Horn African Diaspora unites for peace and stability of the region.

Meadna News, Tuesday, 11 December 2007

A conference for peace and stability in the horn of Africa was held in London on Sunday December 9th 2007, bringing communities from Ogden, Somalia, Eritrea and Oromo together. The conference, first of its kind, was jointly organised by the Oromo Youth Organisation, Ogaden Youth Organisation, Eritrean Youth Organisation and Somalia Youth Congress to address problems in the horn Africa region including killing of civilians, destruction of livelihoods, war crimes, rape and sexual assaults, arrests and detentions, occupation, forced expulsion and violation of international rulings that are being committed by the Ethiopian regime.

Followed by the official opening of the conference, representatives of Oromo Youth Organisation, Eritrean Youth Organisation, Ogaden Youth Organisation and Somalia Youth Congress gave presentations on the state of affairs of their countries and people in historical context respectively.

The Oromo representative, stating the present time as “historic moment”, expressed their delight to have the opportunity to “voice our voice for those voiceless majority Oromos in Ethiopia.” The presentation focused on gross violation of human right in Ethiopia including the extrajudicial killing, disappearances of hundreds of thousands Oromos, mass detention and economic crimes directed at all Ethiopian ethic groups denying them to engage in any significant economic activities. The presentation described the plight of Oromo farmers who are “facing unprecedented scale of eviction from their farming land which time in memorial belongs to their ancestors.”

The presentation also highlighted the role of the powerful nations that have got the Ethiopian regime as their ally to their war on terror “are in reality supporting a terrorist government.” The presentation further added “whether it is a matter of coincidence or intentionally, the US government is supporting the most brutal, undemocratic, corrupt and uncivilized political power in Ethiopia”

Describing the Ethiopian regime as the “the most notorious threat to East Africa,” the presentation stated “the TPLF went into war with Eritrea in 1998 to 2000, which ended up with the loss of 70,000 lives and displacement of 700,000 people. In the involvement of Ethiopian government into internal affair of Somalia, the direct targets of the TPLF are Oromos who took refugee in Somalia.”

This was followed by Eritrean presentation, which focused on the current problem, the refusal of the Ethiopian regime to abide by the international final and binding ruling and historical context of the role of the US in the region and particular its policy on Eritrea and Ethiopia which has been the same for over half a century. The presentation also highlighted the human suffering including the mass deportation of Eritreans from Ethiopia and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

The Ogaden presentation was also presented in historical context and the main focus of topics were the plight of the Ogaden Somali people, natural resources, the root causes of the Ogaden trouble and human right violation. The presentation was backed by very distressing images and videos of specific cases of killing of civilians, rape and sexual assaults, arrests and detentions and torture. The evidences were very distressing and caused the presenter and most of the attendants of the conference to burst into tears and weeping.
The presentation also highlighted the role of the western nations in supporting and assisting the Ethiopian regime through billions of dollars, which is directly allowing Meles Zenawi “butcher more Ethiopians, Ogaden Somalis, also allow him to invade neighbor countries Eritrea and Somalia.” The presentation ended appealing to the international community to intervene in the plight of Ogaden Somalis.

Finally, the representative of the Somalia Youth Congress presented equally distressing picture of the Situation in Somalia. The presentation highlighted the death of over 6000 civilians, 7000 wounded people and displacement of 1.5 million Somalians, which was caused by the Ethiopian invasion and occupation of Somalia. The presentation also looked at the role of the US, “the Bush administration instead of supporting the IUC for getting rid of the war lords immediately branded the IUC hardliners and made those who have been killing and robbing the Somalian people his allies as well as supporting the Ethiopian occupation.”

Pointing out the agenda of the Ethiopian regime, which is to stop Somalia from uniting and reconstitute their country, the presentation stated “the majority of Smalians do not support the Somalian transition government; it is not an independent government but one that is controlled and guided by the regime in Addis.” The presentation similarly ended with a call on the international community to listen to the screaming of the Somalian people for help.

After giving the attendant of the conference the opportunity for discussion, the six-hour long event was concluded with agreement to stage a peaceful demonstration in January 2008 and invited all the people of the horn of Africa and friends of the region to join them in their appeal to the international community for peace.

SOURCE: http://meadna.com/

Faafin: SomaliTalk.com | Dec 14, 2007

BAARID | SEARCH