Free the Ogaden in 2012
Greetings
Please Free the Ogaden this year too.
We were thrilled to see that South Sudan was given a choice and was granted independence this year. We believe that the people of the Ogaden deserve this right too.
Ethiopia is the only country left illegally colonizing the Ogaden region. The people in the Ogaden have been waging an armed struggle with successive Ethiopian regimes over the last century to achieve self determination and peace.
The Ogaden is twice the size of England and Wales together with a population of about eight million. Most of the population is in crises of hunger and disease created by the Ethiopian Government to get the financial help from the international community to attack its neighboring countries and their freedom fighters.
The region was annexed by Ethiopia in 1891. Then it was occupied by the British who returned to the Ethiopia in 1948 without consent of its people who are the rightful owners. From that day, the struggle started alongside the cruel oppression of the Ethiopian Government.
The Ethiopian Authority is currently committing genocide against the people in the Ogaden Region acceded to UN convention against Torture, Rape and Cruelty towards humans or degrading treatment or punishment, which is also against UN convention of 1949.So far, Ethiopia managed to keep the international community in the dark about its grave human rights violations in the Ogaden by misleading it and it intends to do so in the future
The Ogaden Region presents one of the most consistent cases of human rights violations in the world. Not only the rights that are essential for the maintenance of human dignity, such as culture, economic, social and political rights are denied, but the very basic rights of life and liberty which the majority of mankind takes them for granted are infringed. The people in the Ogaden are constantly terrorized, abducted, detained, displaced, their properties are confiscated or destroyed and their land is mined by the forces of the Ethiopian government.
The main problem is that there is a lack of news in the Ogaden region. Journalists, camera crews and any sort of media are never allowed to cover anything in the area of Ogaden region. Except since the famine crises started in Ogaden region which is to their benefit because they are getting millions of aid from the international community to feed its oversized military and to ease its financial crises. In the meantime, the poor people in the Ogaden have to suffer. The international donor’s funds are apparently being misused by the Ethiopian government to feed its military and to harass the people in the Ogaden. This is a reverse of the good intentions of the western tax payers who mean to help the famine effected people in the Ogaden but not to kill. Therefore, we wish to condemn this evil action in the strongest terms possible and further use those responsible to refrain from such cruel actions without any conditions and instead use to provide the available resource to the daily needed basic requirements for the people of the Ogaden region.
Like South Sudan, the only solution to an everlasting peace is to give the people of the Ogaden a referendum on independence this year as well. Let the people vote peacefully and decide if they want to declare independence. We believe the people in the Ogaden deserve this chance too.
Links about the Genocide in Ogaden:
http://www.kfgo.com/fm-headline-news.php?ID=0000005311
http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/51605/
http://www.forward.com/articles/11927/
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/06/12/ethiopia-army-commits-executions-torture-and-rape-ogaden
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/12/ethiopia.humanbehaviour http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25121088/ns/world_news-africa/
http://www.newbusinessethiopia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=473%3Aethiopia-violates-its-own-laws-us-state-department-report-&catid=12%3Ainternal-politics&Itemid=5http://www.ogaden.com/hornnews/ethiopia/1197.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iaEcIkzRuc http://www.ogaden.com/hornnews/ogaden/1211.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcSZg_lgFxM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdM52nhHBc8&feature=related http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-596395 http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/east/International-Red-Cross-Africa-Denies-Ethiopias-Ogaden-Permission-to-Resume-Operation-120952534.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CihOAW0zY7I&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3Dgenocide%2Bin%2Bogaden%26aq%3Df&has_verified=1
