BBC NEWS
t between Ethiopian forces and local insurgents in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.
Some of the heaviest fighting in months has broken out between Ethiopian Woyanne forces and local insurgents in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.
Residents said that at least 10 people had been killed amid shell and machine-gun fire as the Ethiopian Woyanne forces launched an offensive.
Somalia has seen a surge in violence since Ethiopian Woyanne-backed government troops ousted Islamists last December.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the fighting.
Elders’ appeal
The BBC’s Africa editor Martin Plaut says the latest clashes began after Ethiopia Woyanne moved reinforcements and a convoy of 20 tanks and armoured cars into the city late on Friday.
One of the vehicles was hit by a landmine and exploded.
Early on Saturday the Ethiopians Woyannes fanned out of their barracks and fighting erupted.
The forces targeted areas of the city occupied by militia who are remnants of forces loyal to the ousted Union of Islamic Courts.
Insurgents are reported to have captured and ransacked a police station.
They later retreated chanting “God is great”, witnesses said.
Local resident Ismail Osman told the Reuters news agency: “Ethiopian troops and insurgents are fighting in every alley.”
The Ethiopian Woyanne forces have since reportedly returned to barracks, but heavy artillery fire has continued.
A worker at one of Mogadishu’s main hospitals said many people had been brought in suffering from gunshot and shrapnel wounds.
Local elders described the Woyanne Ethiopian offensive as a genocide and have appealed to the international community to intervene.
Some 1,600 Ugandan troops are also in Mogadishu as part of a planned 8,000-strong African Union force to support the interim government.
The following is a statement by the UEDF, a coalition of several parties, including EPRP. The ideas and proposals contained in the statement are shared by all pro-democracy groups, but presenting proposals, and living up to them is different. None of the ideas presented in the statement can be put to work as long as EPRP led by the wild-eyed Marxist Iyassu Alemayehu is in charge of UEDF. Click here to read.
Kinijit leaders Dr Hailu Araya, Ato Gizachew Shiferraw, Ato Brook Kebede and Dr Berhanu Nega held a four-hour working dinner last night with several representatives of the Ethiopian Muslim community in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. The meeting took place in an Afgan restaurant in Northern Virginia. Wzt. Bertukan Mideksa, who was sick with flue, could not attend the meeting. The following is a report by Kinijit DC Metro:
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Ethiopian Muslims in the DC Metro Area Host Working Dinner for Kinijit Delegation
By Kinijit DC Metro
Every single moment and indeed every single encounter whether it was with their countrymen, senators, think-thanks or journalists proved as exciting as it was overly rewarding. Kinijit delegation’s meeting last night with the Ethiopian Muslim community in the Washington DC Metro area was no exception.
Issues raised at the working dinner were insightful. There was common understanding on the thesis that respect for individual right will form the basis for respect of group rights. The importance of interim intervention aimed at thwarting real and perceived inequalities also received strong support. Several commentaries pointed to the need for Ethiopian Muslims to participate more actively in Ethiopia’s political life and to be represented in leadership positions commensurate with the size of the Muslim population. As a dynamic multi-ethnic, multi-religious party, Kinijit leaders declared, it is their party’s policy to redouble efforts aimed at mirroring the cross section of society in its membership and leadership ranks. There was also solid consensus on the urgent need to safeguard the centuries old enviable track record that Ethiopia enjoys in terms of maintaining religious harmony. The exemplary role played by Muslim and Christian leaders in resolving minor tensions of recent past was applauded.
The question and answer session availed rare opportunity for representatives of the Ethiopian Muslims to find out first hand from Kinijit leaders on the vision of the party and its stand on several issues near and dear to the Muslim community. The discussion was so lively and heart-warming it continued into the closing hours of the restaurant.
O.N.L.F Press Release
October 26, 2007
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has had a consistent and long standing policy welcoming direct negotiations with the regime currently in power in Ethiopia provided that such negotiations are held in a neutral third country with the presence of a neutral third party arbiter of international standing with no preconditions placed on either party.
In that context, the ONLF welcomes the appeal made by several members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate requesting the President of the United States to instruct the United States Department of State to facilitate negotiations between the ONLF and the regime currently in power in Ethiopia. The ONLF, on behalf of the people of Ogaden, welcomes the concern and commends the leadership of these representatives of the American people.
The Ethiopian regime has shown that, left to its own devices, it will continue to pursue a war it can not win in Ogaden characterized by a policy of collective punishment tantamount to genocide. As such, the international community bears a moral responsibility to intervene in order to hold this regime accountable for its actions.
The United Nations in particular bears a responsibility to act on the recommendations of the recent humanitarian fact finding mission to Ogaden which called for an “independent investigation” into human rights abuses in Ogaden.
As the legitimate representatives of the people of Ogaden, the ONLF stands ready to partner with the United Nations and members of the international community who seek to alleviate the suffering deliberately imposed on our people by the Ethiopian regime as well as those genuinely seeking to find a just, lasting and comprehensive political solution to the Ogaden conflict.
Click here to read the Congressional letter to President Bush
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Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)
By Alethia
All the articles that I mean to contribute are written as some small contribution to what is going on in Ethiopia today and I’m a person who does not have any political ax to grind, no political party affiliation, extinct or extant, in Ethiopian history, nor do I have any desire nor any calling to be in any political position. I share the above warning so that those who jump to any unacceptable and indefensible conclusion about the writer need not waste their time thinking and saying anything irrelevant to me. I hope this warning would be taken seriously and we make some progress in public discussion and debate about what is best for the Ethiopian people, us.
