Ethiopia>>>War on Terror Violating Human Rights in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia

By Cathy Majtenyi Nairobi 04 April 2007

An Ethiopian official denies an Associated Press report that says U.S. officials are interrogating terrorism suspects in secret prisons in Ethiopia. Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, says the report is likely true, given its own report documenting cooperation between the Kenyan, Ethiopian, Somali and U.S. governments on the war on terror. Cathy Majtenyi reports for VOA from Nairobi.

Ethiopia

According to the exclusive Associated Press report, hundreds of men, women and even children from 19 countries who were sent to Ethiopia from Kenya and Somalia are being held in secret prisons in Ethiopia, some being mistreated.

It says CIA and FBI agents hunting for al-Qaida militants are interrogating the prisoners, who are being kept without charge or access to lawyers or their families.

Bereket Simon, an advisor to Ethiopia's prime minister, denies the existence of secret prisons or interrogation by U.S. agents.

"Ethiopia does not have any secret prisons," said Bereket Simon. "Anybody who is accused of terrorist activity is handled with due process of law. We just take them to the court and make sure that the court gives us a permit to detain them. I can assure you: there is no U.S. interrogation taking place in Ethiopia in whatever forms."

Officials in the American Embassy in Nairobi were unavailable for comment.

U.S. government officials contacted by Associated Press admitted questioning prisoners in Ethiopia, but said they were following the law and needed to gather information on past attacks and current terrorism threats.

Much of AP's coverage concurs with a report that Human Rights Watch released late last week.

According to the report, Kenya, Ethiopia, the United States, and Somalia's transitional government worked closely together to capture and hold some people who had fled fighting between the Islamic Courts Union and Somalia's transitional government backed by Ethiopian troops. Many of the people who were targeted in December and January hold foreign passports.

Since late December, Kenyan security forces had arrested at least 150 people crossing the border, transferring them to Nairobi where U.S. officials, believing them to be terrorism suspects, interrogated them.

Many had subsequently been deported back to Somalia, where some were then sent to prisons in Ethiopia.

A London-based official with Human Rights Watch, Tom Porteous, tells VOA governments are using the war on terror against their political opponents.

"Local governments such as the Ethiopians, the Kenyans, will use the rhetoric of the war on terror as an excuse to clamp down on nationalist, local opposition groups, which really have no affiliation to international jihadism," said Tom Porteous.

For instance, in Kenya, Muslim groups have long been saying that the war on terror has made them vulnerable to illegal arrest, detention, and other abuses, a charge the government denies.

Porteous uses the example of Ethiopia to illustrate his point.

"The detainees who have been sent to Ethiopia appear to be members of Ethiopian rebel groups, mainly the Oromo Liberation Front and the Ogaden National Liberation Front," he said. "These are groups that have been opposed to the Ethiopian government for many years. The Ethiopian government has cracked down on them for many years and they have used torture against members of these groups."

Prime ministerial advisor Bereket denies that the Ethiopian government is using this opportunity to punish the rebel groups.

But, he says, the rebel groups much be punished if they do wrong.

"There are some Ogaden National Liberation Front members who are engaged in terrorist activities by planting bombs, by throwing grenades into hotels, and the like," he said.

Human Rights Watch's Porteous says he thinks the AP report is accurate, given his organization's investigations in Kenya.

381 Killed In 4 Days Of Somalia Battles

MOGADISHU, Somalia, Apr. 2, 2007

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(AP) Four days of fierce fighting between Somali forces and Islamic insurgents has killed 381 people in Mogadishu, a local human rights organization said Monday, as the government warned residents to abandon their homes ahead of a new military offensive.

During a lull in the violence, civilians were told to leave insurgent-held areas in Mogadishu as Somalia's transitional government said it planned new attacks with Ethiopian troops, tanks and helicopters to crush insurgents, backed by the remnants of an Islamic group driven from power in December.

On foot, using donkey carts, cars and trucks they poured out of the ruined coastal city, joining the exodus of 47,000 people _ mainly women and children _ who have sought safety in the last 10 days, according to the U.N.'s refugee agency. Since February almost 100,000 people have fled the growing violence.

Even by Somalia's bloody standards, the last four days of violence has been intense.

Rotting corpses still littered dusty alleyways and back streets in the south of the capital where much of the fighting took place.

"For the last four days we have registered 381 deaths and 565 people wounded," said Sudan Ali Ahmed, chairman of Elman Human Rights Organization. He said nearly all were civilians.

Monday's lull appears to follow a truce between Ethiopian forces and insurgents, brokered by Mogadishu's dominant clan. But it is unlikely to last.

"It is null and void," Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle said as Ethiopian troops were seen reinforcing close to insurgent strongholds in the south of the city.

Jelle dismissed reports that Ethiopian reinforcements were pouring into the city of 2 million. Around 4,000 Ethiopian troops are in Mogadishu, said Western diplomats who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because it related to security matters.

"We call on the civilians living in terrorist-held areas in Mogadishu to abandon their houses because it is possible that government troops may target these areas any time," Jelle said. "We have to clean al-Qaida elements from Mogadishu."

Gen. Abdullahi Ali Omar, the commander of Somalia's army, narrowly escaped a roadside bombing as he drove in a government convoy from his hotel Monday morning. One soldier was injured, said Somali presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamoud Hussein. "An al-Qaida cell was behind the explosion. They want to kill key government officials. They want to do here what they are doing in Iraq."

The insurgents are linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, which was driven from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers, accompanied by U.S. special forces. The U.S. has accused the courts of having ties to al-Qaida.

The Islamic courts stockpiled thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition during the six months they controlled Mogadishu. The insurgency will likely last until that stockpile is depleted, or key leaders are killed.

The militants have long rejected any secular government and have sworn to fight until Somalia becomes an Islamic emirate.

Experts fear the conflict in Somalia could engulf the region. In Egypt, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit sent urgent letters Sunday to the United Nations, Arab League and the African Union urging a speedy intervention to end the fighting in Somalia.

Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned each other.

Ugandan peacekeeper killed as Mogadishu battle rages

Story by MOGADISHU, Sunday Publication Date: 4/2/2007

Mortar bombs crashed into central Mogadishu Sunday and Uganda said it had lost its first peacekeeper there as battles pitting Ethiopian and Somali troops against Islamist insurgents entered a fourth day. A young Somali lies on a hospital bed with bullet wounds in the south of Mogadishu yesterday. Photo/REUTERS Scores of civilians have died and hundreds have been wounded in what the International Committee of the Red Cross says is the seaside capital’s worst clashes for more than 15 years. Ethiopian tanks and helicopter gunships pounded rebel strongholds as Islamists and clan militia fire back with machineguns, missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. Ugandan peacekeepers sent last month at the head of an African Union (AU) force to help Somalia’s interim government restore stability have been caught in the crossfire, pinned down at strategic sites, including the air and sea ports. “Our troops were guarding the presidential compound on Saturday when it was struck by mortars. One of our soldiers was killed,” Ugandan military spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye told Reuters by telephone from Kampala. Five others were injured. Previous ambushes by insurgents that wounded two Ugandans had already made other African states wary of sending more men to boost the AU force to its planned strength of 8,000. Burundi, Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria have pledged to send troops. A fourth day of fighting broke out in Mogadishu on Sunday with a barrage of artillery shells striking neighbourhoods near the main soccer stadium – the site of some of the heaviest fighting since the Ethiopian offensive was launched on Thursday. Thousands of people have fled the city. “We are now being shelled heavily,” one resident, who asked not to be named, said on Sunday. “People are very scared.” Civilians were the main victims. Hospitals were overwhelmed, although most wounded were unable to seek help and doctors were trapped at home due to the ongoing battles. The fighting shattered a brief and shaky truce between the Ethiopians and leaders of the city’s dominant clan, the Hawiye. Security sources said the African Union (AU) was trying to arrange more talks between the two sides to reinstate that ceasefire, but were facing massive mutual mistrust. Reuters

Somali violence 'worst in years'

Somali violence 'worst in years'

The number of wounded and killed is unknown

The Somali capital Mogadishu is being wracked by the worst fighting in 15 years, with dozens killed and thousands fleeing the violence, aid agencies say.

