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The president
of the European Commission
M. José Manuel Barraso
1049 Brussels
Belgium
Neuchâtel le, 27.03.2007
Your
Excellency,
We the Ogaden
Communities in Europe would like to express
our deep concern and apprehension about the
gross human rights violations that are
taking place in our homeland under the
Ethiopian military occupation. Injustices
and human rights abuses inflicted upon the
Somali people in Ogaden date back to the
first Ethiopian occupation in Ogaden more
than a century ago. The Ogaden Somali people
didn’t choose to be part of Ethiopia, but
the Ethiopian government annexed completely
the last part of Ogaden province in 1954
just after the departure of the British who
were colonising Ogaden. Since then the
Ogaden people are fighting for their
self-determination rights and all the
Ethiopian governments including the current
EPRDF/TPLF government of Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi treat the Somalis as a
negligible minority, who have no rights
whatsoever in their homeland.
On May 10th 1994,
the Regional Assembly in Ogaden passed an
unanimous resolution in accordance with the
Transitional Charter and the Ethiopian
Constitution, demanding a referendum on
self-determination 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.
But the Ethiopian government
in Addis Ababa reacted swiftly and severely
by overthrowing and virtually disbanding all
democratically elected national institutions
in Ogaden, including the Regional
Parliament.
Since then Ogaden has been a
virtually closed military zone, where bloody
battles were being fought between Ethiopian
People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)
forces and combatants of The Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLF).
The Ogaden Human Rights
Committee (OHRC), reports a gross human
rights violations in Ogaden, including
illegal imprisonment without charge or
trial, enforced disappearances, torture,
extrajudicial executions, abduction, forced
labour, hostage-taking, abusive dismissals,
ethnic discrimination and religious
persecution carried out by the Ethiopian
government. The OHRC has documented so far:
2036 extrajudicial killings; 2940
disappearance cases; 1870 rape and child
molestation cases; 15332 cases of unlawful
private property confiscation; and
demolition of 9484 houses owned by innocent
civilians. These violations took place
between the years 1992 until 2005, rural
areas as well as urban areas. To the best of
the Ogaden Human Rights Committee’s
knowledge, no one has been charged for this
horrendous crime and the international
community is not giving proper attention and
necessary considerations to the gross human
rights abuse being committed by the
Ethiopian regime.
Your Excellency’s, we kindly
request you to take a measurable action
under your power against the Ethiopian
regime to stop the human rights violations
in Ogaden and to help the Ogaden Somali
people to get their right to
self-determination as declared in the UN
charter as well as the Ethiopian charter,
which is the only way to avoid the further
suffering and loss of many innocent lives in
Ogaden.
We are hopeful that our
request will get your full attention and
consideration
Thank you very
much in advance
Your’s
sincerely,
Ogaden
Communities in Europe
Mohamed Abdullahi
communauteogaden@net2000.ch
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