Ethiopia Is Said to Block Food to Rebel Region

[Xudeedi]

The name of the region is censored in this site. You should be able to read the plight of this region from this current article featured today on NYtimes.

 

Ethiopia Is Said to Block Food to Rebel Region

 

July 22/07

 

Sunday NYtimes

 

 

Villagers in the ****** recently counted sacks of grain while rebel fighters watched. The government is accused of blocking food aid to the region.

 

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 21 — The Ethiopian government is blockading emergency food aid and choking off trade to large swaths of a remote region in the eastern part of the country that is home to a rebel force, putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk of starvation, Western diplomats and humanitarian officials say.

 

The Ethiopian military and its proxy militias have also been siphoning off millions of dollars in international food aid and using a United Nations polio eradication program to funnel money to their fighters, according to relief officials, former Ethiopian government administrators and a member of the Ethiopian Parliament who defected to Germany last month to protest the government’s actions.

 

The blockade takes aim at the heart of the Oggaden region, a vast desert on the Somali border where the government is struggling against a growing rebellion and where government soldiers have been accused by human rights groups of widespread brutality.

 

Jeffrey Gettleman/The New York Times

Jemal Dirie Kalif, above, in Germany, was a member of Ethiopia’s Parliament who defected to protest the government actions.

 

Humanitarian officials say the ban on aid convoys and commercial traffic, intended to squeeze the rebels and dry up their bases of support, has sent food prices skyrocketing and disrupted trade routes, preventing the nomads who live there from selling their livestock. Hundreds of thousands of people are now sealed off in a desiccated, unforgiving landscape that is difficult to survive in even in the best of times.

 

“Food cannot get in,” said Mohammed Diab, the director of the United Nations World Food Program in Ethiopia.

[Jacaylbaro]

NAIROBI, July 23 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's ****** rebels called for a U.N. investigation on Monday after the government was accused of blocking food aid to their remote eastern region.

 

The ****** National Liberation Front (ONLF) is seeking more autonomy for its homeland bordering Somalia. Addis Ababa says it is a terrorist group bankrolled by arch-foe Eritrea.

 

On Sunday, a report in The New York Times quoted Western diplomats and relief officials saying Ethiopia's government was blockading emergency food aid and choking off trade to ******.

 

Ethiopian government officials were not immediately available to comment.

 

On Monday, the ONLF said Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's administration was engaged in a systematic and deliberate campaign of violence against its people.

 

"These war crimes include diverting humanitarian assistance for use by the regime's armed forces ... deliberate burning of villages, arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, torture, a blockade on food aid as well as other commercial goods and other forms of collective punishment," the ONLF said in a statement.

 

The ONLF itself has been accused of carrying out atrocities, including an April raid on a Chinese-run oil field in which 74 people were killed and seven Chinese workers taken hostage.

 

They were later freed but in the wake of the attack, Meles announced a crackdown on the rebels.

 

It is difficult to get independent information out of the desolate region, which is ethnically Somali.

 

In its statement on Monday, the ONLF called for a U.N. fact-finding mission.

 

"The United Nations bears a particular responsibility to investigate war crimes in ****** given recent reports that its humanitarian assistance is deliberately being diverted to armed forces and militias responsible for these war crimes," it said.

 

"The ONLF wishes to affirm to the international community that if there is no immediate intervention in the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in ******, there will be a man-made famine created by the current regime of Meles Zenawi."

 

 

HERE

[Abdulladiif Al-Fiqih]

Wayone is starting to realize there were just a tool for Bush and Emrican Oil company both in somalia and Ethiopia. Now they are crying wolf and pretty they will be dropped like a hot potato. Alla jecliyaa jabkooda!!

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Ethiopia & Oil, West is almost ready to make ****** a mini-Darfur07/22/07

 

 

by Kirkos - So what do we have here in Ethiopia? There is the Chinese investor. Then there is the ****** region. In it, is Oil, potentially an untapped large source of it. Guess what? America is not that far behind and it is not going to miss this .P. - the ****** Oil Party. As expected, It would do anything just to get it and to make sure China doesn't get a single liter of it. Including of course, doing a 180 degree turn to attack its closest friend in Africa, Meles Zenawi, and make the ****** look like Darfur as much as possible.

