By Barry Malone
OGADEN, Ethiopia, Jan 22 (Reuters) – Mariam Qorana had worried about getting caught between the Ethiopian army and separatist rebels even before a bullet flew through the wall of her hut and hit her below her right breast 10 days ago.
“I was afraid,” says the mother of 10, struggling to speak to foreign journalists who have arrived at her bedside in the remote Gode Hospital in Ethiopia’s Ogaden region.
The 24-year-old low-level insurgency in the vast, ethnically Somali area flared in April, when Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels killed 74 people at a Chinese-run oil field and warned foreign companies not to invest.
Ethiopia responded with a swift offensive, and accused the ONLF of being “terrorists” sponsored by arch-foe Eritrea. Both sides accuse each other of human rights abuses, which both deny.
Qorana has no idea which side shot at her hut.
Taking journalists — accompanied by government minders — on the first tour of the region since the flare-up, the Ethiopian government says the conflict is over, development is on the rise and Ogaden is tasting real peace.
“The situation is very calm now. We have completely destroyed [the ONLF],” Regional President Abdullahi Hassan told journalists on the recent trip.
The ONLF denies that, and there is little doubt armed conflict and suffering have not gone away.
Zelalem Eshetu, the doctor treating Mariam at Gode Hospital, said he has admitted 12 people with gunshot wounds in the last three months, mostly civilians.
Aid groups have said the fighting is blocking vital trade routes and creating refugees and that as a result of conflict and bouts of flooding and drought, some 953,000 people need aid.
Around the hospital, several women sit cradling their severely malnourished children. Reporters crowd around one two-year-old whose emaciated face stirs memories of the 1984 famine that briefly brought Ethiopia world attention.
Under international pressure, the government last year licensed 19 groups to work in the region and let the United Nations open three relief offices.
‘I HATE THEM BOTH’
The government took journalists to irrigation projects, dams, roads under construction and nomad settlement projects. Development officials are enthusiastic in explaining their work.
But many locals say development has been hampered by fighting and that the vital trade in animals is still affected.
At the Gode animal market, nomadic herders, the majority of the Ogaden’s population, arrive to trade goats, sheep and camels, many having travelled long distances on foot.
Those interviewed through official interpreters say there are no problems, prices haven’t risen in the last year, trade routes have not been blocked and they’ve seen no fighting.
But one young man walks close to the group and whispers that he speaks English.
“Business is very difficult for us,” he told Reuters. “Because there is fighting between the government and the ONLF we can’t move our animals. We are stuck.”
He starts to walk backwards, his eyes darting around the watching faces in the crowd.
“Government soldiers are here,” he says. “And people who talk are thrown in prison or killed.”
These fears are repeated right across the sandswept region whenever people are approached by foreigners or catch sight of the ever-watchful government guides, one of whom wears a hat bearing the slogan “Our dreams, our future.”
In Dega Habur town, men sit lazily chewing narcotic khat leaves in the searing afternoon sun, while soldiers armed with AK-47s stroll around, some also chewing the drug.
“My sister was raped by three government soldiers,” says an old woman who refuses to give her name. “They burned her village and she had to run far away.”
The government is not the only source of fear. Locals say the ONLF steals food and forces people to fight by killing those who refuse. Elders in the regional capital, Jijiga, blame the ONLF for assassinations and regular grenade attacks in town.
“They slaughter livestock, burn farmland and make people miserable,” says Salub Abdallah Mohammed, a 50-year-old elder.
At Gode Hospital, a young man who has come to visit his sister is in no doubt who is to blame for the Ogaden’s plight.
“I hate them both,” he said, refusing to give his name. “The government and the ONLF. They should take their fighting far into the desert and continue with it until they are both gone. Then we can stop being frightened.”
15 thoughts on “Woyanne says ONLF is ‘completely destroyed’”
Woyane says, onlf is destroyed.” Then Why are they killing civilians?
“I hate them both-The government and the ONLF. They should take their fighting far into the desert and continue with it until they are both gone. Then we can stop being frightened.”
The above is from a young Ethiopian in Ogaden who came to visit his sister in Gode Hospital.
The ONLF, with its armed struggle has not not delivered and done no good to the people. The only thing that has left to the people is death and destruction. I think it would have been much wiser and much better for the ONLF to lay down its arms and engage in a peaceful struggle by mobilizing Ethiopians in Gode, Jijiga, Kebri Dehar, Jinakson, Dega habur, Welwel ..
Since it is a civil war, the death of civilians is nt getting maximum attention as the death civilians would get in civil disobediences.
I ask the ONLF to do the right thing for the people in that region. If the ethiopians in Ogaden are dead or have fled the region en mass, who are they liberating? ….the rocks and trees of Ogaden ?
As to the TPLF leaders, this report show how arrogant and narrow minded they are. They still think in the 19th century. We can calm down animals by force. When it comes to human, unless crisis are resolved in dialog and peacefully, there will be no winner. The TPLF cannot and will not destroy the ONLF. The ONLF may have tentatively lost , but it is there and will surely come back at the time it is appropriate to them.
The TPLF must recognize this. “Enersum wend Ende hinoum ,lela Bottam Wend Alle”. They must immediately withdraw their heavy security presence in Ogaden. They must start a direct negotiation with the ONLF so that the ONLF can be allowed to legally and peacefully function within Ethiopia.
