Is the ONLF Struggle an asset or a liability?

[NASSIR]

Great Editorial by Wardheernews. Please read with dispassionate interest and reflect deeply on the views and facts presented by the board.

 

IS THE ONLF STRUGGLE AN ASSET OR A LIABILITY?

WardheerNews Editorial

December 06, 2007

 

“Not all are victims of the army. Many have been displaced by the ONLF, whose own brutality is unequalled. The rebels routinely burn the homes of anyone who fails to offer food or shelter”.

Ethiopia's 'secret war' forces thousands to flee ,

By David Blair

 

The ****** National Liberation Front (ONLF), with its unwavering confrontation with Ethiopian forces, has been lately featured in Western Media in a spectacular way than ever before. While the United States government and the Bush administration staunchly support Ethiopia as a partner in the “war against terror,” liberal western media touts the ONLF as victims.

 

Even dissident Somali groups who are locked in a bitter confrontation (for obvious reasons) with the Ethiopian government started to promote the bloody campaign that the ONLF carries in the Somali Regional State (SRS) of Ethiopia as the work of a “liberation” campaign (Jama Mohamed Ghalib, December, 2007). Beneath all the brouhaha, which mainly masks the proverbial deadly strategy of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend,” lies the forgotten plight of hundreds of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.

 

Death and mayhem in the hands of expeditionary Ethiopian military campaigns are not new to the residents of this region. Successive Ethiopian regimes (starting with emperor Menelik, through King Haile Sellasie and Col. Mengistu Haile Marriam to the current regime) have meted measurably despicable human rights abuses. The onslaught against the Geri Kombe in Jigiga in the late 1940s, including massive public hanging of villagers in the center (Faras Magaala) of Jigjiga, the Aisha’a massacre against the Issa in 1961, the Mayhem in Dagahbur and Qorahay in 1963 to the intermittent contemporary collective punishments that uproots swaths of villages is but all that Ethiopia had so far offered to these residents for over one hundred years.

 

What is unique this time around, though, is the share of deaths and destructions that the ONLF commits under the color of liberating “Oggadenia.” In the past, the struggle for equality and self determination by the Somalis were coined and conducted in a more inclusive manner. The 1940s uprising, popularly known as the “Ha noolaato” which were centered in Jigjiga, (long live liberation), the 1964 struggle, an offshoot of the Nasrulah movement, and the 1970s intensive and well-focused struggle waged by the now defunct Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) were all inclusive of all Somali clans in the region and respectively commanded wide support notwithstanding hard circumstances. But a looming danger to the long term well being of this lineage-based segmentary Somali society is the introduction of the new divisive political terminologies and concepts by the ONLF; if not arrested, the foreseeable impacts may prove detrimental to the society which it claims to be fighting on whose behalf.

 

The sectarian language and terms in which ONLF engages its politics, such as “Oggadenia,” or the “people of Oggadenia,” the “Oggaden nation,” and the likes, are as a dangerous as the bullets shot by Abyssinian Highlanders. (With the exception of ONLF, most similar Somali dissident groups, although as chauvinistic as the ONLF, avoid the public use of blatant and naked clannish chauvinistic conversation. Thus Issaq and **********-dominated fronts in the 1980s used such names as Somali Nation Movement (SNM) and Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) for Issaq and **********, respectively).

 

Tobias Hagamann, an expert in the political and social change of the region, recently wrote about the negative meaning of the concept of .......... Full Editorial Page

[xiinfaniin]

ONLF is an asset.

[Jacaylbaro]

Good Topic ,,,

[NASSIR]

Originally posted by xiinfaniin:

ONLF is an asset.

I beg to differ xiinow, ONLF is a liability. WSLF is an asset on the Somalia's balance sheet. Xin do you agree with the view that the Concept is "as dangerous as the bullets shot by Abyssinian Highlanders."

 

I can envision the seething anger beneath the long-term effect of this name. I personally won't want my clan to be buried under the title of another. It is like denying my existance, which is the worst thing done to a clan society. Take the clan as an example of a nation with distinct linguistic and cultural rights?

[Nephissa]

“Not all are victims of the army. Many have been displaced by the ONLF, whose own brutality is unequalled. The rebels routinely burn the homes of anyone who fails to offer food or shelter”.

Why wouldn't anyone..?

[xiinfaniin]

the O is a nation adeer, and not clan. One way to feel home is mary from them, in that case you would be marying up.

 

Seriously Caamir, This clan sentiment you cite is irrelevant in this struggle. I am yet to see other clans in that region fighting the good fight. And that’s quite telling.

[Observer]

The Somali people, who have long languished under the cruel Ethiopian occupation, deserve a better alternative to seek their freedom. As such, reviving the more inclusive Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) is one of many alternatives at hand.

