The Voice of America (VOA) recent report citing unnamed sources alleging that Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has entered into a coalition with political entities in Somalia is far from reality and well within the realm of fantasy. For nearly two decades, the TPLF regime has been engaged in an deliberate effort to misrepresent our struggle to the international community in a bid to divert attention from the legitimate grievances of the people of Ogaden. This misrepresentation has included efforts to portray the ONLF as a religious organization instead of a nationalist organization and TPLF statements aimed at leaving the impression that the scope of our military operations extend beyond Ogaden.
The ONLF wishes to make clear to the international community that we are not, have not been and will not be a party to the ongoing conflict in Somalia as a matter of policy and principle. In that regard, the ONLF is not, has not been and will not be a part of any coalition with political groups in Somalia. The only coalition that the ONLF is a proud member of is the Alliance for Freedom & Democracy (AFD).
The foundation of the ONLF policy toward Somalia is that Somalia should be left to the Somalis and that the Ethiopian army should immediately and without condition, pull its troops out of Somalia. The TPLF regime will have to face the reality that they must deal with the legitimate representatives of the people of Ogaden and abandon their failed military strategy in Ogaden and ongoing brutal crackdown against our civilian population. The TPLF must accept direct talks with the ONLF in a neutral country and in the presence of a third party arbiter with no pre-conditions placed on either side if there is ever to be a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the conflict between the people of Ogaden and successive Ethiopian governments.
The TPLF must also accept the call for an all inclusive conference made by the member organizations of the Alliance for Freedom & Democracy (AFD)
Ethiopian [Woyanne] and Somali forces continue wider security operations in the Somalia capital searching for weapons and suspects –- as a hand grenade bomb was targeted on the [Woyanne] base in the former Pasta Factory in north of the capital overnight.
There was no immediate casualty on the Ethiopian [Woyanne] soldiers.
Hundreds of heavily armed Ethiopian forces with Somali soldiers began this morning door to door search for suspects, blocking the main industrial roads in north of the capital.
“This morning I have not gone for work because all roads were closed by the Ethiopians [Woyanne] searching for weapons… I don’t known what to do and I can’t go on foot to reach my business center in Bakara market which is miles away from here,” said Ali Hussein, 65, a father of eight children.
Several people were arrested in connection with last night’s bomb attack while seizing weapons from houses near the Ethiopian base.
Also in today’s raid, the police crashed a number of “illegal” kiosks alongside the road in north of the city. All houses near the building of the pasta factory which houses Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops were destroyed for security grounds.
The officials of the transitional government said the operations in Mogadishu is to assure the security and prevent any acts of violence to pave the way for the upcoming reconciliation conference scheduled to take place in Mogadishu mid June, few days to go.
Reports in Somalia say that a coalition of groups opposed to Somalia’s struggling transitional government and its Ethiopian [Woyanne] backers has been formed with the support of the Eritrean government. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has details from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
VOA has learned that a yet-to-be-named, anti-Somali government, anti-[Woyanne] coalition was formed in late May at a conference, hosted by the Eritrean government in the capital, Asmara.
According to reports on Somali Internet websites, the conference, dubbed as a “unity meeting” by Eritrean President Isias Afewerki, brought together leaders and representatives of at least four groups — Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union, rebels from Ethiopia’s Ogaden National Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Front, and exiled former parliament members of the Somali transitional government.
The reports say the moderate leader of the Islamic Courts Union’s executive council, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, represented the courts at the meeting and the Ogaden National Liberation Front sent its chief military commander, Mohamed Omar Osman. The transitional government’s former deputy prime minister turned critic, Hussein Aideed, is said to have also attended.
The details of the conference are not known and neither the Somali nor the Ethiopian [Woyanne] government has commented yet about reports of the meeting.
VOA sources in Mogadishu have confirmed reports that Sheik Ahmed has been named head of the coalition’s political wing and Osman of the Ogaden National Liberation Front will lead its military wing. The presumed objective of the coalition is to bring its common enemy, Ethiopia’s regime [Woyanne], to its knees politically and economically and to hasten Ethiopian troop withdrawal from Somalia.
Thousands of Ethiopian [Woyanne] soldiers have been in Somalia for at least eight months, protecting Somalia’s secular interim government. With military aid from Ethiopia’s regime and U.S. support, the government drove out the Islamic Courts Union and took power in Mogadishu in early January.
But a violent insurgency, blamed mostly on radical Islamists and disgruntled Hawiye clan members, has kept the government from asserting full control over the capital.
Fighting between Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops and insurgents in March and April killed nearly 1,500 people and caused hundreds of thousands to flee Mogadishu.
