Interview: Eng Salehdin Maow

Suldaanka · November 5, 2010

Ethiopian ****** rebel leader says group will not continue fighting

BBC Monitoring Africa

October 19, 2010

Eng Salehdin Abdulrahaman Maow

Eng Salehdin Abdulrahaman Maow says “ When I was young I used to hear that the country where my parents came from was governed by a dictator. Although I was living in Somalia, I used to know that I was a refugee and not a real Somali”.

Excerpt from report by Ethiopian newspaper The Reporter website, in Amharic, on 17 October

The ****** National Liberation Front [ONLF] which had been waging an armed struggle, has signed a peace agreement with the government. Haile Mulu [The Reporter journalist] has interviewed Eng Salehdin Abdulrahaman Maow, the chairman of ONLF, concerning the peace agreement and other related issues.

[The Reporter] Can you tell us about yourself?

[Eng Salehdin] I was born and brought up in Mogadishu, Somalia. My parents were ******i nationals, but left the country due to the conflict between Britain and Italy. I completed my primary and secondary school education in Mogadishu, where I was born and brought up. Then I went to Germany and studied engineering. Since my father was teaching international economics in Germany, it was him who helped me to go to Germany. In Germany, I first graduated in mechanical engineering and then I did my masters degree in chemical engineering. After my graduation, I have worked in various German companies. Although I am a German national. I always feel ******i.

[The Reporter] How did you get that nationalism feeling and yet you were not born in ******?

[salehdin] When I was young I used to hear that the country where my parents came from was governed by a dictator. Although I was living in Somalia, I used to know that I was a refugee and not a real Somali. I always used to feel Ethiopian. You can not discard your roots.

[The Reporter] How did you join the ONLF?

[salehdin] When ONLF was formed, I was the chairman of the ****** relief organization. I was not a member of the front. Although I was not a member of the organization, I used to advise the combatants consistently to seek a peaceful solution to the problem. I became ONLF`s executive and central committee member in 1998. In 2004, when the [Ethiopian] Somali community leaving in the diaspora held a meeting in Germany, we had tried to influence the participants to look into the future and fate of the [******i] region and also to exert more efforts to solve the problem in a peaceful way. However, since the majority wanted the armed struggle to continue, our efforts did not succeed. When I became part of the leadership, I understood that things were not going according to our wish. A similar meeting was also held in Eritrea the following year. During the meeting, although the majority members of the leadership were for the idea of resolving the problems with Ethiopia in a peaceful way, a few insisted that the region should secede from Ethiopia and have its own flag. Although the majority of members of the central committee supported our idea, those less than ten people strongly opposed our idea and disagreed on the issue of holding talks with the Ethiopian government. Those who opposed the idea are people who are leaving lavishly because of the fighting. They have built houses in Kenya with the money donated by the Somali community. They also have a jewellery shop in Abu Dhabi. However, the ordinary [somali] people do not know what those leaders are doing. Up to now, they claim and say that they are ONLF leaders. After most of the leaders broke away [from the ONLF], Dr [Muhammad Sirad] Dolal was elected the chairman of the organization and I was elected his deputy. After two years, when Dr Dolal died, I took the chairmanship of the organization.

[The Reporter] Who supports the ONLF? What is the organisation`s source of income?

[salehdin] At the beginning, the society [Ethiopian Somali] used to support the organization. The people used to supply the organization with water and food. The Somali community leaving in diaspora also used to give material support to the organization. However, at present the support is not there. The people have stopped supporting those who are destabilising the area, because the people now want peace more than ever before. Those groups [who are not part of the peace agreement] get their support from Eritrea.

[The Reporter] When and how did you start the dialogue with the government?

[salehdin] The process was so strenuous. The area leaders tried their best to dialogue the ONLF and government. Although the process started some five years ago, due to resistance by some leaders, the process could not succeed. Some of the leaders did not want dialogue. They preferred to continue with the fighting using the people`s money. They only wanted to promote their wishes. As I have stated earlier, in 2006 most of the ONLF leaders broke away from those war mongers. In 2007, in Nairobi, we met government officials. In 2008, we also met and held talks with government officials in Europe. Serious talks started in 2009 when we held talks with [Ethiopian] Ambassador Berhane Gebrekiristos in Belgium. Then in June 2010, we met government officials in Germany and discussed several issues. Then in August 2010 in Washington, we met and discussed issues regarding peace agreement. At last, yesterday [12 October], we managed to sign the peace agreement.

[Passage omitted: More on the peace deal].

[The Reporter] How will the organization continue?

[salehdin] The organization will continue as it was. The members will not be dismissed. They will give support to the party administrating the region. It will not operate as a political party, may be in future it might transform into a political party, but it will not continue to operate the way ONLF was operating in the past 20 years.

[Passage omitted: More on the members future].

[The Reporter] How are those leaders who opposed dialogue with the government doing and where are they?

[salehdin] Those leaders and members of the organization who opposed the peace agreement are not more than fifty. Out of the ONLF leaders who opposed the peace agreement, two are in Australia, three in Britain and two in Denmark and three former ONLF leaders are leaving in Nairobi. All those leaders are currently living abroad, and those who are operating in the country are not more than forty or fifty and they cannot even meet and talk. So, we can reach the youth [the combatants] and manage to bring them back to peaceful life.

[The Reporter] What forced you to come to peace?

[salehdin] We understood that fighting would further worsen our people`s misery. Solving the problem through peaceful means was the only solution. The prevailing gap between the Somali region and the other part of Ethiopia must be filled. The twenty years of fighting has not brought any solution.

[The Reporter] Do you believe that there are some people who have committed crimes during the 20 years fighting?

[salehdin] Yes, I believe that those who refused to join in the peace agreement have committed crimes against their own people. I know that they had committed many appalling crimes. Such people do not want peace to prevail. So, I believe those people to be arrested and brought to court.

[Passage omitted: More on the role played by Salehdin in opposing those groups].

[The Reporter] In 2006, several Chinese and Ethiopians, who were working in the mine exploration, were killed in Abule [southeastern Ethiopia]. This killing was committed after you people broke away, and would this not show that those who remained behind have the capability to commit such awful crimes?

[salehdin] They do not have the capability at all. You cannot say that they have the strength by killing innocent people. Five or six people can commit such a crime. Killing a lot of innocent people does not show their strength. You cannot take it as a big thing, killing people while asleep?

[Passage omitted: More people`s support to Salehdin`s group]

[The Reporter] Do you believe that there would be no rebel activities in the region in future?

[salehdin] Yes, we can stop them if we work hand in hand with the federal and regional governments.

[The Reporter] Some say that you people were brought to the agreement after the government gave you money. Is it true?

[salehdin] I do not know, I have just heard it from you now. There was no money we received from the government.

[The Reporter] You had told me that the Eritrean government supports those few ONLF rebels. So, can we underestimate those few rebels?

[salehdin] We can stop them. One, we should work hard to bring the armed youth to peace. The second point is we should tell the world to pressurize Eritrea to stop supporting them. Those rebel groups, even if they get millions of dollars worth of arms, will not have the power to destabilise the region again. They should know that they cannot be victorious and join the peaceful path.

[Passage omitted: More on the ****** people].

Source: The Reporter website, Addis Ababa, in Amharic 17 Oct 10: [http://www.ethiopianreporter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3761:2010-10-17-07-51 -54&catid=100:2009-11-13-13-45-06&Itemid=619]

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