Fighting resumed on Saturday for the third day, since Somali and Ethiopian troops launched an offensive against Islamist insurgents.

Ethiopia said it had killed 200 rebels in the course of the operation.

But civilians said the city was being shelled indiscriminately, and that bodies were lying in the streets.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the fighting was the heaviest in Mogadishu in 15 years, since the aftermath of the overthrow of Siad Barre in 1991.

I saw two of my neighbours get killed - I'm not going to stay here anymore Mohamed Deq Abukar Aroni Mogadishu resident

Since then the country has been torn by constant fighting. A rare six months of order imposed by the Islamists ended when they were ousted by Ethiopian troops in December.

One resident said that, despite the capital's violent past, he had never been forced to leave, until now.

"Today I'm fleeing because shells are hitting residential areas indiscriminately," said Mohamed Deq Abukar Aroni, carrying two mattresses on his head, while his children carried belongings in paper bags.

"I saw two of my neighbours get killed. I'm not going to stay here anymore," he told the Associated Press.

Helicopter hit

A doctor at Alhayat Hospital said the building had come under mortar fire, and two staff had been wounded.

"Since early this morning I have been hiding here from the mortar shells so I can't help rescue people. I urge the two sides to respect health facilities," Dr Mohamed Dhere told AP on Friday.

Dozens of people died in heavy fighting on Thursday

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed for an immediate end to the fighting, saying in a statement he was "particularly concerned about the use of air strikes and the introduction of tanks and heavy artillery into densely populated parts of the city".

Ethiopia's information ministry said 200 members of the Union of Islamic Courts had been killed in the two-day offensive, but there was no independent confirmation of this.

Witnesses described how two Ethiopian helicopters fired on a rebel stronghold on Friday, before one of them was hit by an anti-aircraft missile.

"Smoke billowed from the cabin and it turned towards the ocean," Swiss journalist Eugen Sorg told Reuters.

"It crashed at the south end of the airport runway."

A spokesman for Ugandan troops, in Somalia as part of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, said they had recovered the bodies of two crew.

'Terrorist links'

Some 1,700 Ugandan troops are in Mogadishu as the advance party of an 8,000-strong AU force, which is supposed to replace the Ethiopian troops as they gradually withdraw.

Somalia's Interim Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Ghedi said the operation would continue in order to restore stability to Mogadishu.

"There are some insurgents in the city who have links with international terrorists and are fighting against the government and the people of Somalia," Mr Ghedi told the BBC Network Africa from the Arab League summit.

He said plans for the national reconciliation conference in April were under way and they have invited moderate Islamic scholars to the conference.

Helicopter shot down in Somalia

Helicopter shot down in Somalia

Helicopter gunships have been used in a security crackdown

A helicopter has been shot down in the Somali capital, as Ethiopian and Somali government troops battle to clear insurgents from Mogadishu.

"The helicopter looked like a ball of smoke and fire before crashing," Ruqiya Shafi Muhyadin told AP news agency as it crashed in an area near the airport.

Correspondents say the Ethiopian helicopter was hit by a missile as it bombed positions held by insurgents.

Dozens of people died in heavy fighting on Thursday, ending a six-day truce.

Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Ghedi insists the operation will continue, as it is aimed at restoring stability to the city, which has been wracked by conflict for 16 years.

Reconciliation

A Somali security officer at Mogadishu airport confirmed the crash to AFP news agency.

"Nobody came out," he said.

We barely slept last night. The sky was lit up by shelling all night Faisal Jamah Mogadishu resident

Fighting resumed on Friday as pro-government forces battled insurgents at close quarters near Mogadishu's main football stadium in the south of the city.

"A mortar has just fallen into the house next to me. We can hear crying and can see smoke," Faisal Jamah told Reuters news agency.

"We barely slept last night. The sky was lit up by shelling all night," he said.

"There are a lot of wounded, but there is no way to take them to the hospitals due to the fighting on the roads."

The BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says hospitals in the city are overwhelmed with the wounded from Thursday's battles and dead bodies were scattered in the streets.

'Terrorists'

Mr Ghedi said the media had exaggerated the scale of the fighting and also denied that his government was unpopular in Mogadishu.

"There are some insurgents in the city who have links with international terrorists and are fighting against the government and the people of Somalia - we are attacking their positions," Mr Ghedi told the BBC Network Africa programme from Saudi Arabia, where he is attending the Arab League summit.

Many civilians had been injured and wounded in recent weeks

On Thursday, crowds of people dragged bodies in uniform through the streets - it is not clear whether they belonged to Ethiopian or Somali soldiers.

Ethiopian helicopter gunship and tanks were deployed against the insurgents.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told parliament that two-thirds of its troops have left Somalia and the remaining soldiers will leave in consultation with the African Union.

Ethiopian troops helped install the interim government last December, replacing the Islamists who had governed the city for six months.

Some 1,700 Ugandan troops are in Mogadishu as the advance party of an 8,000 strong AU force.

Mr Ghedi also said that plans for the national reconciliation conference in April were under way and they have invited moderate Islamic scholars for the conference.

"Those who denounce violence and recognise the transitional federal charter for Somalia are welcome for the conference," he said.

Western governments have called on President Abdullahi Yusuf's government to involve moderate leaders of the ousted Union of Islamic Courts in the national reconciliation conference that will be held in Mogadishu.

Fresh Ethiopian troops arrive in central Somalia

GALKAYO, Somalia Mar 29 (Garowe Online) - Hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers crossed over the common border and entered Somalia overnight Thursday, according to sources in Galkayo.

The soldiers, estimated to number 500-strong with armored vehicles, were stationed in the outskirts of Galkayo, the capital of Mudug region in central Somalia.

Reliable sources in Galkayo told Garowe Online on the condition of anonymity that the Ethiopian troops were heading for the northern Somali city of Bossaso, a bustling port town that serves as Puntland’s economic hub.

There was no reason given for the arrival of fresh Ethiopian troops, even as that country’s leader, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, pledged to withdraw his remaining troops from Somalia.

At least 30 people died in Mogadishu on Thursday when Ethiopian troops forcefully entered insurgent strongholds in attempts to disarm the capital’s inhabitants. [ Full story]

Puntland declared itself an autonomous part of Somalia in 1998 and has enjoyed relative stability since.

