The recent arrival of about ten ‘elders’
from Ogadenia in both London and Washington
DC appear to be ululation-inducing and
‘headline grabbing’ piece of news to the
uninformed and may be the functionally
illiterate. It has been a blip on the radar
screens or radio airwaves of those who
follow closely the happenings in Ogadenia
since the ‘elders’ sketchy, on-again
off-again plans of being encouraged to go
abroad with the pretension of a ‘peace’
mission was a public fodder both within
Ogadenia and in the Diaspora since December
of last year. While it is not the policy of
the Ogaden editorial board to dignify
propaganda spewed by colonial or clannish
mouth-pieces with a response, however we are
compelled to shed some light on the
contradictions, and the incomprehensible
arguments put forth by
Wardheer news
about the said objectives of the
‘elders’ arrival in both UK and USA.
A brief history of the original elders’
plans and their interactions with both
Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and
the regime in Addis Ababa would suffice as
background information for the reader of
this writing. We welcome and support any
peaceful initiatives taken to resolve the
Ogaden issue however the original elders’
mission was not to start a dialogue between
ONLF and the Tigray-led EPRDF militia in
Addis Ababa. Originally, about a dozen
elders from Qorahay zone in Ogadenia
organized themselves to go to Addis Ababa in
order to bring to the attention of Melez
Zenawi and his minions the problems faced by
the people of Ogadenia in general and the
Qorahay zone in particular. These elders’
complaints were about the uselessness of the
so-called regional state administration and
the ongoing transgressions committed against
the citizens of Ogadenia by Tigray militias
in the cities, towns and hamlets. It is
worthy to mention that these elders could
not even go as a group to Addis Ababa for
the genuine fear of having their plans
scuttled by the so-called administration and
their military muzzles who want the status
quo to remain.
These elders went individually to Addis
Ababa. When in Addis Ababa they sought
audience with Zenawi however they were not
given an opportunity to meet or hand in
their objectives in writing to Zenawi for
months. Only after the devastating loss of
the May elections last year and the
publicity generated by the courageous and
death-defying interviews given by the elders
to the BBC radio did Zenawi and his minions
realize the importance of meeting with the
elders. After the first meeting, it was
decided after Zenawi’s request that all
elders from all regions in Ogadenia be
included in the discussions to which the
original elders did not object to. It is
paramount to note here though that Zenawi’s
intensions on the insistence of an all
inclusive elders meeting was not to resolve
anything put forth by the elders but to use
the elders against each other as is the
classic tactic of divide and rule employed
by dictators everywhere. After a lengthy
squabble of who was to blame for the
insecurity and lack of development in
Ogadenia, Zenawi proposed to the elders that
since there is an armed struggle spearheaded
by ONLF, he was prepared for peaceful
negotiations with ONLF. He has asked the
elders to act as the messengers for the
passage of the message from him to ONLF.
The elders to their credit were able to
start a discussion with the highest organs
of ONLF who happened to be inside Ogadenia
and passed the message of possible peace
negotiations between ONLF and the Zenawi’s
regime in Addis Ababa. ONLF after receiving
the message from elders have welcomed the
peace overtures from Zenawi and publicly
stated so both in official press releases
and Radio and TV interviews with the
independent media throughout the world. The
only reasonable and internationally accepted
principles of conflict resolution and
mediation parameters put forth by ONLF
leadership in accepting the peace overtures
was that the talks be held in a neutral
third country and that a credible, honest,
and authoritative third country with the
means to enforce all agreements mediate the
talks. Instead of accepting these reasonable
parameters for starting the talks, Zenawi
proposed that the elders be the mediating
third party and that the talks be held in
some of the neighboring countries who happen
to have no power to enforce anything agreed
upon by all parties. It is worthy to mention
that while the integrity of the elders is
not in question, however the fact that they
are stakeholders in Ogadenia and that they
have no power to enforce anything agreed
upon in any meeting technically disqualifies
them from being the mediators of
negotiations of this magnitude. ONLF have
passed this message in the second face to
face meeting with the elders inside Ogadenia
towards the end of last year.
Since ONLF articulated clearly its position
about peaceful negotiations face to face
with the elders INSIDE Ogadenia, is it not
reasonable to conclude that there is no need
for meeting them abroad be it UK or USA? In
claiming that the elders ‘…assume the
ever-important role of conflict resolution
ala Somali way…” abroad, either these laymen
preaching fervently from the Wardheer News
pulpit are ignorant about the principles of
mediation or they are acting as a
mouth-piece for Zenawi in order to paint
ONLF as a force acting against the common
interest of the citizens of Ogadenia.
Conflicting statements such as the urging of
ONLF to talk to the ‘elders’ and the
painting of ONLF as ‘irrelevant’ headlined
in the title of the piece show one the
illogical and incomprehensible arguments put
forth by these Johnny-come-late lies to the
so-called peace ploys played by Zenawi to
confound the community in the Diaspora. The
folie de grandeur of these laymen is evident
in their writing when they attempt to take
credit for bringing the elders abroad when
in fact they have dispensed not A SINGLE
DIME to the ‘elders’ at the hour of need. It
is ironic that these laymen concede that it
is actually Ethiopia – meaning Zenawi- after
all who funded, facilitated and is now
housing the elders abroad. Statements below
only show the delusional state of the mind
of these laymen when spewing propaganda
laden pieces:
“…Assisted
by a tripartite committee from San Diego,
Ca, Toronto, Canada and Western Europe, the
dream to bring the elders group to England
and America has finally materialized…Even if
some skeptics suspect of a hidden hand of
the Ethiopian government for sending this
delegation abroad…”
While the
Ogaden Editorial Board welcomes any peaceful
initiatives to solve the Ogaden issue, we
also support the gallant position taken by
ONLF in insisting that negotiations be held
in a neutral third country and mediated by
an authority that can enforce any agreed
upon resolutions. We are confident that the
community in the Diaspora is fully aware of
Zenawi’s pretentious attempts to send
selective ‘elders’ out of the 30 plus elders
in order to create confusion as to who is to
blame for talks which he never intended to
follow-through. However we caution laymen who
happen to be fervently preaching from the
internet pulpit to not embarrass themselves
in public with folie de grandeur writings
such as the claim that honorable
Mohamed
Ismail Omar, first vice chairman
of ONLF went to London from Washington
to meet the elders last Sunday
when he was in fact leading a gathering of
all the community members in the Diaspora at
the Hilton Hotel, in Crystal City, Virginia.
If these laymen failed to check
the veracity of the said ‘emergency’ trip by
honorable Mohamed Ismail Omar,
how could anyone trust any news they report from
Ogadenia which is thousands of miles
away with the most logistical and colonial
hurdles one can imagine!
editorial@ogaden.com
Ogaden Online Editorial
April 13, 2006 |
