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Ethiopian Ghost Civilians of Convenience |
June, 2007
When the Ogaden National Liberation Front,
ONLF attacked and successfully overran a
Chinese run oil prospecting installation in
April this year, the Addis autocracy wasted
no time to claim the loss of over sixty four
‘civilians’. No mention was ever made
publicly or in private of any military
casualties.
As if to confirm the fact that very few
civilians, if any, were killed as a result
of the successful oil prospecting attack by
ONLF, the regime in Addis Ababa did not, up
to this day, supply the names of the
supposedly dead civilians.
Even in the puppet Ethiopian parliament, the
Ethiopian dictatorship refused to furnish
the names of the said civilians during a
condemnation vote of what the regime termed
as a terrorist act. This was the sole reason
why the few, yet to be detained, opposition
parliamentarians refused to vote for the
article of condemnation.
If in fact there were Ethiopian civilian
casualties at Cobole, why is the regime
wanting to have its cake and eat it too.
This regime has taken every opportunity to
use Cobole for its propaganda machinery
mainly its terror labeling campaign. It has
even used it as a defense against the
accurate, first hand reporting recently
published by the New York Times.
Sure the Addis autocracy can fool its people
however it should know that the world
community will NOT be fooled with bogus
claims of civilian loss when there are no
names or bodies presented as evidence. The
reason names have not so far been furnished
is because the majority of the dead were
military personnel some of who were caught
unprepared and in their sleeping gear.
Claims from a regime that hardly tells the
truth about events in Ogaden cannot be
trusted without foolproof evidence. The
Addis autocracy has shown to be
untrustworthy. It has manifested its
intention to hide events, sadly ones of mass
civilian detentions, and of extra judicial
killings, that take place daily throughout
Ogaden. The so-called civilians were nothing
more than ghost civilians of convenience.
editorial@ogaden.com
Ogaden Online Editorial
June 22, 2007 |
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