Since then, a series of Iraq-style attacks, targeting mostly Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops and government officials, has prompted a severe, capital-wide security crackdown.
Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops are now manning checkpoints at nearly every major intersection and cars are not allowed to move in the city after 6 p.m. in the evening.
Ethiopian [Woyanne] and Somali security forces are conducting random house-to-house searches for weapons and are making what many citizens say are arbitrary arrests.
The government has also been widely criticized for closing down three independent radio stations, after authorities accused the stations of fomenting unrest, supporting terrorism, and being anti-government.
A leading civil activist in Mogadishu, Alisaid Omar, says heavy-handed actions by the government and Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops are not helping the capital stabilize.
“Shutting down these radios is like shutting down civil society as a whole, because we have no place to express our views, whether negative or positive,” he said. “I see this as a very bad signal and I think it will damage the reputation of the transitional federal government.”
Chat with Jimmy Carter
Discuss “The Ethiopia Campaign” with President Carter
Announcement from the Smithsonian Institute
Join us here for a live chat with Nobel Peace laureate and former president Jimmy Carter to discuss “The Ethiopia Campaign” on June 28 from 11:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m., E.S.T.
President Carter will be available to answer questions at that time. You may also submit a question early by sending an email to [email protected]. Please remember to include your full name and city and state of residence.
Questions will be answered on a first-come, first-serve basis. If your question is not answered, or if you have additional thoughts, click here to discuss them at SoundOff, Smithsonian.com’s reader forum.
MOGADISHU, Somalia June 8, 2007 (Garowe Online) – Somali government troops have began withdrawing from the interior of Beletwein town near the Ethiopian border, military officials said on Friday.
Col. Ahmed Mohamed Hubeyr, the commander of government troops in Hiran region, said some 400 soldiers will be redeployed to El Gal military camp, 15km north of Beletwein.
Police officers will remain in the city manning key checkpoints and at local stations. Hundreds of heavily armed Ethiopian troops had entered the city in recent days to reinforce the police, Beletwein residents said.
The Somali ambassador to both the African Union and Ethiopia, Abdikarim Lakanyo, is on a working visit to Beletwein to convince locals to cooperate with the regional government and their Ethiopian military allies. [ Full story]
Regional officials and military commanders said the decision to remove Somali soldiers from the city came after increasing reports of robbery and violent attacks carried out by men in military fatigues.
Somalia’s transitional government, formed in 2004, lacks the funding to properly attire and equip its security forces, which has given common criminals an opportunity to take advantage.
This same problem has been reported repeatedly in other major cities, including the capital Mogadishu. On Tuesday, the country’s deputy defense minister announced that thousands of soldiers were sent back to regional military bases for further training.
LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) – Haile Gebrselassie, one of only three men to win the Olympic 10,000 metres title twice, has warned East African distance runners that they cannot take their current supremacy for granted.
In an interview with Reuters the 34-year-old Ethiopian said athletes from Europe, the United States and Australasia were not only adapting the training methods of the Ethiopians and Kenyans but adding the latest scientific innovations.
“Our coaches are not good enough,” Gebrselassie said. “The technology is getting stronger and stronger. We are in trouble.
“It’s not only the Ethiopians but the Kenyans. The west are starting to change the system, that’s why we have to work seriously.
“We are just using natural ways, traditional ways. All East African athletes are naturally gifted but their training is nothing special, that’s why we have to work seriously.”
Gebrselassie was speaking before the launch of a global sports programme by the international security group Group 4 Securicor (G4S) in London on Friday.
G4S, working with National Olympic Committees and leading sport bodies, has selected 14 young athletes from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, who have the potential to win medals at the 2012 London Olympics.
They include 19-year-old Kenyan Pauline Korikwiang, who won the junior women’s race at last year’s world cross country championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
Gebrselassie, who switched from the track to the roads after the 2004 Athens Olympics, dropped out of this year’s London marathon and plans another in 2007, possibly in Berlin, before starting his buildup to next year’s Beijing Olympics.
As part of his preparation he will spend two months in either Europe or the United States in a climate replicating the heat and humidithy expected in Beijing.
He then hopes to finish his career by running the 2012 London Olympics marathon.
One Briton who has benefited from combining the African work ethic with western science is Paula Radcliffe, the world women’s marathon champion and record holder.
Another Briton who agrees that the Africans are beatable is Somalia-born Mo Farah, the European 5,000 metres silver medallist.
“You have to be good and you have to get that bit further,” he told Reuters recently. “Look at Paula Radcliffe. I know she has trained so hard.
“You have to have the hunger. If you get everything the easy way you don’t want it that much.”
