Old observer: We should not withdraw. We were defeated as regular army, but not as the Somali people's liberation struggle therefore should continue as irregular fighters of WSLF WSLF insurgency was defeated after 1981. WSLF was not a serious threat to Derg after 1977 debacle.

Some people say that Barre was never the same person after 1977 debacle. Somalia was never the same country after 1978, even WSLF ceased to exist after war.

This incident was a tragedy for Somali army. I dont understand why Barre killed these officers.

You dont need to ackwoledge anything about 1977 war, because everybody knows what really happened that year. I just wan to know your opinion about Gral Samatar point of view.

I know Somalia is different, but my topic is not about this new Somalia. I just want to know your opinion about Samatar statement. It is too difficult to understand. "The latest came from Somalia Minister for Defence Lt. Gen. Mohamed Ali Samatar who claimed last week that his country has no designs on Ethiopian territory" The statement was made in 1983.

Mr Old Observer: I just want to know your opinion about Gral Samatar Statement on Ogaden. The latest came from Somalia Minister for Defence Lt. Gen. Mohamed Ali Samatar who claimed last week that his country has no designs on Ethiopian territory

I dont understand why nobody wants to talk about this issue.

I dont understand why nobody wants to talk about this issue.

Everybody knows 1977 war, but few people know something about this brief war. Was 1982 war between Somalia and Ethiopia a defeat for Somalia?

An article about General Samatar and Ogaden. https://www.nakala.fr/data/11280/fa4aa264

https://sdsu-dspace.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/185227/Ali_sdsu_0220N_11577.pdf?sequence=1 Although the WSLF continued to wage resistance against the Derg regime after the Ogaden War was over, by the 1980’s they were completely destroyed

I am a journalist who is interested in Ethiopia-Somalia conflict.

I dont want to destroy anything here. I just want to show new sources about WSLF. Many somalis should be grateful of my details about Somalia history.

ONLF was inactive in 1984. They began armed strugle in 1994. Check out this interview with ONLF chairman Mohamed Osman: Asharq Al-Awsat Talks to ONLF Leader, Admiral Mohamed Omar Osman https://eng-archive.aawsat.com/theaawsat/features/asharq-al-awsat-talks-to-onlf-leader-admiral-mohamed-omar-osman [Asharq Al-Awsat] When was the ONLF founded, and what are the goals for which it is fighting? [Osman] The ONLF was founded in 1984, but began armed action 10 years later, in 1994 Observer: That is why the EPRDF has to give them place and respect. No body gives you regard if you are not threat or big potential threat WSLF was inactive in 1991. They were not a serious military threat. Check out these sources. Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia Sarah Vaughan https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/id/1299/vaughanphd.pdf Page 207 "they asked for Sudanese help to locate representatives of the long moribund Western Somalia Liberation Front (WSLF)" On the Complexity of Analyzing Armed Opposition: Objectives, Labeling, and Reflections on Ethiopia’s Somali Region https://repositorio.iscte-iul.pt/bitstream/10071/8479/1/Ylonen_JAHPS_Vol-I_No-I_2015.pdf After the war, the WSLF had remained as the main armed opposition organization in the Somali region, but during the course of the early 1980s it lost much of its strength and by 1989 it was largely defunct Ethiopian professor writes about Ethiopia’s policy of destabilizing Somalia http://samaynta.com/index.php/2017/02/13/ethiopian-professor-writes-about-ethiopian-policy-of-destabilizing-somalia/ In addition, the WSLF and SALF were significantly weakened after the Ogaden War. The former was practically defunct by the late 1980s, with its splinter group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) operating from headquarters in Kuwait The sources are clear, WSLF was inactive after 1984.

But I am talking about WSLF as insurgency. I think WSLF is inactive, now. WSLF was not a serious military threat in 1991.

Transition from war to peace: the Ethiopian disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration experience Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10246029.2017.1297580 Additionally, the EPRDF had to determine the fate of the other groups who had fought the Derg within the new political arrangement, wherein the EPRDF formed an interim government in order to lead the nation through the transition. While the number of such groups was large, their actual military capacity was insignificant to none. They included: the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF); the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Army (EPRA); the United Oromo People’s Liberation Front (UOPLF); the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromo (IFLO); the Somali Abbo Liberation Front (SALF); the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF); the Sidama Liberation Front (SLF); the Afar Liberation Front (ALF); the Benishangul People’s Liberation Movement (BPLM); the Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU); and the Gambella People’s Liberation Movement (GPLM). All of these groups claimed to have been engaged in armed struggles and to have had armed forces under their command.