The region’s vice president, Hassan Dahir Afqura, overturned yesterday’s decision by Interior Minister Ahmed Abdi Habsade to fire the Puntland police commander, Col. Said “Karama” Ali. [ Full story]

Col. Karama was accused of releasing a convicted felon without legal approval, according to a decree issued by the Interior Ministry.

Sent south

Puntland authorities deported more than 200 Somali people who hail for the southern regions of the country on Thursday, local sources said.

Government sources in Galkayo confirmed that 217 southerners, including women and children, were transported to the southern part of town by Puntland police and released.

These people were originally detained last week in the region’s capital, Garowe. Police officials said the individuals were arrested on suspicion of criminal involvement or attempting to be smuggled out to the Middle East.

Our correspondent in Garowe who visited the detainees last week reported that they looked weary and tired after the long trek from the southern regions to Puntland.

While in jail, the detainees were visited by UN officials, businesspeople and locals who were concerned about unsatisfactory conditions at the jail.

Source: Garowe Online

Somali Islamists allege suicide bomber killed 72 Ethiopian soldiers

March 28, 2007 (DOHA) — According to Al-Jazeera TV an Islamist Somali group alleged killing 72 Ethiopian soldiers by a Somali suicide bomber. The pan Arab chain said the videotape shows a suicide bomber reading his will, but didn’t confirmed the attack.

The Pan-Arab Satellite TV, Al-Jazeera, reported on Tuesday March 27 it had obtained a videotape that was posted by a Somali group calling itself (Harakat Shabab al-Mujahidin) the Mujahidin Youth Movement.

The group said the tape shows a person called Adam Sallad Adam carrying out a suicide operation, during which he detonates a booby-trapped car in a camp for the Ethiopian forces.

According to the statement issued by the group, the operation resulted in killing 72 Ethiopian soldiers.

The tape also shows a clip of the suicide bomber reading his will, in which he announces that he is carrying out this operation in revenge for the rape of Somali woman, Suuban Maalin, who said that Ethiopian soldiers raped her in the same camp where the explosion took place.

The authenticity of the tape could not be verified from an independent source, the said.

Oromo Americans to Rally for Adequate Media Coverage

Abdi Galgalo

March 28, 2007

Silently, the Horn of Africa has become the Bush Administration’s new “war on terror” franchise. This joint venture of the United States and the terrorist ethnocratic regime of Ethiopia has led many in the region to question the meaning of this “war on terror” and at what and whose cost it is being waged.

Following the horrible incident of September 11, many authoritarian regimes have jumped on the anti-terrorism bandwagon in order to quell domestic political demands and obtain support from the U.S. This includes the repressive regime of Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, which has made incessant attempts to mischaracterize the legitimate struggle of the Oromo people for national self-determination. Despite this effort, the world is increasingly recognizing this legitimate struggle against tyranny, oppression, and marginalization.

When the unpopularity of the Zenawi regime reached its climax in 2006, which coincided with the emergence of strong Islamic militia in Somalia, the regime frantically jumped onto the “war on terror” bandwagon and effectively exploited the Islamophobia of the West in its presentation of Somalia under Islamic courts as terrorists’ heaven. Consequently, in addition to divert attention from its domestic political crises, Zenawi has managed to emerge as a principal beneficiary of the U.S.’s military and political backings.

Since the U.S. backed Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia, the political climate at the Horn of Africa has changed for the worse--Somalia has descended into chaos, and the repression of the Oromo people is intensified and is being perpetrated in the territories of Somalia and Kenya. Oromo refugees are being hunted down in Somalia for bounty and handed over to the invading Ethiopian militia. Some are killed on the spot by Ethiopian military forces and the fates of those who are taken to Ethiopia are unknown.

The heartbreaking pleas of Oromos from Somalia and Ethiopia are heard by fellow Oromos from across the world. In their respective communities, Oromo expatriates have rallied to be voices for their oppressed compatriots. Since Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia, the ethnic cleansing of the Oromo people has become intensified. Sadly, this act of crime against humanity has neither elicited adequate response from the international community, particularly the sponsors of Ethiopia’s invasion, nor received proper media coverage.

In order to address these disconcerting issues, Oromo Youth leaders are organizing a rally at the Nation’s Capital to express their dismay at the lack of response from the international community to these atrocities and the “deafening silence of the mainstream news media surrounding these atrocities”. In its press statement, the International Oromo Youth Association (I.O.Y.A) calls for an immediate cessation of the “harassment, illegal detention, kidnapping, lynching, and cold-blooded murder of Oromo refugees in Somalia” and calls on all peace-loving people to attend the rally.

The rally, which is going to take place on March 31, 2007 at 12pm starting at the State Department in Washington DC, is expected to be attended by many Oromos and non-Oromos from all across North America.

The full text of the press report from the International Oromo Youth Association follows:

Blair apologises over slavery but cleric says: Not enough

Story by Reuters Publication Date: 3/27/2007

Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed Britain’s “deep sorrow and regret” yesterday for the country’s role in the slave trade as events take place to mark the anniversary of its abolition in the British Empire. Ghanaian actors perform a show on slavery at Elmina castle in Cape Coast on Sunday, to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slave trade in Britain. Photos/REUTERS However the second most senior cleric in the Church of England said the government should make a formal apology for the trade which was abolished by parliament exactly 200 years ago on March 25, 1807. In a recorded message for celebrations in Ghana – a source of many of the slaves – marking the bicentenary of the abolition, Mr Blair said it was right that the occasion was marked across British cities which had played a role in slavery. “It is an opportunity for the United Kingdom to express our deep sorrow and regret for our nation’s role in the slave trade and for the unbearable suffering, individually and collectively, it caused,” Blair said. Earlier this month, Mr Blair said he was “sorry” for Britain’s role but Archbishop of York John Sentamu said Mr Blair still needed to go further. “A nation of this quality should have the sense of saying we are very sorry and we have to put the record straight,” he told the BBC. “This community was involved in a very terrible trade, Africans were involved in a very terrible trade, the Church was involved in a very terrible trade ... it’s important that we all own up to what was collectively done.” On Saturday, Archbishop Sentamu joined about 3,600 others in marches through central London as part of a series of events in Britain to mark the anniversary of the abolition of the brutal trade. “The easiest thing in the world is to look back 200 years and say we wouldn’t have made those mistakes,” the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said. A campaign by British politician and philanthropist William Wilberforce persuaded first the church and then the public and finally parliament that the lucrative trade was abhorrent and should be banned. Although the practice was outlawed, the lucrative trade continued for many years with ship captains, facing heavy fines, not hesitating to dump their human cargoes overboard if they were caught. “We must act to tackle the many forms of modern day slavery, the forced recruitment of child soldiers, human trafficking and bonded labour,” he said. “There is a great deal more to do.” Meanwhile, in Elmina, Ghana, descendants of slaves and dignitaries gathered at a white-washed former slave fort to remember the more than 10 million Africans – some estimates say up to 60 million – sent on slave ships to the New World. “Through this dark era of human history, the mystery of it all ... was the indomitable human spirit that could not be broken,” said Ghana’s President John Kufuor, his voice echoing around the castle courtyard. “Man should never descend to such low depths of inhumanity to man as the slave trade ever again.” Elmina was sub-Saharan Africa’s first permanent slave trading post, built by the Portuguese in 1492. It passed to England and by the 18th century shipped tens of thousands of Africans a year through “the door of no return” to slave ships. “It was so bad the way they maltreated our forefathers, the way they chained them and imprisoned them for so many years,” said Mr Anthony Kinful, 38, a storekeeper near the Elmina fort. “If I see white people now, I think badly of them.” After years of campaigning by anti-slavery activists like politician William Wilberforce, Britain banned the trade in slaves from Africa on March 25, 1807. It did not outlaw slavery itself until 1833 and the transatlantic trade continued under foreign flags for many years. In Ghana on Sunday, Britain’s first black cabinet minister Baroness Valerie Amos, herself a descendant of slaves who was born in Guyana, joined South African jazz icon Hugh Masekela and Jamaican-born reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson at the ceremony. Countless Africans perished on the voyage or on disease-infested plantations in the Americas. Mr Kufuor dismissed talk of reparations because of the active involvement of Africans in the slave trade. In neighbouring Sierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest countries originally founded as a haven for freed slaves, journalist Samuel Beckley said Africa was still suffering. “Slavery took away our strong men,” Mr Beckley said at a church founded in 1808 by exiled Jamaican Maroons – slaves who revolted against British rule. “The economic potential of Africa was put in reverse gear ... The only way to make amends is reparations.” The anniversary has raised awareness of modern-day forms of bondage, from illegal chattel slavery still practised in some nations in Africa’s dry Sahel belt, to mafias which traffic African girls as prostitutes to the West. “The traffic in human beings is clearly not over,” said Ghanaian poet Kofi Anyi Doho. “There are no boats to anchor next to a slave fort but people are being forced into ... a form of enslavement all over the world.”

