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PRESS
RELEASE
OGADEN: DOZENS OF PEOPLE AND THOUSANDS OF
ANIMALS STARVE TO DEATN ON A DAILY BASIS AMID INTERNATIONAL
LACK OF ATTENTION.
Ref: OHRC|05|00
Date: 03.04.00
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
For the last five years the Ogden was a country ravaged by
war and haunted by drought. The Ogden Human Rights Committee,
has warned the massive looming famine in the Ogden many times,
in its reports and press releases
(See Ogden: No Rights, No Democracy ref: OHRC|08|97, Ogden:
Graveyard of Rights, Press Release ref: OHRC|15|97 and Press
Release ref: OHRC|02|00).
The Ogden has been a virtually closed military zone for the
last eight years, where bloody battles were being fought between
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) forces
and combatants of The Ogden National Liberation Front (ONLF).
The latest battles took place in Grump area, Aware district,
in last week of March 2000.
Today, the situation in the Ogden is very tense and alarming.
The ongoing struggle for self-determination and independence
in the Ogden continues to cause more human suffering and threatens
peace and stability in the volatile region of the Horn of Africa.
In 1996, Ogden camels were dying in thousands for an unknown
fatal disease, which gripped the whole territory. The number
of dead camels was estimated at the time about 60,000 head.
The Ethiopian government has not intervened to save the lives
of the animals, which are the main source of the livelihood
for millions of the Ogden people.
In 1996, in the fertile valley of the shamble river in the
Godey area, the Ethiopian government has prevented the people
from cultivating their farms unless they pay 500 Ethiopian birr
for each farm, which is too much for them to pay. The peasants
were threatened with eviction from their lands if they do not
pay the new tax. Now Godey is one of the worst drought-stricken
areas.
In the Ogden, the poor and the fragile ecological balance has
been devastated by widespread exploitation and depletion of
forest for military purposes, fire-wood and charcoal by EPRDF|TPLF
forces and Tirana dealers, who have been give concessions and
game-licences by the Ethiopian government, which dominated by
ethnic Tigreans. The rich wildlife, including big game, game-birds,
forests and water resources have all suffered irreparable damage
in the Ogden under the current Ethiopian government.
INTERNATIONAL AID MISUSED AND DIVERTED
OGADENIA A DISASTER AREA BY ALL ACCOUNTS
FIGHTING ESCALSTES
APPEALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES UNABATED
The Ogden has been hit by a severe drought accompanied by lack
of food and medical care, which caused a mass starvation and
breakout of epidemics related to malnutrition and bad sanitation.
In the worst drought-stricken areas, dozens of people and thousands
of animals starved to death.
For the last four years, the rainy season failed or there was
not enough rainfall in the Ogden. Water is scarce and dear.
Whenever there is scarcity of water, the people move with their
animals beside water holes, ponds and reservoirs. Many water
reservoirs and tankers owned by individuals were confiscated
by the armed forces. The owners of these reservoirs and tankers
were denied the use of their water and property for their families
and thirsty animals, which are the main source of their livelihood.
In August 1999, the Ethiopian government, which spends more
than a million dollars a day on the war with Eritrea, internal
wars in the Ogden and Oromia and its invasions into Southern
Somalia, asked the international community for an urgent humanitarian
aid to feed five million Ethiopians facing starvation mainly
in Northern Ethiopia (in Tigray the homeland of the ruling party
in Ethiopia).
On 30 March 2000, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Melez Zenawi,
asked the international community for an urgent humanitarian
aid and a long term aid to feed and rehabilitate eight million
Ethiopians facing starvation in different parts of the empire-state
of Ethiopia.
DID THE INTERNATIONAL AID REACH ITS INTENDED BENEFICIARIES
IN THE OGADEN ?
WHERE DID INTERNATIONAL RELIEF GO?
As is usual with Ethiopian government, the aid donated by the
international community to the victims of the drought through
the Ethiopian Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (ERRC), which
is in effect run by the Tigray Relief Society (TRS), never reached
its intended beneficiaries in the Ogden, because the Ethiopian
government has misused it by diverting it to the army.
(See Recommendations and Appeals in this press release).
According to the eyewitness account and reports from the Ogden
Human Rights Committee's researchers, the Ogden is considered
now a disaster area by all accounts.
Under these tense, deteriorating and catastrophic situation,
the fighting escalated in the Ogden. And that makes traveling
by land a great risk without the consent of the Ethiopian government
and the Ogden National liberation Front, the two chief protagonists
in the Ogden scene.
(See Recommendations and Appeals).
The Ogden Human Rights Committee is alarmed at the rise of
attacks against aid workers, humanitarian organisations' property
and the civilian population as well.
On 07 February 2000, an unidentified well-armed gunmen attacked
an unidentified gunmen attacked Medecins Sans Frontieres(MSF)
- Doctors Without Borders|Belgium - vehicle traveling between
Jigjiga and Dhagaxbuur, killing the driver and wounding two
other persons, who were traveling in the vehicle. (See Press
Release ref: OHRC|02|00).
RECOMMEENDARIONS AND APPEALS:
1. The Ethiopian government and the Ogden National Liberation
Front, declare immediate, comprehensive and unconditional cease-fire
in the Ogden in order to aid drought and war victims in the
Ogden.
2. The international community exert more pressure on all the
parties to the conflict in the Ogden in order to reach a peaceful
negotiated settlement, which guarantees the Ogden people's inalienable
right to self-determination through a fair and free referendum.
3. The international donor community helps the Ogden people
generously and directly through international NGOs in order
to assure the reach of the food aid to the victims of the famine;
otherwise the relief will end up in military barracks as usual.
4. The Ogden Human Rights Committee reiterates its condemnation
and disapproval of imposing restrictions on humanitarian organisations'
movements as well as intimidation and abduction of aid workers
in the Ogden.
5. The Ogden Human Rights Committee urges the Ethiopian government,
the Ogden National Liberation Front and other parties to the
conflict to allow all humanitarian and relief organisations
to operate freely in the Ogden as well as international and
local human rights organisations and the international press.
6. The international community publicly censures Ethiopia over
its human rights record.
7. The Ethiopian government should be held responsible for infamous
mass killings, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, torture and
other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
8. The international community refrain from aiding and supporting
the Ethiopian government as long as it violates human rights
and fundamental freedoms in the empire-state of Ethiopia.
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES:
In The Ogden, arbitrary detentions without charge or trial,
torture of detainees to death, summary executions, gang raping
of women, child molestation, looting and illegal confiscation
of property are commonplace, and are daily practiced by the
Ethiopian army and security forces with impunity. (See Human
Rights Violations in the Ogden by Ethiopia, 1991 to 1996 ref:
OHRC/01/96, Deterioration of Human Rights Situation in the Ogden
unabated ref: OHRC/07/96, Mass Killings, Torture and Disappearances
in the Ogden ref: OHRC/08/96, Ogden: No Rights, No Democracy
ref: OHRC/08/97, Ogden: An Endless Human Tragedy ref: OHRC/12/98
and Ogden: Graveyard of Rights ref: OHRC/10/99).
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