Please stop shading your crocodile tears. Instead of blaming everything and anything on ONLF and thier noble struggle or the name. I sincerely advice you to start your own struggle under banner of WSLF. What is so hard about it? Why dont these people who thinks by switching from ONLF to WSLF is the only way out of Amxaaro colonization, fail to take part under the so called "WSLF"? What have WSLF achieved if any? and who were the majority of so called WSLF member who used to fight then? If the name O makes these people so uncomfortable than Vs. the oppression of Amxaro then let them grief about it. They indeed doesnt deserve to liberated.

 

If you have a better solution/alternative on to how to librate the people in that part of the world then come up with concrete action and that is simple take up arm and start your own struggle as ONLF did. RESPECT AND FREEDOM SHOULD BE EARNED. One has to pay a great deal of price to earn his/her freedom. Then and only then that we all will come out a winner. Untill then keep mourning about ONLF and insignificant issues struggle, while i see a bigger and better picture.

 

BII IDIN'ILLAHI WA BII FADIL'ILLAH KARIIM WE WILL COME VICTORIOUS SOONER RATHER THAN LATER.

[The Zack]

I agree with you Observer 100%. Why keep whinning about the name ONLF if you can't do better?

[nuune]

Caamir, if you don't like the ONLF struggle, then no one forces you to support them!

 

The bit you don't like about them is CLEAR, cuz they are fighting the Tigreys which happens to be the banner of the TFG, sxb, qabiil yuusan ku dulleeysan, if you want clear picture of what is happening in that region, you can visit, and see the reality on the ground, from Wardheer to Hargeele and to Qabridahar, you will witness an overall struggle against the Tigreys

 

 

Let me know if you are interested, I will take you there and hook you up with ONLF fighters to clear your mind from maskaxfalluuqa

[N.O.R.F]

Caamir, this obsession to paint a bad picture of the ONLF by yourself and others is getting pathetic!

 

The struggle is an assett for the 'real' nationalists and a liability for the fakers (TFG supporters).

[Malika]

“The Somali people, who have long languished under the cruel Ethiopian occupation, deserve a better alternative to seek their freedom. As such, reviving the more inclusive Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) is one of many alternatives at hand.”

 

^Wouldn’t that be something, if we were to be INCLUSIVE in all matters of Somali and Somalia?

 

Caamir,

Did it matter when thousands of young men and women joined the army in the late 70’s to liberate O.gaden from Ethiopia’s occupation?

I believe there wasn’t an issue about the struggle being one about a certain clan but the struggle was to support and die for the cause which was to liberate our brothers in O.gaden. It was unfortunate there wasn’t a consistence in leadership where there was a proper strategic plan, but by God, the people of Somali heritage were behind each other for their brothers and sisters in O.gaden. The name meant nothing then, why is it such a big deal now, could it be because our mindset is programmed to think and practise only under the banner of ones qabiil?

 

Unfortunate Mr Blair forgot to add to his article the current make up of Somali Politics, which will be hindsight to why the struggle has become a one clan struggle rather than a collective Somali struggle.

 

Is there such a thing as a collective Somali struggle any more? [A silly question innit? Lol]

 

Is ONLF an asset, indeed it is.

[Fabregas]

So if the O.N.L.F changed their name tommorow would they send their clan militias and their youth to join the resistance? No! They will claim the the O.N.L.F is a clan organisation which abusing a pan-Somali name! There already exists another organization by the name of Jabhada Xoreynta Somali Galbeed, why aren't they supporting that? em, em, because they are considered as terrorists and one should be as friendly as possible with the Ethiopian Army, which is rebuilding the Ocaden region and the Somali region. So that peace, freedom and democracy may reign! Isn't that right, Caamir?

[The Zack]

If one goes back to the history one can see that when WSLF (Jabhada Xoreynta SomaliGalbeed) was fighting against the colony, some Somalis in that region didn't like the name of WSLF and its policies and called themselves Sii Galbeed(far west).

[Seekknowledge]

Caamir,

Did it matter when thousands of young men and women joined the army in the late 70’s to liberate O.gaden from Ethiopia’s occupation?

I believe there wasn’t an issue about the struggle being one about a certain clan but the struggle was to support and die for the cause which was to liberate our brothers in O.gaden.

Reality check young men were running and hiding because they were scared of "qafaal" while the elite's children were safe. It was not a war to liberate our brothers but a war initiated by the former dictator and his amigos colonel Aweys etc. kind of "wag the dog" so they can continue their dictatorship. The people supposedly being liberated were in the middle of it and cursing both sides. Sounds familiar isn't?

[The Zack]

^I wouldn't say that man, we have lost a lot of somali braves in that war. They didn't die for nothing or for playing around. It was a war to liberate ******ia but has failed because of super power interventions.