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Conspiracy of the Eritrean government against Oromo national struggle

Conspiracy-No.1
After Dergu was ousted by popular forces, EPLF led Eritrean to referendum and Eritrea became an independent state. The next question of the EPLF at that time was how to rebuild Eritrea . The new born nation was torn by war and had no sufficient national resource. The most plausible step to take was to get access to Ethiopia for more resources to be taken to Eritrea .
TPLF, being a laboratory product of Eritrea , had no gut to say no to Eritrean dream at that time for many reasons. First, TPLF had no political ground in Ethiopia at that time. Second OLF was getting more popularity than TPLF through out Oromia. For TPLF to consolidate its power and for Eritrean to get access to Ethiopians large national resource, the two secret friends decided to play a political maneuver against OLF. Destroying OLF for once and for all or weakening it was their primary agenda.
In 1991-1992 transition period, Eritrea and the Meles regime strengthen their relation. Among other things, Eritrean deployed her soldiers to enforce the encampment policy of Oromo liberation army (OLA). By doing that Eritrea soldiers not only were able to know the number of OLF soldiers but got all necessary information about the military status of OLF.

The Evil Mission
Though she miscalculated the consequence, Eritrea decided to destroy the OLF for her mission of looting the Oromo national resource. To satisfy her wild ambition, Eritrea participated in the mass massacre of WBO which was already disarmed. WBO was disarmed in accordance with the agreement made for the establishment of transitional government. Disarmament of OLA (Oromo Liberation Army) by itself was a secret plan for the successful mission of destroying OLF from the very beginning. The two forces, the TPLF and EPLF collaborated to destroy the Oromo freedom fighters. They secretly planned and implemented their hidden agenda of re-colonizing the Oromo nation, this time by the Tigre children. They brutally aborted the Oromo nation’s aspiration for freedom. Eritrea did not only participate in destroying Oromo liberation forces, but also in incarcerating and torturing hundreds of thousands of Oromo nationals, killing innocent Oromo nationals for supporting OLF, raping Oromo girls and women, looting properties of Oromo nationals who supported the OLF, and made tens of thousands of Oromo nationals to flee from their home country.

The exodus of Eritrean

A famous Oromo proverb says thieves fight in sharing what they stole. That was what happened in 1998 when Eritrean and TPLF went into that bloody war. After OLF was successfully driven out of the country, Eritrea launched her economic mission covertly and overtly in Ethiopia . Eritrea nationals not only become economic giants but they also became dominant political icons in Ethiopia . As a nation, Eritrea was included into the list of countries which export quality coffee to the international coffee market. (To help you appreciate this fact no single coffee tree grows on Eritrea soil).In Ethiopa, Eritrean owned hotels, jewelries, spare parts, snacks, banks, construction companies, consultancy services, transport companies, oil distributors, transporters and other looting mechanisms.
Apart from this economic dominance, Eritrean nationals proudly overlooked onto native Ethiopians. With contempt they continued telling the natives that Eritrean are the best race. In situations of conflict, Eritrean had no problem. They can intimidate the natives by brandishing their pistols. They can even call a TPLF soldier, security or police and the poor Ethiopian was only at the mercy of the Eritrean to be released from jail for making such an offence against an Eritrean citizen. In fact Eritrean were ‘proud’ enough to tell the Tigres from south Eritrea that they are only “ Agame”, whom Eritrean hire just for fetching water in Asmara, not for any thing more important.

Yes, the contempt that Eritrean had for TPLF soldiers and for “ Agames” in general annoyed the ‘Agames” from time to time. More importantly, “ Agames were not able to scoop the Ethiopian economy as smartly as Eritrean. They felt their share is getting thinner, because Eritrean were very smart in scooping. The guys from Eritrea do business internationally. They control the sea port, red sea. So they pay no tax at the port. Things were different for ‘Agames’ and even harder for other native Ethiopians who are obliged to pay taxes. Some times their products are deliberately made late at the port and the cost of making business became very high for them. At last they lose the game to Eritrean. The Malasa government had to do something or they would loss the game in the long run at all. So, they fabricated that border war in which hundred of thousands of innocent Ethiopian lost their live and a good sum of national economy was destroyed. Ethiopian youth were used as human machinery to run over the explosives and mines of Eritrea . Who won the war? Only the two cousins know it.

Regretted?! If he could turn the hands of time!

TPLF called on to the one Ethiopia sentiment ( Ethiophiawinet) of the Amahara to get national support to fight the war against Eritrea . It conscripted hundreds of thousands of unemployed and poverty stricken youth into national service, promising them high salary. They had no option. The youth opted for the lesser evil. Others were forced by gun. Using these human machinery, they were able to drive Eritrea out.

Eritrea did not only lose the military war to Ethiopia . The greatest loss was that of economy. The transition period Eritrean millionaires lost the wealth they earned though looting to the ‘Agames’. Kalas!!!!!! Ye naqut Yasregizal!!!!!! ‘Agames’ grabbed the Eritrean wealth by nationalizing it or by other techniques.
It is unfortunate that some innocent Eritrean also became the victim of such vicious plans.
Later, Mr. Isayas must have been regretted for cracking a deal with his ‘inferiors’ who are not true to their words. He must have regretted because his cousin ( Malasa) did not live to a gentle men agreement.

Looking for a Trojan horse
The second conspiracy of the Eritrean Dictator against the Oromo people’s national struggle for freedom started at the time when Eritrea started war with Ethiopia. Having seen the “inferior” people gave them a bloody nose, Eritrean leaders started a way to revenge Malasa and get access to the Ethiopians vast natural resource. To achieve this, they surely needed a Trojan horse.

