2. BACKGROUND

In fact the injustices and human rights abuses inflicted upon the Ogadenis date back to the Ethiopian occupation of the first part of the Ogaden a century ago.  

In 1948, when the British government ceded illegally a great part of the Ogaden to Ethiopia, the Ethiopian occupation forces killed in a cold-blood massacre more than one hundred people, who were protesting peacefully against the hand over of Jigjiga area to Ethiopia .

In 1955, the last part of the Ogaden, which is Haud and Reserved Areas, was handed over to Ethiopia by the British Authorities. At that time peaceful demonstrations against the cession of the land to the Ethiopians were brutally suppressed by Ethiopian occupation forces.

In 1961, the Ethiopian Imperial Army razed to the ground the towns of Aisha’a, Dhagahbour and Qalaafo, killing hundreds of defenseless civilians.

In 1994, when the military junta overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie’s theocratic rule, The new communist military junta enforced more oppressive policies in the Ogaden. Summary executions, arbitrary detentions and dispossessing the people of their properties were commonplace.

In its Amharisation policy, the communist regime of Mengistu has transferred thousands of Ethiopian settlers into the Ogaden in an attempt to change the demographic nature of the region, eliminate the Ogadeni national identity and to transform the Ogaden into a region of Ethiopia, in which indigenous Ogadenis will be an insignificant minority.

In 1991, when the ruling Ethiopian People’s  Revolutionary Democratic Front(EPRDF), which is dominated by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front(TPLF) came to power, after the defeat of former government, the EPRDF presented a new charter. According to the Transitional Charter, which was adopted on 22 July 1991, among other things all democratic principles, human rights and right to self-determination of all nations in the empire-state of Ethiopia, should be recognized and fully respected.

The new Charter was welcomed by the Ogaden people, who suffered from a century of repression and exploitation under the Imperial and Military regimes, which ruled the empire-state of Ethiopia respectively.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front(ONLF), which was the vanguard of the Ogaden people’s long national struggle against the Ethiopian occupation, decided unequivocally to be part and parcel of the new political process in Ethiopia by ratifying the newly drafted Charter, in order to pursue the realization of the Ogaden people’s rights and national aspirations by peaceful and democratic means.

In 1992, the ONLF accused the EPRDF government of master-minding the killing of several ONLF officials, including some members belonging to the Front’s Central Committee.

In September 1992, the Ogaden people went to the polls to cast their votes in a free and fair election, for the first time in their long history to elect their district councils and representatives for the regional parliament.

In a landslide victory, the ONLF won about 84% of the seats in the newly elected regional parliament.

In mid-1993, the regional government accused the central government in Addis Ababa  of flagrant interference in the day to day affairs of the Ogaden region, an act which contradicts the commitment to regional autonomy and devolution of power to the regions.

To put more pressure on the regional government, the EPRDF central government deprived the Ogaden region of its share of the central budget and aid from international community to Ethiopia, as well as obstructing all initiatives and projects deemed necessary for the development of the region.

In 1993, the Ethiopian security forces arrested the president, vice-president  and secretary of the Regional Assembly, who were transferred to prison in Addis Ababa. They have been released after ten months without having been charged or tried.

On 28 January 1994, at a press conference in Addis Ababa, ONLF called for a referendum on self-determination  and independence for the Ogaden .

On 22 February 1994, a cold-blood massacre took place in the town of Wardheer, where more than 81 unarmed civilians were killed by TPLF militias, who tried to kill or capture alive the chairman of the ONLF Mr. Ibrahim Abdallah Mohamed, who was addressing at that time a peaceful rally in the centre of the town.

On 17 April 1994, the EPRDF/TPLF government launched a large scale military offensive against ONLF positions and detained many suspected supporters of ONLF.

On 28 April 1994, at a press conference in Addis Ababa, the then TPLF defence minister Siye Abraha claimed that all resistance movements in the Ogaden had been destroyed and stamped out.

In a petition addressed to the president of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE), the elders of the Ogaden asked the Ethiopian government to stop the military offensive against the Ogaden people, and seek a peaceful dialogue to resolve the conflict, instead of opting a military solution which complicates the situation.

In May 1994, the Regional Assembly passed a unanimous  resolution in accordance with the Transitional Charter, demanding a referendum on self-determination and independence for the Ogaden people,  under the auspices of international and regional bodies such as United Nations, Organization of African Unity, European Union,  and other independent non-governmental organizations.

The EPRDF government in Addis Ababa  reacted swiftly and severely by overthrowing and virtually disbanding all democratically elected national institutions in the Ogaden, including the Regional Parliament.

Like their predecessors, the president of the Regional Parliament, vice-president and several members of the parliament(MPs), were arrested and transferred to prison in Addis Ababa. Mass arrests and indiscriminate killings also took place.

In 1994, the EPRDF government sponsored a new satellite party called Ethiopian Somali Democratic League(ESDL), which is a version of People’s Democratic Organizations(PDO), which exists throughout Ethiopia within the EPRDF framework. The first congress of ESDL was held in Hurso under the patronage of the then prime minister of TGE Tamirat Layne, who appointed a member of the ruling EPRDF coalition as a chairman of the new pro-government party.

On 25 January 1995, the EPRDF government hastily arranged a meeting in the town of Qabridaharre to convince the ONLF to participate in the upcoming federal and regional elections. The meeting which was chaired by the then president Meles Zemawi(the current prime minister), failed when each side refused to compromise.

The ONLF, had broken off all contacts with the EPRDF government, closed down its office in Addis Ababa and boycotted elections from 1994 to 1995.

Since 20 April 1994, bloody battles are being fought between EPRDF forces and combatants of the ONLF on the one hand, and EPRDF forces and combatants of Al-Itihad * on the other hand.

Certainly, the ongoing struggle for self-determination and independence in the Ogaden continues to cause more human suffering and threatens peace and stability in the Horn of Africa.

Both the 1991 Charter and the new Constitution, which was adopted and ratified by the Constituent Assembly on 8 December 1994, guarantee a right to secession of  a people if they are, “Convinced that their rights are denied, abridged or abrogated,” and this applies to the Ogadeni case.

Article 1 of the International Covenant On Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR) states that the right to self-determination  is universal and calls upon States to promote the realization of that right and to respect it. The article provides that:

“All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political  status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural  development. All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic cooperation, based upon the principle of mutual benefit, and international law. In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence. The States parties to the present Covenant, including those having responsibility for the administration of non-self-governing and trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.”

* There is another group with the same name in the neighbouring Somalia, but they are quite different.