I think it is time for all armed groups, to lay down their arms, come together and for a new alliance that is engaging in peaceful struggle, is inclusive, focused ,organized and have a common objective in forming a stable, democratic and united Ethiopia := AFDUE (Alliance For Freedom, Democracy and Unity in Ethiopia)
GK
muziky68,
It is unreasonable to “Hate” the victim (ONLF) along with the perputrator (Weyane).
Such empty disputation is not new for TPLF and for us. In 1992/93, TPLF had claimed OLF is destroyed. Alas, our people are suffering since then and even today in 2008 as OLF members. Last week the Woyane junta expelled several Oromo students from two universities alleging they belong to OLF. If OLF was destroyed in 1992, then why is Woyane losing sleep today in 2008 because of OLF?
The allegation of TPLF about ONLF is obviously rubbish. One can’t annihilate a freedom fighter. ONLF may hibernate and wait for an opportune time until the murderous Agazee is gone. As long as there is oppression and suppression, ONLF will exist! A desperate tyrant has run out of new ideas and trying to feed us its dirty propaganda.
“I hate them both-The government and the ONLF. They should take their fighting far into the desert and continue with it until they are both gone. Then we can stop being frightened.” What a graceful and genuine feeling.
That says it all. how long can we leave in fear and terror? How long can we leave under at a gun point with lead worshipers? “SIMOLA YEFESAL SIKER YIBETESAL” I think this should be the begning of the end of Tyrany. War is never an option, let those war mongers take their issue to the deserert as the young man from Ogaden rightly said it. God bless Ethiopia.
The TPLF is claiming that ONLF is destroyed just to DEMORALISE other anti-Woyane groups. Lying is intrinsic part of those KEFAFI Woyanes. No body should believe those born lyers
Let us wait for couple of days. Really ONLF is in its strongest moment for ever, waging war anytime it wants. I remember many times before TPLF saying the same words again saying Terrorist ONLF has done thisand that. Wushet bijjaa yinnaageruluu.Truth is stranger to them. (The ONLF denies that, and there is little doubt armed conflict and suffering have not gone away).
Let us wait and see who will disappear first!TPLF is on the verge of total collapse. Having achieved the most abhorred group in Ethiopian history the demise of TPLF is a forgone conclusion. The only question is how soon!
TPLF is enemy of Christians and Muslim. TPLF is enemy of Oromo, Amahara, Ogaden,Sidama, Afar, etc… TPLF is enemy of Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia etc.. This is huge achievement for egoist TPLF politicians. With this unique achievement surely TPLF will disappear soon!
Muziky, woyane has never respected a peaceful participation. Woyane has attacked more peaceful opponents than those challenging it with armed struggle. Therefore, ONLF’s armed struggle is in line with the circumstances in the country. All who have the means to fight woyanes with arms should do so until it is brought down.
Rememeber when woyanne was a rebel. He destroyed and robbed everything besides using civilians as a target. “History repeats itself.” Since then woyanne has never cared about Ethiopia and Ethiopians but his power.
There are three reasons that the report has fundamental problems.
1-Whatever Meles and his TPLF junta say is worthless because they are simply pathological liers who keep recycling their sickening lies over and over.
2-Any foreign journalist who reports from anywhere in Ethiopia including Addis Abeba can not gauge the truth of what is happening to the local people because journalists are working under the watchful eyes of TPLF watch dogs and numerous informants and the local people are terrorized to death.
3- Those who pretend to be ordinary citizens and are supposedly complaining about ONLF practices are none other than TPLF cadres, their informers or coached people who are forced to speak out of fear. ONLF can not afford to harm their people because they know that is a suicidal policy and the beginning of their end. The people, by the thousand, will simply turn away from them and seek help from TPLF. No political organisation ever survived without the unconditional support of its people-period.
As far as Woyanne’s claim that it completely destroyed ONLF is concerned, I say just stay tuned.
muziky68,
I am afraid your analysis is a naive one. Not to mention the assumptions you are making about the ONLF – that they are fighting for justice. For rebel fighters, the killings and sufferings of civilians they claim to fight for are used as political capital. That is how the TPLF itself went about its “struggle” against the Derg and thats how they are going to do it. Yes, Ogadenis hate them for now; but at the end of the day, when it becomes completely impossible to live in the existing situation – where they are attacked by both sides – tell me who they are going to choose. The goal is to get the government to attack the civilians so bad that they are alienated. Five or ten years from now, the Ogadenis that cared about nothing but tending their cattle today will be talking about the Liberation of Ogaden with so much fervor that they will settle for nothing less.
I say to Muziky68 and others who are telling the ONLF to disarm and sitdown with the TPLF,is that possible?Can any self-respectind person or group reason with the Woyannes?As to the TPLF Claim of eliminating the ONLF,we heard that many times before.There will be no ONLF when the last Woyanne leaves for Makele,Shire,Adwa and their other dwelling.Then,we can sitdown and talk as equals.Stop blaming the victims.ONLF are defending their people and human rights against the TPLF.There is no moral equivalence here
i call last week to ogaden and they told mee woyane arrest a lot of old people,you know why because woyane ask some help and mercenary. how the hell they ask help if they eliminated ONLF. GROW UP AND DON’t listen there liar.
well, the next time i write in a year’s time, we will be talking about a big fighters going on in the region. and guess who? woyanne will be saying they have killed 200 in degahnbour (in 2009)1!KKKKKKK! Take that from me! let us see!!