Candidate Trojan horses of the Time
Amahara based Political forces
Somali based political forces
South nations and Nationality based political forces.
Oromo based political forces

Isayas considered all options one by one and picked the one that suited his requirement at that time (1998). Amharas were blinded by the new call of Mallasa government on Ethiopianism and they even began talking of annexing back Eritrea to Ethiopia . Some Dergu military personnel who were recalled back to serve in the national service started speaking in public that their last destination in the war would be Mitsuwa, the Eritrean port. Isayas, thus could not make any undertaking with Amahara political organizations at that time. Somalis and south nations and nationalities were not good choice either. The only option was to persuade the OLF. But how, after they destroyed us?!!!

Conspiracy No.2
Shabiya had been following merciless kill and survive strategy through out her history. She successfully exterminated her enemies and totally destroyed or collapsed most of her political opponents. Having seen her vicious tactics, OLA leaders were not willing to accept Eritrean proposal of hosting the Oromo liberation struggle, at the beginning. But Isayas had to play his divide and conquer policy against our leaders. That is when he implemented his conspiracy No.2 against our national struggle. He successfully divided Oromo leaders (Oromo Liberation Army for that matter), financed both group so that they weaken each other and took home the group that he believed could suit his future mission. Isayas successfully germinated a seed of hatred among brothers. Oromo liberation fighters fought each other, killed each other, and destroyed each other. Since then, the evil seed grew into avalanches of evils to shake Oromo unity. Know Shabiya can easily monitor our struggle. Can OLF have an Organization secret hidden from Shabiya at all? They can tap every telephone OLF people use, monitor all electronic mails. Thus, they can control every single bit of Oromo struggle, even to the advantage of Malasa.

Our National struggle is taken hostage

The question that every Oromo must ask himself/herself today is whether we as a nation are in control of our national struggle or whether somebody else is in control of it. After OLF leadership made Asmara its centre, OLF launched a number of missions against TPLF. Most/all of these missions were not successful. OLF surprised us only by sacrificing prominent military figures who could have led the organization to better political level and hundreds of brave Oromo children were scarified without any achievements.
The recent coalition made between CUD and the OLF only amplified my suspicions that Eritrean overtook the OLF leadership completely, telling us what to do, how to do and when to do and with whom to do!!!!! As an individual Oromo, I am feeling bitter about what is going on.
Now, we may talk about OLF’s achievement in terms of diplomacy, that the West may give us attention as we made a paradigm shift in thinking and leadership strategy. However, we must ask ourselves, what is the consequence of this decision on the coming generation, the generation that is fighting teeth and bone with TPLF at home? Why to give up? Even Somaliya Islamic court is becoming a government regardless of America ’s pressure and condemnations! What do we lack to fight our enemy at home?
At last I call onto all Oromo nationals of free will to urge the Eritrea government to stop its conspiracy against our national struggle. I also call on OLF leadership to distance it self from this vicious enemy which is worse than TPLF.

Injiffannoon uummata Oromoof!!!!!

Waalessa Wale

Ethiopian Military officers Defect to ONLF

From: Mathaba

Report confirms the defection of seven high-ranking Ethiopian military officers to Ogaden National Liberation Front, ONLF (photo: Reuters)

Latest reports reaching our service desk from the frontlines in and around the Nogob province especially in the city of Fiiq confirm the defection of seven high-ranking Ethiopian military officers to Ogaden National Liberation Front, ONLF. It was only yesterday, Ogaden local time, when three Ethiopian military personnel have defected to ONLF and asked for a safe passage to Somalia where they believe they can get Somali smugglers who can take them to Kenyan refugee camps. It is reported that many more soldiers are expected to defect to ONLF in the coming days. Some Ogaden civilians who have had conversations with the defecting soldiers prior to their defection to ONLF told our reporter in Fiiq that there are two pressing matters that are forcing the Ethiopian soldiers to defect. The first matter is said to be massive corruption within the Ethiopian military, which resulted in many soldiers not having received their salaries for many months. The other they said is due to the fact that they being asked to wage battles they are unprepared to fight let alone win. --Ogaden Online News

http://www.ogaden.com/

Ethiopia>>Explosion rocks Ethiopian base in Mogadishu

(SomaliNet) A heavy explosion has occurred inside one of the compounds housing the Ethiopian forces in northern suburb of Somalia capital Mogadishu on Monday – there is immediate casualty on the blast.

Witnesses told Somalinet that the explosion rocked the Ethiopian base in El-Irfid area in north of the capital but it is not yet clear what caused it. Residents near the compound believe that explosives went off inside the campus.

Some reports say that a bomb has been thrown into the base where hundreds of Ethiopian forces are stationing to protect the interim government against armed oppositions.

At least one person said to be a taxi driver has been killed by the shrapnel of the blast as he was passing near the base.

The Ethiopian forces have been facing attacks by the insurgents since their arrival in the capital late December 2006. The Ethiopians helped the interim government to oust the Islamic Courts in two weeks.

Earlier, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi reiterated that he is pulling his troops out of Somalia in three phases. Some of the Ethiopian forces have already withdrew from the country.

Pacifying Somalia: United in Extremism The War on Terror is preventing security in Somalia