In my previous piece, in my brief reflections on Dr. Birhanu, I tried to focus on some of the values he stands for and practices amidst his fellow Ethiopians: the value of truth, esp., love for truth, and virtuous character traits that reflect the life of a person who loves truth and the force with which he enjoined his fellow Ethiopians to join a movement he’s part of as people who care about truth and of virtuous character.
When a public figure who is also in a political leadership position embodies and also consistently demonstrates such values in action it’s time to take note of what is happening and to celebrate the beginning of a future for our nation that knew nothing even remotely similar in the lives of its political leaders before. There is something sufficiently different about the future of Ethiopia if we give a chance for people of truth and character to lead us in truth and character. In another article I hope to show a very intimate relationship between truth and character.
The fledgling democratic movement in Ethiopia, which is in its infancy, has more promising figures at its fore front as millions of fellow Ethiopians are keenly following. I want to take this moment to say a few things about who’s who among them. What does distinguish the two young men and one young woman in Kinjit whose names have become household names over the last couple of years? Short answer: the values they stand for and their commitment to devote their lives to a cause that is noble and far greater than them, a cause that will outlive them and all of us alive now.
First a few things about Muluneh and Sileshi: I know these two young men very, very closely. They’re among my close friends and I can speak volumes of great things about them as a friend. I’m not here to do that at this moment. This is not the place to do such a thing now. But what I’m sharing now is part of my knowledge of these young men with whom I’ve shared so much over the last many years.
The first time I met with Muluneh and Sileshi, in the sense relevant to this piece, they were discussing with their like-minded fellow Ethiopians, with intensity and passion, how they could contribute something to the Ethiopian society. I was very impressed, to say the least. I was not sure whether their love for the country was even reasonable and acceptable at the moment. I said in my previous piece I’m skeptical by nature and more so due to my academic training. I was patriotic when I was only 10 or younger, if that makes sense. That means I’m not a patriotic person and have never been in my adult life. When I met Muluneh and Sileshi, two young men who loved their country so much, I was encountering such passion for Ethiopia in their lives with vision and commitment to bring about their vision for their country.
Muluneh and Sileshi would passionately talk about Ethiopian economic problems as it’s befitting for economists, their background being in economics, and they would also argue, with passion and intensity, that the solution for Ethiopia’s economic impoverishment was nothing less than ushering in democracy. By the time I met these young men they were already unflinchingly committed to going into politics knowing full well all the prices that they would pay if they followed their commitments. Follow their commitment they did for all to see and behold. That now is history. I was witnessing this history before it unfolded in the noble commitments of two of my close friends for a cause that is far greater than them but that called for people who’re willing to pay such exacting prices, with their lives and in death, if need be.
In short, Muluneh and Sileshi knew what they wanted to do with their lives. They knew their callings. They thought out loud and clear the costs and consequences of being in politics in Ethiopia as Ethiopians. These are friends whose lives have been bound by love for freedom, democracy and economic prosperity for the people of Ethiopia. They decided to risk losing the invaluable things they vowed to win for the people of Ethiopia: freedom, and promising lives of personal prosperity as young people with reasonably well paying jobs in their hands when they joined their fellow Ethiopians who also risked losing their all to bring about the same invaluable goods to the people of Ethiopia: democracy, freedom, human life with dignity, and economic prosperity.
Those moments that I shared with these friends were moments when they were working hard on, investing enduring values in themselves in the sense of what it takes to be a political leader for the people of Ethiopia. These young people have also made a commitment to embody truth and speak the truth, no matter how much that would cost them. They are doing that and have done that and will continue to do so as I’m firmly convinced. A political leader without virtuous character traits such us humility and integrity and transparency and love for truth is the source of all political misery for a nation and these young men have made a vow to live a life of accountability to the people they mean to serve with integrity and humility and transparency and truthfulness.
I could go on and on about what I know about these promising young friends for the future of Ethiopia. Now I want to say a few words about Birtukan Mideksa who’s another heroine and another household name for millions of Ethiopians everywhere. I’ll be brief about her since there is more information out there about her than the previous two who make my trio.
I’ve known Birtukan for about 14 or 15 years. My memories of her from the university days are vivid: Birtukan was a young woman with unusual degree of audacity and far reaching aspirations that rarely anyone would take seriously then for she’s very young and she would sound as another day-dreaming young woman who did not know what she’s talking about. Many of those who thought that way are simply wrong for Birtukan proved us wrong by following her visions and mission in her life with vigor and principles and discipline.
One of Birtukan’s thirst and hunger as a young woman was (as it’s now) to see justice reign in Ethiopia and in the Ethiopian courts. It’s now history as to what happened to her hunger for justice in the Ethiopian courts. She went on to become among the most celebrated young lawyers/judges in Ethiopia for the reason all of us know. Birtukan is relentlessly pursuing her long-standing dreams to see justice reign in Ethiopia now as ever as she continues to fight more vigorously for justice and human rights and the rule of law to reign in the whole of Ethiopia, not only in the confines of the Ethiopian courts.
Fellow Ethiopians, the trio above make powerful promises for the fledgling democratic movement in Ethiopia. I’ve personally seen promising lives in these young people for a long time and now I commend them to fellow Ethiopians who stand for freedom, democracy and human dignity with intense passion that this trio embody and demonstrate in their lives.
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Alethia can be reached at [email protected]
This melanchonic song by Teshome Mitiku is posted now in light of the impending Woyanne-Shabia war. This time Ethiopians will boycott the war. Let Meles send his Agazi army (baby killers and rapists) be Shabia’s cannon fodder. [click on the arrow below to listen]
