By Peter Chrichton
The latest Wikileaks cable details the US Government’s 2007 position on the ongoing conflict in the Ogaden region, following the ONLF’s attack on an oil installation. The cable considers the Ethiopian Government’s rationale for such a “brutal and excessive counter insurgency operation” and provides a fascinating insight into US perceptions about the EPRDF, about US-Ethiopian relations, and the extent that the US is involved in Ethiopian affairs. Anyone who has any doubt about the role that the USG plays in Ethiopian affairs should read this document. It is originally from November 28, 2007, and was released by Wikileaks on February 3, 2011. It is available in full here.
The cable suggests that the underlying reasons for “such an extreme, visceral GoE and Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) response” was because it threatened the EPRDF’s vision for economic development (close links with China and oil exploitation), posed a “fundamental threat to the GoE’s authority”, and “embarrassed the Defense Forces, making it appear to the outside world as unable to control and secure its own territory.” The cable also suggests that the USG is of the opinion that the EPRDF views the ONLF as a “long term threat to the survival of the EPRDF government”. The cable discusses the parallels with the TPLF, who similarly to the ONLF, with just 6% of the population were able to overthrow the Derg. The United States Government (USG) sees the ONLF issue as a “domestic issue” and they are not seen as a “terrorist organization” “though elements of the ONLF may very well support extremist operations.” The cable further explains that the problem is “not the ONLF as an organization, but individuals within the group.” The USG also suggests that there is no “explicit evidence” of Eritrean support for the ONLF outside of evidence provided by the EPRDF.
The cable also suggests that the EPRDF’s vision includes a “heavy government role in promoting & accelerated capitalist development”. It also underscores the strong links between China and Ethiopia suggesting that in China, Ethiopia has found “a cheap, eager, and reliable partner to implement infrastructural expansion without nagging about human rights, social equity, or environmental concerns.”
The cable concludes with three USG recommendations regarding the Ogaden situation. These include:
1. That the USG have a “frank discussion with the GOE” about the fact that “military action alone will not bring a lasting resolution [in the Ogaden]“
2. Sustain a more comprehensive approach with includes an “emphasis on unrestricted humanitarian aid deliveries and on commercial food and livestock trade”
3. Political dialogue with the ONLF could be the key to resolving problems and opening political space with the people of the Ogaden.
It is interesting to note that all meetings with EPRDF officials about counter-insurgency efforts in this cable (and others) include the participation of USAID representatives.
USAID has often been accused of being a front for US intelligence gathering operations in Africa, and their ongoing participation in meetings that have nothing to do with aid and development further raise the suspicion of the close links between US humanitarian assitance and intelligence gathering operations in Ethiopia.
As mainstream reporting on Wikileaks revelations seem to have dried up in the recent months, we fully encourage you to continue to view cables emanating from the US Embassy in Addis Ababa. There are currently 6 cables and new cables are released on an ongoing basis providing an increased and uncensored understanding of the role that the United States Government plays in Ethiopian affairs. Thus far cables have focused on land grabbing in Ethiopia, humanitarian assistance in the Ogaden, US perspectives on Ethiopian government “hardliners”, and briefings on meetings between USG and Meles Zenawi. All cables emanating from the US Embassy in Addis Ababa are available on an ongoing basis at here.
(Peter Chrichton can be contacted at [email protected])
3 thoughts on “Wikileaks: U.S. perspective on Ogaden counter-insurgency”
Elias
go to ethiotube. Hear his speach.
Can you find what is wrong from his speech?
Is he saying that he is not going to see educated ethiopians?
ETV News – Deputy PM Ato Hailemariam Dessalegn says Indian investors have created 330,000 jobs in Ethiopia
February 17, 2011
Crackdown in Virginia Strips a Legal Immigrant of His Livelihood
By SABRINA TAVERNISE, The New York Times
FALLS CHURCH, Va. —
When Mohamed Mejri, a Tunisian immigrant with a limousine business here, first learned that the State Department of Motor Vehicles refused to issue him a new driver’s license, he thought it was a mistake. After all, he had been a licensed driver in Virginia for years. But last fall, the department stopped accepting his federally issued work permit, a document that was his main proof that he was in the country legally, because he does not have a green card. Now, five months later, his business is collapsing, and bill collectors are calling. Virginia changed its policy in September after an illegal immigrant from Bolivia was charged with hitting and killing a nun while driving drunk in Prince William County. Her death hardened what was already a strong anti-immigrant mood in the state. Virginia’s governor, Bob McDonnell, announced that work permits would no longer be accepted as proof of legal residence because they could be held by people who, like the Bolivian immigrant, are in deportation proceedings. The governor said other documents would still be accepted. The permit, called the employment authorization document, allows foreign nationals to work in the United States. It is broadly held, including by many asylum seekers, refugees and foreign students. For Mr. Mejri, who is 54, the permit is all he has. He fled Tunisia in 1992, and after living in Canada, where he had been granted political asylum, he came to the United States in 2000. American immigration authorities rejected his application for asylum, over an unpaid fine in Canada. By the time it was paid and processed, several years had passed, and he received notice that it was too late to reapply. He then received an administrative order to leave the country, but a federal judge ruled in his favor that he not be deported. Now he is in limbo, in the country legally but without any path to citizenship. Melanie Stokes, a spokeswoman for Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles, said she could not comment on Mr. Mejri’s status because state law prevented her from discussing individual cases. The precise number of people affected by the change is unknown. Jorge Figueredo, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union