By: Liam Bailey

The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) did something that many before them had tried and failed. They brought peace and security from complete chaos and total violence in areas under their control in southern and central Somalia after July 2006. For the first time in fifteen years children could go to school safely and hospital's could treat the sick instead of wounded. And with no gunmen on the streets to charge truck drivers fees for safe passage food prices dropped. The previous 15 years of violence had filled a power vacuum left by the ousting of Dictator Siad Barre, as Somalia's many warlords, clans and sub-clans vied for a bigger piece of the pie. The Islamic Courts within the union that were predominant in their sweep to power followed Salafism, a hard-line strain of Islam widely associated with extremism and terrorism. Thus the UIC became another target under the War on Terror. But perhaps with Somalia's history of inter-clan violence an extreme faith in the country's religion is needed to supersede the tribal traditions of warlord rule. The current violence is a good example of this. On the surface it is a UIC insurgency waging the holy war they promised against the Transitional Federal Government (TFG)and their Ethiopian backers. In reality it is more complex. The latest fighting has been sparked by a government and Ethiopian push to disarm Somalia ahead of unification talks. Given Somalia's history of tribal violence and being ruled by the gun it is surely foolish for the government to expect the tribes to give up their arms before any unification agreements have been reached. This has made the insurgency more popular than it neccesarily would have been. The UIC is no doubt taking a big part in the violence against the government but perhaps an equal part is other clans fighting to hold on to their guns. The TFG's leader and Somalia's president Abdullahi Yusuf is a member of the Darod clan. The other clans believe he is favouring the Darod economically and politically. The TFG is made up of many warlords from other tribes. As no unification agreements have been reached and the clansmen's loyalty is still with their clan before the TFG, there is division within the government. The saying goes: divide and conquer. The TFG's division would therefore explain why the relatively unified UIC took control of Somalia so easily. It is a farce to expect rival warlords and clansmen cobbled together in Kenya as the TFG to govern Somalia without any unification, after years of inter-clan violence. The UIC is of course made up of rival clans but they have their extremist belief in the Islamic faith in common, giving them a unity which they have proven capable of governance. Somalia's Prime Minister is a member of Mogadishu's most prominent, Hawiye clan. The same clan that most of the UIC come from. Hopes were raised of an end to the recent violence when it was reported that elders of the Hawiye clan had met with TFG and Ethiopian leaders and agreed a truce, whereby forces from both sides would withdraw from the front lines. Even if both sides kept to their agreement it would not have stopped the violence from any of the other clans, sub-clans or Hawiye members fighting with the UIC and therefore not under the ceasefire. The violence stopped for a short period before resuming for a third day of heavy clashes. Hawiye sub-clans and/or militias, not consulted by the elders before agreeing the ceasefire and with competing interests are reported to have been responsible for the restart of fighting. The latest violence has killed around 24 people and hundreds have been wounded. 1500 Ugandan People's Defence Force troops are in Somalia as the first deployment of a planned 8000 African Union force. It is unclear when troops pledged by Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi and Burundi will be deployed. At any rate Somalis have a history of anger against foreign forces on their soil, as they showed with protests at the outset of the Ethiopian invasion. Their feelings toward the foreign intervention were displayed again in Mogadishu Mar 21., as an angry mob of militiamen and civilians, including women burned the bodies of uniformed soldiers and dragged their corpses through the streets in barbaric jubilation. The scenes echoed the bodies of U.S. soldiers dragged through the Mogadishu streets in 1993 after their Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in a failed attempt to capture a warlord. Although reports said the bodies were of two Ethiopian and two TFG soldiers, neither the Ethiopian military nor the TFG have confirmed their troops were involved. However the African Union has said its troops were not active in the area. The violence is not limited to the capital, according to a Relief Web report: One car was destroyed and at least six people were injured March 18, when four cars transporting UN staff from Baidoa to Mogadishu overran a land mine near Afgoye checkpoint. It is not clear whether the explosion was targeted and no one was killed in the attack. The Mogadishu-Beletweyne road remains highly insecure due to sporadic ambushes. Several other roads remain unsafe, with a high number of roadblocks on the road from Lower and Middle Juba to Mogadishu. In short, Somalia has returned to the lawlessness and violence it was suffering before the UIC uprising mid-2006. The U.N. and U.S. have praised the TFG's scheduling of reconciliation talks for April 19. However, many of the UIC players considered vital for a solution remain in exile in Yemen and Europe. The powerful Ayr sub-clan, thought responsible for much of the UIC's military strength are also claiming they have been excluded from participating in the government, which is dominated by rival clans. With so many clans and sub-clans, so many conflicting interests, a history of failed negotiations, broken agreements and such deep rooted hatred for the government, it is unlikely reconciliation talks called for by the government will succeed, and if they do it is doubtful the agreements will be kept. The UIC have proven they can stabilize and govern Somalia. The insurgency's growing popularity among Somalis proves the Somali people didn't resent the UIC's strict rule as much as they do the current government. Instead of reconciliation talks there should be a vote of the Somali people. Call it a referendum or an election, call it what you like but give them their say. It is the Somali people who have to live under the rule of their government and it is the Somali people who should decide what that government is. Certainly not people enjoying the absolute freedom of a long successful democracy. Given that the only security Somalis have enjoyed was under the UIC it is likely they would vote their way. In that vote they would also be achieving what outside attempts to create a central government had in the Transitional National Government and its successor the TFG, a movement encompassing more than one Somali clan. Where they succeed over the failed attempts is the clans they encompass have the power to pacify Somalia. The Somali people have suffered long enough. Their suffering should not be prolonged because their security infringes on a war that has nothing to do with them. * Liam Bailey writes regularly for the Palestine Chronicle, Arabic Media Internet Network (amin.org) and is an advanced blogger on the Washington Post's Postglobal. He runs the War Pages blog and can be contacted by E-mail.

Ethiopian opposition warns “removing Eritrean govt” not valid option

March 24, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — The Ethiopian opposition parties have asked the Ethiopian government to continue with its ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure the release of the kidnapped Ethiopian. They further said that removing Eritrean government is not the responsibility of the government.

In a press conference held on Tuesday March 20, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), United Ethiopia Democratic Party-Medhin (UEDP-Medhin) and the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) expressed their concern over the safety of the abductees. The opposition parties, who said that they do not have enough information about the kidnapping, however, said the international community should condemn the act no matter who committed it.

Following the release of a group of Europeans linked to the British embassy in Ethiopia, tensions were growing between Ethiopia and Eritrea as the remaining eight Ethiopian captives are still believed to be in Eritrea.

The chairman of the UEDF, Prof Beyene Petros, having urged the abductors, no matter who they are, to release them immediately. He also said that he supports the statement issued by the government regarding the issue. He said although he does not have any information whether Eritrea had a hand or not in the issue.

He said that Ethiopia should not go to war with Eritrea based on this issue. It should only appeal to the international community according to the international law."

He said the Somalia and Eritrea issues are quite different. Ethiopia went to Somalia and removed the extremist group from Somalia at the invitation of the legal government and since the Eritrean issue is different from that Somalia, the Ethiopian government should not opt for fighting.

While the chairman of the OFDM, Bulucha Demeksa, said that it is difficult to rule out Eritrea’s involvement on the issue. However, he said the whole thing might have a mission to destabilize Ethiopia. He said if he is to believe that the rebel Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front was behind the abduction, then why does it set free the foreigners alone. He said he agrees with the Ethiopian government’s statement on the issue.

Bulucha said his information on the issue is so limited and hence he said it is difficult to speak with certainty. However, he said since the government has the information on the issue, he does not oppose the government blaming the Eritreans.

He urged the Ethiopian government to further continue with its diplomatic efforts according to the international laws of the UN and AU and said it is not right to ignite war in a bid to release the abducted citizens. He said he does not think fighting to be a solution to the problem.

However, he said: no matter how seriously we hate the Eritrean regime, the issue of removing the regime is the responsibility of the people and not ours." Bulucha said the government’s policy of neighboring countries should be based on peace.

The chairman of the UEDP-Medhin, Lidetu Ayalew, said that the whole issue is so saddening and said that he does not have enough information on who carried out the abduction. He said even if the government blames Eritrea of having a hand in the issue, the information given by the government is not sufficient and convincing. He said we should not take any action before officially knowing the culprits.

(ST)

Oromo>>US ‘friend’, tyrant Zenawi: feeding hyenas with Ethiopian liberation fighters’ corpses

Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

March 24, 2007

Repugnant and inhuman practices carried out by the Abyssinian gangsters of the Tigray and Amhara tribes who rule Abyssinia, mendaciously calling it ‘Ethiopia’, come to surface and make all the other tyrannies, from Zimbabwe to Iran, pale in comparison.

Mendaciously calling the entire country ‘Ethiopia’ to demonstrate that it thus ‘represents’ its outright Ethiopian majority, the Abyssinian cannibalistic thugs, after massacring the anti-Abyssinian, Ethiopian liberation fighters, they dispose of their corpses for hyena consumption.

This practice transfers the entire Mankind back to the times of Australopithecus, automatically obliterating all the steps of Human Civilization Progress from the Neolithic to the Space Conquest.

If not immediately castigated by governments, international bodies, NGOs, and intellectuals allover the world, the hyena feeding with corpses of Ethiopian liberation fighters by the Abyssinian cruel thugs will bear witness to the most appalling act perpetrated in the 3rd millennium, and to a definite moral collapse of the Mankind.

