Ethiopian Government’s Alleged Abuses in the Ogaden

In journalistic terms, the story in The New York Times today on claims made by the Ogadeni people that Ethiopian government troops routinely commit atrocities against civilians in the course of their pursuit of fighters that belong to the Ogaden National Liberation Front, ONLF against which it has been engaged in a separatist war since 1994 would qualify as news. This is in the sense that stories on this claim haven’t been international media staples, even though the rebellion has been underway for about thirteen years now. However, the news is true-to-type. This is in the sense that the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and the one in neighboring Eritria headed by Isaias Afworki, ever since they ousted Mengistu Haile Miriam in 1991 seem to be in competition with themselves to see who will come tops in the repression of their citizens. Human Rights Watch, the European Parliament and even the US State Department have all implicated the Zenawi government in abuses.

The interesting thing is that at no time has either Afworki or Zenawi lost support for a long time from the US. During the Clinton presidency both individuals alongside Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, were show-cased as the epitome of new African leaders. Since the Bush White House began the War against Terrorism, WaT, Afworki and Zenawi have upped their competition against one another to be the favorite boy-supporters of US anti-terror efforts in the Horn of Africa. In return Washington looks the other way and ignores their repression of internal dissent. Only last year, Zenawi went out of his way to rig general elections to perpetuate himself in power, and went as far as unleashing his security forces on opposition protesters, many of whom were shot on the streets of Addis Ababa, the capital, when they protested. He is still holding unknown numbers of opposition elements in indefinite detention. He has been involved in a campaign against Al-Qaeda-backed Islamists in Somalia as US proxy. The ONLF has certainly played into Zenawi’s hands by killing Chinese oilmen alongside Ethiopian troops recently. If that act convinces the US to listen to Zenawi’s plea to declare the ONLF a terrorist organization, there might be no secrecy or denial again whenever his troops step up their alleged acts of brutality against Ogadeni civilians.

If Zenawi gets away with the allegation being made against him in Ogaden, it will be another affirmation that the Wat is indeed a ploy to let dictators in Asia, and Africa brutalize their people and get away with it so long as they lend themselves to the Wat.