ONLF/OHRC brutality

Many people have been saying for months that all the fictional tales of human rights abuse by Ethiopia in Ogaden are being claimed only by supporters of the ONLF insurgency in Ogaden. These claims did not come from impartial groups who can qualify as credible refugee witnesses. I covered about this last month HERE and showed that supporters of the ONLF terrorist organization will flee out of Ethiopia (as directed by ONLF) when our troops attack the ONLF. And meanwhile, common sense indicates that supporters of Ethiopia will take shelter in Ethiopia during this conflict in the Ogaden. This has been said by many other people. It is not rocket science, it's common sense. Certainly, only members of the ONLF are fleeing and pretending as credible witnesses. (This is insurgency 101, a typical strategy by rebels to gain outside support.) But they haven't tricked many of us. ONLF members are the ones currently used as refugee witnesses for western journalistsand Reuters recently proved this again. According to the recent REUTERS article, NOT to the surprise of most of us who have been saying this over and over, the other “witnesses” themselves admitted that they are members of the ONLF terrorist organization.

Certainly, the insurgency and counter insurgency campaigns in the Ogaden region are putting civilians in danger. And all of this conflict, we know itstarted by the ONLF massacring Ethiopians. That is as far as it goes politically. The current attempts by ONLF officials to paint an army abuse are groundless and all these are cover-ups by the ONLF to hide its own crimes on the local people (which it savagely admitted by the way.) The only person supporting ONLF’s stories is the infamous Keif Schleifer of the so-called “The Empowerment Initiative” with his endless press releases to Ethiopian websites.

Surely, the ONLF/OHRC will entertain us with more fairytales. In fact, rumors have it that one of those emboldened but illiterate ONLF leaders was about to accidentally accuse Ethiopia of threatening to use a nuclear bomb in the Ogaden region. He might have not realized that the Ethiopian government doesn’t even have that kind of technology, let alone have the desire to kill a fly in the Ogaden using such a weapon. But unfortunately, this ONLF member was saved from international embarrassment byhis colleague who reminded him that Ethiopia is not Russia.

Other smokescreens and tricks used by the ONLF is of course duplicating itself multiple times. For example, a bogusgroup of ONLF members started a human rights organization called OHRC tohelp the fabrication workto defame Ethiopia.

Unfortunately, the OHRC did a terrible job of disguising itself.It has declared funny statements like condemning

Ethiopia when an NGO is told to leave, BUT at the same time, defending the ONLF when an NGO is sacked by these rebels. One specific case was when the OHRC accused the French humanitarian organization Action Against Hunger and justified ONLF's kidnapping of Mr. Eric Courly, an engineer inside the organization. Certainly many other reporters and Ethiopians have been discussing about this failed attempt by OHRC todisguise itself. Other duplicates of ONLFinclude the Ogaden Online website run by ONLF membersalong with its endless number of creative fairytales to support ONLF terrorist organization.

So after clearing the ONLF smokescreen, we need to move from ONLF’s allegations and fairytales; to serious matters like bringing the ONLF terrorists to justice. The crimes and massacres committed by the ONLF are not only proven, but the ONLF itself has savagely admitted its terrorist acts, including the genocidal crimes of targeting a Somali sub-clan in Ethiopia during their April attacks. It is now clear that ONLF supporters have no interest in democracy since yet another election is taking place in Ethiopia with the participation of dozens of opposition groups, while the ONLF continues to massacre people. It shows once again that the ONLF, whichtreats Ethiopia as a colonial entity to let alone haverespect for Ethiopia's sovereignty, is not the typical dissidentand not the typical opposition group that is willing to address grievances in peaceful manner. It is a pure terrorist organization, pending US/UN labeling of such, but have already been a terrorist in the eyes of hundreds of Ethiopians whose relatives have been its victims. Unfortunately, the Ethiopian victims of the ONLF are now the victims of international politics where a terrorist organization fighting against the West, like Al-Qaeda, is labeled a terrorist, while a terrorist organization fighting African nations, like the ONLF, becomes just a "rebel with a cause."

Video of ONLF/OHRC brutality

Video of ONLF/OHRC brutality

List of some of the civlians massacred by ONLF/OHRC

"... the issue of insurgency continues to trouble the region, and Africa as a whole. The way forward is through development, the way forward is thru legitimate opposition... it is not through picking up arms and insurgency. It is a message that the African Union (AU) needs to make much more loudly to its member states.” - Jendayi Frazier, U.S. Asst. Secretary of State

"But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence"----Martin Luther King Jr.

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December 4, 2007 Behailu Damte