Call for immediate:

-UN investigation of the Abyssinian tyrant’s cannibalistic practices

-Interpellation of dictator Meles Zenawi in front of international bodies, notably the International Court of Justice

-Removal of the African Union headquarters from tyrannized and cannibalized Finfinne (do not call it Addis Ababa anymore, please)

-Free referendum for Independence of Oromo, Sidama and Afar Ethiopia, Freedom for Ogaden

To offer readers allover the world the details of the appalling and indescribable practices of criminal tyrant Zenawi, we republish herewith integrally a Press Release issued by the Oromo Liberation Front.

Help save Human Dignity!

Oromos are fed to wild beasts in their own homeland

The ongoing atrocities perpetuated by the Ethiopian minority regime against the Oromo people took a new turn recently when 19 Oromos (age ranging from 14yrs teen to 70yrs old elderly man) were murdered and their corpses were intentionally disposed in beast-infested jungle for hyena consumption. The corpses of 19 Oromos were fully eaten up by hyenas and their relatives were left with no remains for burial.

In any civilized human culture dead bodies are dignified and human remains deserve dignified burial. In stark contrast with such universal humane standards, our people are being hunted in their own homes, massacred in mass and their remains are fed to wild beasts by a regime devoid of any human dignity. This inhumane act of cruelty is in accordance with the recent declaration by Prime Minister Melles Zenawi in which he criminalized any association with the Oromo Liberation Front, legalizing mass murder as a result of political views. The first phase of the mass killing mission has been executed in Eastern Oromia zone under the banner of "eliminating opposition supports". We have earlier reported the murders taken place around the hills known as Suufii and Daalacha, in Mi'essoo district, in which more than 20 innocent people were killed.

The names of people fed to wild animals, those tortured beyond recovery and those languishing in concentration camps are compiled as follows:

a)Those fed to hyena

1) Ayihsaa Aliyyii

2) Ahmad Mahammad Kurree

3) Adam Abdukariim

4) Adam Ammee Yaasuuf

5) Ahamad Abrahim (boruu)

6) Mahamad Eeliyaas Guutoo

7) Yaasuf Ibroo

8) Ahmad Abduraman

9) Abdallaa Mahamad Beruu

10) Mahamad Aliyyii Turee

11) Adinaan Mahammad

12) Ahmad Mahamad

13) Ahmad Korreaa

14) Ahmad Aliyyii

15) Ahmad shankoor

Oromo>>OUR few MEN IN AMERICA

Those few men who told us that they represent the Oromo nation some 16 years ago are still around doing the same thing via their imposed set of immoral and stand less day to day changing political gambling mood. Since the day these few men started controlling the Oromo political stage, many nations around the world became independent nations.

While these few will never ever learn a thing from the realities we live in, more independent nations are continued emerging even in a once upon a time united Iraq as the Kurds and the Shiyats are very close to form their own free state leaving the Suni chauvinist in their own small village alone.

That means, the opposition of militarily strong Turkey to the freedom of the Kurds will never stop the Kurds from creating free Kurdistan state and the opposition of the Sunis will never stop the majority Shiyats from forming their own free state if they want to. It is obvious that Sunis hate the idea of free Shiyats and Kurds state because Sunis richness comes from the oil fields of the Shiyats and Kurds.

When the shame of failure we faced as a nation will remain to haunt us for centuries to come, we will remain lacking any influence in the political arena of the so called Ethiopia because of these few men who could not even control one small village before and after year 1991 while small Tigreans from the north were able to walk thousands kilometers freely deep into the heart of Oromia and now here they are sucking Oromia's natural resources thanks to our cowards who never have a courage beyond sniffing power leftovers from every succeeding Habasha powerful men.

Tucked in the warmth of illusionary power grid, our men in America still make few trips between European and some American cities to fund raise for their hotel and travel expenditures, yet, again they can't see future free Kurdistan or Shiyaits states and hence they still preach about the necessity of listening to the state department of America. In the mean time, our Suni like Tigrians work hard to develop their home-land Tigri just incase they had to go home when forced by another armed force. Many assumed that force to be us, the Oromians, yet, reality shows this time it will be the Gondares and another Tigre group who will probably come to power as opposed to the Brihanu Bayeh group from Gojam during the Derg era who controlled the entire country.

Blinded by the the 1970s organizational model they were acustomed to, our few men in America still sing their two lovely songs, one that is especially composed to flatter the Habashas and the second being composed to warm up Oromians saddened heart. Interesting enough, these men still dominate our political scene regardless of their incapable and tragic opposing views. They rarely stop there, because they have the audacity peculiar to the group) to equate Oromian's matter with their group interest forgetting that Oromia and group thinking can not co exist very well. In 1991 when they observed the entire nation of Oromia was roaring patriotism at the top of its voice, our men in America told their audience that they will chase these few Tigre boys away over night just by protesting the charter which they were the part of and took refugee via Bole and lucky Tigreans end up being Africa's millionaires just like that!

What distorted these men's thinking?

To answer this question, it is very important to ask why these few men are afraid of the White man. If we look deep into the minds of trained solders, we will find out the fact that a trained soldier will shot and kill any body with out asking any question once an order is given to him by his superiors. Like wise, most of us believe that God looks like a White man or Angels are White because we were taught to belive it. Now, if a child who's brain was so conditioned to the fact that it is a white man who will give liberty or deny, he or she will enjoy an implicit idea that guarantees him or her a bailout and thus his/her mind is insulated from allowing any other idea or thinking to sink in. As we can see, this insulation spurred our men to abandon any other available means to fight the Tigre colonialism. As a result, our supposedly liberators invested their security and every endeavors in the will of the big God like master America, thereby fueling the weakness of the organization they claim to lead the Oromian patriotism. This obviously provided men like David shinn a chance to help the Tige government more and more allowing the Tigreans to milk Oromia three times a day while forcing our men to wrongly associate themselves with QINIJIT of mythical "political cycle".

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?

Unless and until we get these few individuals out of Oromo politics where they only create weakness after weakness, we will remain vulnerable to Tirgeans painful COLONIZATION. If we quietly watch these few men continue doing what they are doing today, we will continue plummeting deep into the shame we are currently in, of course the blame lies squarely right on our sholders. To day is year 2007 and Oromians motivation to do something about the Tigre colonization has gone down compared to year 1998 or year 2001. This is due to these few men's blind trust in the power of the American government to give away a power by taking it away from the Tigreans. Naive? Absolutely!.

America or Europeans did nothing good in Africa, though they were forced to help out many Latin America countries by the ideology Fidel Castro put forth to unite the Latinos against the united states of America in the past. That is why they were forced out of Africa at a gun point. For example, Nelson Mandela was in prison for 27 years but the state department of America did not offer democracy to Mandela and to the nation of south Africa nor they say a word to the TPLF murders who have killed more Oromians than the Derg under Mengistu.

It is true we have our own internal problems such as economic problems that may prevent people from reading or attending meetings but even that could have been improved should our few men in America never ignored Oromo communities cry for leadership. Here, it is important to recognize the fact that selfish individuals used the Oromo community to control the leaders of liberation organization. Most of them lied when they exadurated their organizational capacity to organize the community and even controlled Oromo political organization leaders by refusing to release funds collected from the said community members.

