Press Release
The Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party
Kinijit International Leadership

The regime in Ethiopia has recently escalated its campaign of terror against innocent civilians, this time in the Ogaden region of the country. It has been reported by international human rights organizations and confirmed by major media outlets that the Government has been engaged in a systematic campaign of violence against civilians under the pretext that they support the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) which the regime blamed for last April’s unfortunate death of civilians in an oil exploration facility run by Chinese experts. It has always been the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party’s (CUDP) position that it strongly condemns the deliberate targeting of civilians, by any party to a conflict, and for any cause whatsoever.

According to several well-founded reports, the TPLF army launched a series of attacks last month against innocent civilians throughout the Ogaden region. The attacks destroyed several villages and left dozens of civilians dead. The continued and well planned attack has also forced hundreds of civilians to flee their homes in search of food and shelter across the border with Somalia.

Although the latest situation in the Ogaden region indeed raises grave concern, it is, however, part of a pattern of behavior followed by the regime in unleashing a government sponsored violence in response to legitimate and peaceful demands from the Ethiopian people. The regime’s track record since its ascension to power in 1991 is studded with the brutal murder of popular union leaders, civil rights activists, peaceful demonstrators, political leaders, and influential figures in academia. Almost all of the mass killings that took place over the last seventeen years have been carried out under the personal order of the Prime Minister. Moreover, Mr. Zenawi’s army has been exceptionally even-handed on eliminating its opposition from each and every region of the country. The people of the Ogaden region have, in fact, taken more than their share of the tragedy as this is not the first time for them to be slaughtered by the regime. What we are witnessing currently in the Ogaden is a replay of the tragedy that was committed by the regime, albeit in a much larger proportion, in Gambella in 2003-2004, which in turn was a reproduction of similar killing sprees that took place in Awassa, Tepi, Ambo, Guder, Jimma, Addis Ababa, and many other parts of Oromiya, Amhara, and the Afar regions.

The latest demonstration of brute force by the government against unarmed civilians demonstrates the heavy price that Ethiopians have been and are paying to bring democratic changes in their country. As similar scorched earth campaigns waged by the regime to frustrate the people’s demand have been unsuccessful in the past, neither will the current campaign stifle the peaceful and democratic struggle of the people against tyranny. TPLF crackdown follows a similar pattern in that the campaigns always begin with the pretext of fighting armed rebels or “terrorists” ending up in a Janjaweed-type operation against innocent civilians.

What is more depressing is that the people of the Ogaden, like all other Ethiopians, have barely emerged from the apocalyptic calamities of drought, famine, and mass displacement when they are once again confronted by the killing machines of a government army.

The Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party is convinced that the recent crackdown in the Ogaden is yet another reminder of the stark truth that the only path to a democratic system is to coordinate the people’s struggle against the regime. It is CUD’s conviction that only a coordinated struggle through a holistic approach can deliver us from the current predicament which is partly exacerbated by the isolated and regional nature of our reaction to the tyranny that has amply proved to be a common enemy of the Ethiopian people without regard to our religious or ethnic identity. A coordinated effort can only guarantee success in our struggle and lead to national reconciliation and an inclusive system the returns of which could be partaken by the current regime as well. CUD, for its part, is trying to work along several dimensions to coordinate the democratic struggle with other groups with which CUD share similar visions of democratic change in our country.

Although, it increasingly appears that only a coordinated struggle of their own can deliver Ethiopians from their predicament, the international community can not remain indifferent as the regime in Ethiopia continue maiming civilians in front of a world media and human rights observers. Unfortunately, the regime’s opportunistic alliance with major world powers that provide the military and financial assistance, while turning a blind eye to the horrendous human rights has emboldened the Zenawi regime to unleash its post-election reign of terror through out the country.

The types of crimes that have been committed against civilians in other parts of the country as well as in the Ogaden is counter to the various international human rights conventions, to which the regime is a party to. As has been established from the Gambella tragedy, the regime’s army has committed widespread murder, rape, and torture against civilians.consistently and systematically against civilians including children, the elderly and nursing mothers. The regime has also been defrauding the international community through charades of investigations and mock trials, and other times by falsifying reports of Inquiry Commissions. Nevertheless, it is indisputable that offenses committed as part of a systematic and widespread attack against civilians are crimes against humanity under international law.

CUD urges donor governments and major international organizations to publicly condemn the regime in Ethiopia for the atrocities committed by its army in the Ogaden region. The CUD also calls upon the international community, especially the EU, AU and the United States, to set up an international commission for an independent inquiry into the systematic and widespread civilian killings committed by government forces in Ethiopia, including the post election mass murder and the recent crackdown in the Ogaden region of Eastern Ethiopia.

The CUD also avails this opportunity to remind the regime in Ethiopia that pursuing military solutions to problems that can be solved peacefully, and without the huge cost to human lives, would inevitably backfire against the regime itself. The CUD and other opposition parties continue to remind the ruling party that it is never too late to abandon its wanton course of murder and mayhem, and to choose the safest course of peaceful national reconciliation and a broad-based democratic system from which all Ethiopians stand to benefit.

Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (Kinijit)