Plotting ways to deal with the Stronger ONLF military Posted: 2007/05/10 From: Mathaba

Civilians become the sole target of the Ethiopian military and its associated militias at the first sign of military defeat at the hands of the ONLF fighters who are aided by superior morale coupled with an intimate knowledge of the Ogaden terrain...

(mathaba) -- Reports reaching our service desk from Addis Ababa, the seat of the Ethiopian autocracy, indicate the existence of secret meetings meant to device better ways to deal with the ever increasing strength of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, ONLF, military in Ogaden. There have been ongoing discussions within the Ethiopian regime in the past couple of months on how best to deal with the ever-increasing military threat from ONLF. Our Addis Ababa correspondent adds that the sheer number of ONLF troops and superior military tactics employed by ONLF at Cobole, have startled the heads of the autocracy and added urgency to the need to find a quick solution to this brewing ‘problem’ in Ogaden for the autocracy. Initial reports from the secret meetings indicate that a motion will be brought in front of the puppet Ethiopian parliament tomorrow, May 10th. The motion is said to argue for the approval of draconian measures meant to punish the Ogaden civilians rather than target ONLF militarily. The motion is meant to rubberstamp some of the plots put forward by those present in the secret meetings. The organizers and high-level participants of the secret meetings, proposed three key areas where ‘ONLF’ can be dealt with severely. The first proposition is to start a killing campaign targeting ONLF members in Ogaden. The second proposition targets the civilians both those in the urban and rural areas. The idea is to force Ogaden nomads to report to certain areas where the Ethiopian military can guard them while expropriating all the wealth of the urban dwellers. The third proposition argues for the waging of an expansive military campaign against ONLF military with the extensive use of military bombers tasked to bomb especially watering wells throughout Ogaden. It is important to note that it is not the first time that the autocracy in Addis Ababa has come up with yet a ‘new’ plan to defeat ONLF in Ogaden. What has been observed in Ogaden is that these so called new plots always end up punishing the Ogaden civilians. Civilians become the sole target of the Ethiopian military and its associated militias at the first sign of military defeat at the hands of the ONLF fighters who are aided by superior morale coupled with an intimate knowledge of the Ogaden terrain. It was only April last year that the Ethiopian autocracy went on the offensive with the aim of uprooting ONLF from Ogaden. Instead of uprooting ONLF, the Ethiopian military and its associated militias ended up sustaining heavy casualties including the loss of over twenty five members of the highest military brass. Many of the dead brass were in a helicopter that was brought down in the town of Gabo Gabo. Political pundits and military experts in the horn predict that whatever plot the Ethiopian autocracy comes up with will end up punishing the Ogaden civilians the most. The prediction of the experts was concurred with by a source with first hand knowledge of the discussions that took place in these secret meetings. This source said that the target of the ‘new’ plot is the indiscriminate killing of civilians specially nomads and those in the rural areas. This source added that the head of the Ethiopian autocracy and the Ethiopian military brass despite public mutterings to the contrary have come to the realization that ONLF cannot be defeated militarily. Instead he said they intend to increase pressure on the Ogaden civilians in the hope that this might impact ONLF militarily. --Ogaden Online News:

http://www.ogaden.com/