The consciousness level of many opportunists also another major problem for Oromo unity. Last year when Meles Zenawi announced the availability of power sit in his parliament for any one who wants it, we've seen how many people jumped on Meles Zenawi's political wagon.

ONA recalls the arguments made by those whom we thought were pro liberation yet who end up being mute opportunists. Greedy men who's cunning behavior is the focal point of Oromo weakness also play perhaps 60% of the wakening role. These kinds of people are those who never overcome their selfishness that is to glaring to ignore. Localist envy and jealousy and the infiltration of Tigre spies lives us under a brutal Tigre dictatorial rule and that may continue for many years to come unless nationalist Oromians use different form of struggle which requires the cleaning up task first.

So far, Oromo politics has lost Oromo-self regardless of this group or that group's negative attitude. It seems each Oromo political group copy each other's organizational style. Clearly, all of them pretend to be hardcore Oromo conservatives who uphold Oromo values and norms but the result shows either nothing or the opposite.

Rundassa Ashete Hunde

opsa@erda.net

Ethiopian tanks open fire as Somalia fighting rages

MOGADISHU, Thursday

Ethiopian tanks guarding a Somali government base in Mogadishu opened fire on unidentified attackers today as clashes broke out in the capital for a second straight day.

Somali women throw stones at the smoldering body of a goverment soldier after he was killed during heavy fighting in Mogadishu today. (AP Photo).

Witnesses said the cannons thundered repeatedly over a 10-minute period, followed by the chatter of machine guns around the base, situated in a former defence department headquarters.

A separate gun battle also raged in the northern Ramadhan neighbourhood, witnesses said.

It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties, but hundreds of residents – mainly women and children – fled the fighting pushing their belongings on donkey carts.

“The fighting is still going on. It is the remnants of the Islamists and the government fighting,” said a Ramadhan resident who declined to be identified for fear of reprisal.

The defence department base has been a favourite target of gunmen who almost daily launch hit-and-run attacks on the government and its allies, including African Union (AU) peacekeepers from Uganda who arrived this month.

Both areas were strongholds for the Islamist movement that ruled Mogadishu and its environs for the last half of 2006, until the government and Ethiopian soldiers defeated them and took the capital just before the New Year. The fighting follows one of the bloodiest days in Mogadishu since the government and its Ethiopian allies took over the city from the Islamic courts.

On Wednesday, residents dragged the corpses of what appeared to be government soldiers through the streets before burning them, after gunmen opposed to the government and its allies fought gun battles that killed at least 16 people.

The grisly scenes recalled the aftermath of the 1993 downings of two US Black Hawk helicopters by Somali militiamen during a failed American operation to capture a warlord.

The images of dead American troops being dragged through the streets helped prompt the pullout of US, and later, UN peacekeepers who were battered by regular militia attacks in the Horn of Africa nation.

Though many believe the insurgents are defeated Islamists, diplomats say criminals, warlord fighters and clan militiamen have also joined into a loose coalition opposed to a government they believe is a tool of foreign interests.

In Adado in north-central Somalia late on Wednesday, one soldier was killed and three others were wounded after an inter-clan dispute broke out at a government military camp, a doctor who treated the wounded said.

The fight was between soldiers from interim President Abdullahi Yusuf’s Darod clan and others from the Hawiye clan, a traditional rival. Clan politics play a huge role in Somalia, and the rivalry between the Hawiye and Darod has caused major

Reuters

Somalian Street Battles Kill 16, Bodies Set on Fire

At least 16 people have been killed in Somalia capital Mogadishu and dozens were wounded in street battles between interim government forces along with Ethiopian soldiers, and heavily armed insurgent groups.

Most of casualties were civilians killed by the gun fire and artilleries.

The fighting started around former defense ministry compound in south of the capital where based by Ethiopian forces at about 6:09 am local time this morning and then spread into other new areas.

Somalian government lost 7 soldiers while the body of Ethiopian soldier was dragged on the streets by angry mobs, SomaliNet reports.

Bodies of two government soldiers were also set on fire by infuriated residents. A Reuters reporter who witnessed the gruesome scene said he could not tell if the victim was Somali or Ethiopian. The reporter also saw the bodies of three civilians and one gunman.

It was the bloodiest fighting in the capital since the arrival of the Ethiopian backed interim government in December 2006.

Oromo>HORN OF AFRICA: 'Cattle rustling goes commercial'

NAIROBI, 21 March 2007 (IRIN) - Cattle rustling in the Horn of Africa, formerly a means of replenishing animals for subsistence, is now widely practised as a commercial activity, according to a development policy analyst. "Conflicts among pastoralists are no longer just small feuds to restock cattle after a dry spell. They have become more frequent and intense and are conducted to obtain cattle for sale elsewhere," said Abdalla Bujra, policy director of the Development Policy Management Forum, a regional civil society organisation involved in conflict analysis and resolution in eastern Africa. Cattle raids were traditionally a communal survival mechanism whereby nomadic pastoralists in mainly arid and semi-arid areas restocked their herds after losing livestock to natural disasters such as drought, Bujra said. Nomadic herders were able to peacefully move across borders in search of pasture but not any more, he said. "Cattle have become commercialised and conflicts have become big business in this region," he added. "The demand for livestock products in places like Nairobi, Dhobley [Somalia], Saudi Arabia and other places is huge," he said. Frequent and more violent cattle raids have also forced pastoralists to change their mode of operation. "These people are becoming more organised in the way they look for pasture, defend their water pans and trade with others," Bujra said. Pastoral communities are also increasingly adopting farming, charcoal trade and tourism as nomadic cattle-keeping becomes more precarious. In addition to the thriving cattle trade, Bujra said such cross-border conflicts were being fuelled by illegal small arms. The communities needed arms to protect themselves from other raiders and to defend their land from encroachment. Persistent conflicts have contributed to regional insecurity, stalling development. Governments in the Horn of Africa have attempted to deal with the problem, initiating peace and disarmament campaigns, so that warriors who normally engage in cattle rustling are encouraged to give up arms in exchange for money to start more peaceful income-generating activities. Bujra was discussing recent comparative research involving five pastoral communities in five countries - the Oromo of Ethiopia, Turkana and Pokot of Kenya, Karamojong of Uganda and Somalis. The research is intended to help in developing appropriate policy and strategies for coping with the challenges of conflict resolution in the region.

Eritrea: 6 Ethiopian soldiers seek asylum

(SomaliNet) Eritrea has said that it received 6 Ethiopian soldiers seeking asylum in Eritrea, The Ethiopian soldiers are Aberra Kidanemariam Abraha, Dagnew Belete Tesfai and Tesfai Abraha Goshu, all from the Tigray ethnic group, Desalegn Worku Beyene from the Amhara ethnic group, Melaku Babilo Ersulo from the Gurage ethnic group and Galo Gashartu Bandele from the Konso ethnic group.

The aslum seekers claimed that the Ethiopian TPLF regime is re-enlisting demobilized soldiers.

They further said that the Ethiopian regime’s Army commanders at the Bure Front are building houses in their native regions through money gained from merchants’ contraband sales.

And are using their authority to dismiss and arrest other commanders who strongly oppose the regime’s policy and have the support of the army.So far Ethipian has not responded to this issue.(Shabait)