in Northern Virginia, said he was personally handling 38 cases, and estimated that the total number of stranded immigrants could be in the hundreds. The authorities said the numbers were much smaller. In a letter to a group of lawyers and immigrant advocacy organizations in January, the commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles, Richard D. Holcomb, said that in the 11 weeks after the policy was implemented, about 4,000 applicants entered an “elevated review process,” a reference to people who used to rely on the employment card. Of those, only 819 did not immediately get a license, the letter said. By early December, more than 60 percent of those people had received a license using other documents, he wrote, and another 3 percent were rejected, mostly because they were in deportation proceedings. Mr. Figueredo, the A.C.L.U. lawyer, said he was not satisfied with the response, adding that the letter did not explain what became of the more than 200 applicants who were neither rejected outright, nor given licenses. “What about the rest?” he said in his small office in Falls Church last week. A plea for help from a Kenyan man dropped into his e-mail inbox during the interview. Ms. Stokes reiterated that only 3 percent had been rejected and said that the others had not returned to obtain a license by the time the records were checked in December. She said the department had no way of knowing what happened to them. “We can only surmise that they moved to another state or decided not to get a credential,” she said. After Mr. Mejri was first refused a new license, he went to five other Department of Motor Vehicles offices, hoping his documents would be accepted there. At one, a clerk requested the original court order granting his petition against deportation. It took eight weeks, but he produced it. A copy was faxed to Richmond, but it had no effect. He was never rejected outright, he said, and was asked repeatedly for alternate proof of legal presence. “This should not be happening,” Mr. Figueredo said. “This man is legally present. He has a decision by a federal judge. Why isn’t that good enough?” Mr. Mejri soon fell behind on his bills, and his insurance company canceled his liability coverage. That triggered the cancellation of his business license. Meanwhile, credit card companies continued to charge him for use of their services for his cars, souring his credit rating. He felt particularly helpless when he discovered that he could not even buy the syringes he needed to treat his diabetes without presenting a valid driver’s license and had to work through a social worker to get them. “I am demoralized,” Mr. Mejri said, tears rolling under his glasses onto his sweater. “I see no door open in front of me. Nobody wants to listen.” Ms. Stokes said there was a special center in Richmond to review such claims that could contact federal immigration authorities directly to ascertain an applicant’s status. She could not say whether this had been done in Mr. Mejri’s case. She said there was a clearly defined list of documents, posted online, that are accepted. She said she did not know the number of applicants who failed to get licenses since December. Mr. Figueredo said that clerks have not been consistent in accepting certain alternative documents. Some immigrants have had success presenting a document called an I-797, essentially a receipt for a visa application, but others have not. To address that problem, a bill was presented in Virginia’s House in January that would have required the department to spell out its procedure, Mr. Figueredo said, but it did not pass. A month ago, Mr. Mejri rented a room in Rockville, Md., and got a driver’s license in that state. But his new monthly insurance payments have tripled, and for now, he has put his business aside. He lives off money he has borrowed from his friend Aziz Balaid, an American citizen, who is finding it more difficult to be optimistic about his friend’s prospects. “When he says, ‘What am I going to do?’ I have no answer for him,” Mr. Balaid said.
CBS Says Lara Logan Suffered ‘Brutal’ Attack in Cairo
By BRIAN STELTER
Lara Logan, the CBS News correspondent, was attacked and sexually assaulted by a mob in Cairo on Feb. 11, the day that the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was forced from power, the network said Tuesday. After the mob surrounded her, Ms. Logan “suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers,” the network said in a statement. Ms. Logan is recovering at a hospital in the United States. The evening of the attack, Ms. Logan, 39, the network’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, was covering the celebrations in Tahrir Square in central Cairo with a camera crew and an unknown number of security staff members. The CBS team was enveloped by “a dangerous element” within the crowd, CBS said, that numbered more than 200 people. That mob separated Ms. Logan from her team and then attacked her. Once she was rescued, CBS said she “reconnected” with the team and returned to the United States on Feb. 12. The CBS statement mentioned nothing more about the attackers. It also said that there would be “no further comment from CBS News, and correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time.” Before she returned to Cairo on Feb. 10, she told the Web site of Esquire magazine that she thought her team included one security staff member. Equipped with expensive cameras and bright lights, television news crews regularly travel with security experts who assess threats in dangerous locations. The trip was Ms. Logan’s second to Egypt to cover the protests that have roiled the country in January and February. On her first trip, she was detained and interrogated overnight by security authorities. During the protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists registered 53 assaults on journalists. It did not delineate the genders of the people affected. There were also dozens of cases of harassment during the weeks of protests, and some female journalists complained about being singled out by crowds. There were no other known sexual assaults. The committee, whose board includes Ms. Logan, said Tuesday evening in a statement: “We have seen Lara’s compassion at work while helping journalists who have faced brutal aggression while doing their jobs. She is a brilliant, courageous, and committed reporter. Our thoughts are with Lara as she recovers.” There is little information available about instances of sexual assault affecting journalists. In an article for the Columbia Journalism Review in 2007, the writer, Judith Matloff, wrote that foreign correspondents rarely tell anyone, “even when the abuse is rape.”
Laura Logan Long Before Tahrir Square