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PREVENTING THE NEXT DARFUR
A CALL FOR ACTION TO HALT THE UNFOLDING CRISIS IN THE OGADEN
By the Alliance for Democracy and Freedom[*]
September 6, 2007
In 2004, memorial ceremonies for the victims of the Rwandan genocide caused the world to begin to awaken to the slaughter of innocent civilians in Darfur. “Never again,” became the rallying cry for a movement to save Darfur.
Tragically, today, even as the world community unites to end the killing in Darfur, policymakers are ignoring a new Darfur, a spreading conflict in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia that could become the spark that enflames all of Ethiopia.
The Alliance for Democracy and Freedom (AFD), therefore, calls on the international community to act now to halt human rights abuses in the Ogaden --and before it is too late to prevent the next Darfur.
In recent weeks, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRS), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Human Rights Watch and the New York Times have all reported that Ethiopian government soldiers have forced thousands of civilians in the Ogaden to abandon their homes. Whole villages and food stocks have been torched by government soldiers. Civilians refusing to leave their homes and villages have been tortured, raped and killed. In direct violation of international humanitarian law, the Ethiopian government has used food as a weapon in its military campaign against the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). The government has blocked humanitarian agencies from providing food, medicine and other assistance to civilians in the region. And it has arrested and expelled the few journalists who have tried to report on the human toll of the Ethiopian government’s desperate efforts to crush democratic opposition in the region.
The AFD urges the people of Ethiopia to stop this madness. It is urgent that we rise in solidarity to support our suffering brothers and sisters in the Ogaden. We must unite in declaring that injustice against any person or group in any part of the country is an injustice committed against all of us.
RAISE YOUR VOICES!
DEMAND THAT THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY PRESSURE THE ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT TO STOP THE ATROCITY AND TO ALLOW HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS AND JOURNALISTS IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO THE OGADEN.
AFD believes that the military action, no matter how brutal, cannot quash the people’s desire for democracy and freedom. The problem in the Ogaden is a political problem -- and it will only be solved by a comprehensive political solution that addresses not just the crisis in the Ogaden, but also the wider political problems in the country. It is for this reason that AFD is calling for an all-inclusive process of dialogue.
The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy shall prevail!
Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD)
[*] The Alliance for Democracy and Freedom includes opposition groups representing the vast majority of the 77 million people living in Ethiopia
AFD Press Release
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| "The crime of the CUD leaders is they ran for parliament and won."- US Congressman Donald Payne (June 8, 2007). Read also Amnesty Intl's Prisoners of Conscience |
Manipulation of the legal system and the making of totalitarianism in Ethiopia
This sad state of affairs is also well known to western governments who, despite the lofty rhetoric of championing freedom and democracy, continue to bestow external legitimacy on a regime that has completely lost legitimacy at home. The situation has been steadily deteriorating since the botched May 2005 elections in which the overwhelming majority of the people voted out the ruling party. Against popular will it however continues to cling to power by sheer force.
The Alliance for Freedom & Democracy (AFD) strongly condemns the conviction of the leaders of the Coalition for Unity & Democracy (CUD) on trumped up charges. This politically motivated, sudden and unjust verdict by the kangaroo court is another indication of the totalitarian nature of the EPRDF/TPLF regime and a sign of desperation.
Moreover, the ongoing brutal crackdown deliberately targeting the civilian population in Ogaden, the widespread arbitrary detentions of teachers, students and professionals in Oromia, Sidama and the Amhara regions and the general condition of state-perpetrated insecurity throughout the country have created a tense and potentially explosive political situation.
AFD believes the way forward is not more repression and another episode of perverting the rule of law, but rather the convening of an all-inclusive dialogue among all stakeholders leading to a peaceful transition to a more just, representative and democratic order. All past attempts at peaceful resolution of the conflicts in Ethiopia have been frustrated by the intransigence of the regime. AFD warns EPRDF/TPLF that the time of reckoning has arrived and that it will be solely responsible for all the consequences if it fails to reverse course and come to its senses.
We call on the international community to bring pressure on the TPLF regime to secure the immediate and unconditional release of the CUD leaders and all other political prisoners and heed the call for peace and reconciliation through dialogue. While the primary burden to make this regime accountable for its tyrannical acts rests with the people of Ethiopia, it is time for its backers to realize that the patience of the people to living under tyranny has been totally exhausted and that they can no longer be kept subservient even at gunpoint.
During this difficult and most trying of times the members of the AFD stand in solidarity with the unjustly convicted CUD leaders and all political prisoners languishing in the various prisons and secret detention camps of the EPRDF/TPLF and extend deep sympathy to their loved ones.
The just struggle for Freedom & Democracy in Ethiopia shall prevail!
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Alliance for Freedom & Democracy (AFD)
AFD STATEMENT ON PROSPECTS OF WAR BETWEEN SOMALIA AND THE MINORITY REGIME IN ETHIOPIA
November 28, 2005
In its statement of June 5, 2006, the Executive Committee of the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD) registered its concern about worrisome developments in Somalia, particularly the attempt by the minority TPLF/EPRDF regime in Ethiopia to exploit the sad situation in Somalia to deflect attention from the deteriorating situation in Ethiopia itself, to salvage and recover its sagging popularity at home and to garner the support of the West, particularly that of the United States, by jumping on the bandwagon of the war on terror.
Today we have learned to our deep dismay that the US government is submitting a draft resolution to the UN Security Council asking for the repeal of the arms embargo on Somalia. We are afraid that this would bestow legal cover on Meles Zenawi’s ill-conceived adventures in Somalia. AFD full-heartedly concurs with ICG’s dire assessment that this action risks igniting a regional war.
At a highly volatile historical juncture when relations between the world’s major religions are increasingly getting sour throughout the world, at a time when there is a widespread sentiment and perception in the Muslim world that the Western World is becoming increasingly Islamophobic, Ethiopia’s tyrant is about to plunge the already volatile Horn of Africa region into total chaos by militarily interfering in Somalia and thereby aborting the Khartoum process of dialogue that has the best chance of restoring stability. The international community should not pour fuel on an already complicated situation in Somalia by giving the green to the Ethiopian dictator to take a poor country into a costly and senseless war with its neighbor igniting a larger and devastating regional conflict.
When the situation in Iraq is getting complicated and thus requiring a rethinking of strategy, it is counterproductive for the United States to pursue the same policy in Somalia, a policy rejected by the US electorate in a recent election, through its attempt to provide legal cover for its proxy in the Horn region to invade Somalia and start a war that has all the hallmarks and ingredients to engulf the entire region and beyond. We are also concerned to notice that a pattern of disinformation and deliberate misinformation by those with an ax to grind in a manner reminiscent of news coverage preceding the Iraqi war is now distorting the actual situation on the ground in our troubled region.
The Alliance calls on the United States to reconsider this resolution and rather concentrate efforts on encouraging the parties in Somalia to come to the negotiation table to resolve their differences without external interference. We also call on the international community to rather press the regime in Ethiopia to heed the call for an all-inclusive dialogue to resolve rising internal tensions rather than embarking on another costly adventure in a neighboring country.
While advising the parties in Somalia to seek mutual accommodation, exercise moderation and compromise rather than fanning irredentist rhetoric, we urge the EPRDF and its benefactors to desist from plunging the region into chaos and planting the venomous seeds of religious strife.
Alliance for Freedom and Democracy