The latest liberal and angry New York Times article should teach Meles Zenawi a good lesson - never trust the American government! NYT's Jeffrey, as usual, made sure that he didn't talk about the real goals of the ONLF rebels and the forces behind the ONLF. Mr. Jeffrey also made sure that he hid the details about the Somali/****** state officials governing the area. His goal is to make the region as lawless as possible, without any governing body, but just full of Ethiopian genocidal troops attacking the local population that is waiting to be saved by the ONLF rebels. This is same old, same old stuff. Despite the American attempt to portray divisions between liberals and the GOPs, in America, these two groups work hand in hand with each other. It is the job of the "pro-poor" and caring liberals to play angels and show such using their mass media & human rights organizations etc. After that, depending on which liberal spiced up crisis story is the most money-making one, the American government would select the best one and proceed. Once it is assured that there is something worth taking (like Oil) it is the job of the tough GOPs to go down and save the locals from massacre, "famine" and "genocide" and bring justice & democrcay by using force. At the end, ironically, the liberals will ofcourse shout and cry about the harshness of the GOPs, not because they really mean it, but just because it sounds good and portrays the picture that not all Americans are as cruel as the resulting bloody American military occupations. This cycle of deceptive American foreign politics, with liberals and GOPs working together, have been going on for a while. But the fact that it is happening against Ethiopia will be unique but not as strange as the fact that Ethiopians are not ready for this game.

Well, the opposition parties in the parliament have already warned Meles Zenawi. Before he went to Somalia, everyone told him of the consequences. Now an overstretched Ethiopian defence forces means that Ethiopia will not be able to easily defeat the combined Eritrea-ONLF-ICU forces in the ******. The saying "time is money" can be applied here. The faster one finishes off the ONLF rebels, the harder it would have been for the anti-China Americans to start the first part of their pre-intervention strategy: which is showing their loving & caring pro-Human Rights side. But so far, it is too late for Meles Zenawi and depending on how much the GOP were laughing about the China oil field massacre in April or depending on how Oil-thirsty they are, it would not be far before the next step of American foreign politics of bloody intervention takes place.

Now the time is evaluation period for the "good old America." What are the tradeoffs for the American government? Should it assist the ONLF to get the Oil and to also be seen as a hero by the pro-ONLF people? Or should it stick with Ethiopia, placing security on top of its agenda? It appears like the only way ONLF can gain control is if Eritrean government invades Ethiopia. So would that be the best scenario for America? It seems like the UK and EU are already siding with the Eritrean government & ONLF. The UK confirmed that only the WEST has the exclusive privilage of defining groups as "terrorist organizations" by overtly protecting the ONLF leaders in London even after the bloody massacre by ONLF. The EU also awarded the Eritrean government with tens of millions of dollars, which has ofcourse become Eritrean money that is mostly used to finance and arm the ONLF. So the American government would not feel alone if it decides to help the ONLF. Certainly, there are a lot of tradeoffs in this game for America.

For Ethiopia, the options have dwindled. Certainly, by Meles Zenawi making such bad decisions, Ethiopia will inherit a historical burden unless Meles quickly gets himself out of this quagmire. It is not like he hasn't been warned. Actually, the warning started many years ago with his reckless policies including the disasterous Article 29 of the constitution that gives rebels the legal power to take any part of Ethiopia they want. And Meles has been trying to make Ethiopia democratic while keepig her sovereignty in question via Article 29. As expected, he has mostly failed so far. Meles should have read books about how much Human Rights was actually respected by the early European Americans while making their empire by exterminating Native Americans. None. In fact, all nations around the world have such bloody beginning to secure their sovereignty and HRW & Amnesty International certainly were not running around centuries ago and picking on American founding fathers for mass murdering the native Americans. But what Meles has done is take the Ethiopian sovereignity question back to the "survival of the fittest" answer. Instead of building democracy after keeping Ethiopia's sovereignity, Meles is trying to re-secure Ethiopia's sovereignity from scratch and secure democracy: both at the same time. Which has beeen an impossible thing to do and will be impossible to do so without facing massive diplomatic setbacks. By trivializing Ethiopia's sovereignity via Article 29 and with his other failed policies, the Meles Zenawi adminstration has so far made the issue of democracy in the back seat.

Still the problem in the ****** is not as bad as it looks. The locals have representatives in the Ethiopian parliament and most of them are actually supporting the government against the ONLF rebels. The fact that the ONLF rebels are ignoring their constitutional rights to be elected and do whatever they want, if achieved the majority, would be another political weapon against this separatist group. Also if a central Somalia government succeeds in Mogadishu and the rule of law prevails, ONLF's lawlessness would be less tolerable by the powers in the regions. But the West factor and interests play a big role in the future of this eastern Ethiopia ****** region. Afterall, Oil is Oil.