The Somali in the new political order of Ethiopia John Markakis http://www.roape.org/pdf/5908.pdf Page 74 WSLF remained organisationally moribund.

WSLF suffered serious casualtied after 1977 war. They felt betrayed by Barre. I think WSLF was a minor problem in 1991.

I think people must know WSLF history.

Ethiopian Somali Democratic League (ESDL) The Ethiopian Somali Democratic League (ESDL) was a political party in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. It was the ruling EPRDF's regional partner from 1994 to 1998. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Somali_Democratic_League Somali Abbo Liberation Front vs Derg http://ucdp.uu.se/#/conflict/436 After a brutal Ethiopian counter-insurgency campaign in 1980, SALF was so weakened that it failed to make any further military impact. The Somali in Ethiopia Author: John Markakis http://www.roape.org/pdf/7013.pdf WSLF vs Derg However, by and large WSLF increasingly came to resemble a spent force, and after 1983 the group was no longer a military threat to the Addis Ababa regime. During the first years after its formation, ONLF did not have any significant military capacity. In fact, while some sources talk vaguely of the group gaining a foothold in the Ogaden region in the late 1980s, there are no reports of it actually challenging the Addis Ababa regime militarily. http://ucdp.uu.se/#/conflict/329

An interesting link about Somalis: http://minorityrights.org/minorities/somalis/ The Ogaden region was ceded by the British government to Ethiopia in 1955 over protests by Ogadeni Somalis who felt greater political and cultural affinity with the nation of Somalia. The Somali irredentist movement in Ogaden peaked during the 1970s and declined after the defeat of Somali incursions. Disintegration of the state in Somalia in the late 1980s and early 1990s led many Somali organizations in Ogaden to reject irredentism and re-orient themselves towards Ethiopian political life. The search for an end to conflict in the Somali Regional State in Ethiopia TOBIAS HAGMANN Page 38 In its 30 years of existence, the evolution of the ONLF has been strikingly different from that of the ruling TPLF/EPRDF. While the latter evolved from an armed rebellion in Tigray to become the dominant political party that it is today in Ethiopia, the ONLF was at first a small, secretive diaspora organization with representatives in East Africa, the Arab Gulf States and Europe (1984–1991), then a political party in charge of the newly established SRS (1992–1994), and only after that, an armed opposition group (1994–2014)

OLD_OBSERVER: "UWSLF, ONLF, SDL, SILF" UWSLF ceased to exist in 2010 when they signed a peace agreement with Ethiopia. ONLF is still active in Ogaden. I have never heard anything about SILF and SDL, could you tell me something about them.

For now the Somali people were one of the most important people that overthrew the Derg. That everybody agrees. Did they benrfit from it...question but the fact of their contribution is well accepted. Derg was overthrew by TPLF, EPLF and OLF. Somali role was marginal. Ethiopian Ethnic Federalism and Regional Autonomy: The Somali Test by Abdi Ismail Samatar http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1045&context=bildhaan "Although Somalis contributed significantly to the weakening of the Mengistu regime, the liberation movement was politically and militarily a spent force in 1991. Many Somali Ethiopians who had moved to Somalia since the early 1960s returned to Ethiopia after May 1991. Some of these were senior military leaders and political entrepreneurs, steeped in sectarian elite games" "The Somali government and people supported both the Tigray People's lLiberation Front (Meles Zenawi's group) and Eritrean Liberation Front. BY militarily and diplomatically supporting these and by keeping the pressure on Addis Ababa on the Somali front, the military regime in Ethiopia was spread too thin to handle the multitude of international liberation movement. This way the military regime was weakened. The Somali government unfortunately weakened Western Somali Liberation Front by not allowing it the kind of autonomy TPLF and ELF had. When the time of reckoning came in Ethiopia, WSLF was weak and insignificant"

Why you talk to me in somali language if I dont understand somali.

But I can not find sources that say WSLF was a serious threat to Ethiopia in 1985. Check out this CIA document: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP91B00776R000300050020-2.pdf The article says that Somalia has tried to resucitate WSLF with little success. Another CIA memorandum: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP88T00792R000300040006-7.pdf WSLF had declined because they dont have Somalia support. WSLF only has 1000 men.