Abyssinian (Ethiopia), secretly without

consulting the OGADEN people. The abyssinian then come with force and
occupied the Country. The custodians (Britain) gave them away, bit by
bit, to the Centuries old Enemies of the Somalis, to none other than the
Abyssinians!!! It was an Injustice on a vast scale and led to all the
travail
to which we have previously refereed.

The Ogaden people, who know their rights, never accepted the annexation
of the Ethiopians and betrayal by the British. That the OGADEN problem
has been, and still is, the central cause of the Horn of Africa
Conflict.

The Somali people in the Ogaden have been waging an armed struggle with
successive Ethiopian regimes over the centuries to achieve
self-determination and peace. during these wars many lives were lost in
both sides. people suffered severely under the occupying Ethiopian
forces
and still do. Most of the blame therefor lies with the British
Government who betrayed the Somali ogaden people in the first place.

as the world war draw close, the Ogaden continued under British
administration. In 1946 Mr. Ernesr Bevin, The British foriegn secretary,
proposed to
the Council of Ministers of the four power Conference. The Somali Nation
should be put together as a trust territory. However, the cold war
political
differences rejected the proposal. The Four Power Commission comprised
the Britain, USA, USSR, France.

On 24 September 1948 Britain acted unilaterally, and handed over to
Ethiopia once again the Ogaden Region. Despite the renewed and better
opposition of the people who expressed themeselves in riots throughout
the country. In many towns these up rising were ruthlessly put down. the

Ethiopian soldiers shoot and kill 87 people. However, Britain's
Generosity to Ethiopia continued and in 1954-1955 Britain compeleted
hand over the
remaining portion of the Ogaden Region. The effort was frustrated by
Britain, although that Britain and Italy recognized the resulting follow
of the
Refugees. the forerunners of today's massive exodus. This was the final
act of the British Government betrayal and it is not at all surprising
that
today Somalis, without rancor, balme Britain for much of their troubles
in that their alnd was illegally and secretly handed over to their
traditional
enemy. the cost inhuman misery is incalculable.

Within this scenario of suffering lies the Ogaden, and a Solution must
be found, for unless it is , the whole edifice of the Horn of Africa
must tumble
down and lies in ruins so, Today we address a subject of enormous
imporatnce , it was the BBC Television Camera that exposed to the world
the
tragedy in the Ogaden people.

The Ogaden people are facing all kinds of tragedies and are being wiped-
out at the hands of Evil Ethiopian Armies.

The reasons are not drought and famine as you are led to believe, but by
the policies of the Minority Tigree ragime towards the people of the
Ogaden Since 1994. At that time the people of the Ogaden have
unanimously voted to conduct a referendum for their self-determination.
The
response of Ethiopian Government has been mass killings and other
attrocities, while spending millions of dollars to create puppet
organizations and
propaganda to prosecute and humiliate the people of the ogaden. The
resistance of the people to such actions has been greatly ignored by the

international community.

The international community are fearing that giving assisstance to
Ethiopia will simply ease the costof fighting the border war which has
claimed
thousands of lives it is absuletly true.

Clare Short,(MP) The International Development Secretary, hit back at
accusations from irresponsible governmnet of Ethiopia thar Britain's
PLEDGE
OF £2.4 MILLION was not sufficient, She said that the Authorities in
Addis-Ababa should stop wasting valuable resource on fighting "people
should
never be made to pay for their governments devoting resources to war
also she said the international community should put increased pressure
on
the governments of Ethiopia to make peace and put all the resource into
helping the hungry". she is right theire would be no famine if there was

responsible government they spend all the money on Tanks, planes, guns
and lates war machines to kill innocent people of OGADEN Region and to
attack the noughbering countries.

The Tigree Regime in Ethiopia wants to mislead the international
community by saying that the rebel OGADEN NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT
(ONLF)are attacking aid workers and the aid itself. this is untrue and
they want all the aid is go direct to ethiopian government to use to
conduct
war against Eriteria and continue to suppress internal opposition and
uprising of the Ogaden people who are fighting for their
self-determination.

1) We are calling on the international community to send a fact finding
mission to the Ogaden Region to investigate and expose the truth and
bring
the culprits to justice for the Crimes against humanity under
international Law. Currently 110 innocent children and woman and old
people are dying
daily in Goday, Dhenan, Fiiq, Qabri-dahare, Iimey while the rest of the
district of the region, which are off-limits to visiting journalists,
NGO's and
diplomats, are facing an even greater catastrophe.

2) We call the internationl communities to send observers and the
international Media to, Nogob, Dollo, Dhagaxbur etc, which are all in
the ogaden
region and expose the mass starvation and death of thousands of innocent
people.

3) We urge the international community to act to stop the human disaster
in the Ogaden Region. to protect the people, and give them a chance to
decide their destiny and their desire for self-determination. the
emergency food aid and medicines that is being sent to the Ogaden Region
should
be given directly to the people of Ogaden under the Humanitarian
Agencies not through the Tigrey regime who are the creators of this
human
disaster.

please visit the Map of the Ogaden Region

http://www2.unl.ac.uk/~ams013

please also visit the Time News paper Report about Ogaden

http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/04/11/timfgnafr02006.html

http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/04/11/timfgnafr02004.html

http://abcnews.go.com/onair/nightline/transcripts/nl000508_trans.html

by nuuradiin ( freedom campainer)

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