Ethiopia, Africa's
oldest independent country, is one of the West's closest allies in the Horn of
Africa.
Bordering Kenya, South Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia,
this vast nation is home to about 80 different ethnic groups, many with their
own languages and customs.
Despite Ethiopia's demographic diversity, the country's power
structure in mainly centralised in its capital Addis Ababa, located in the
heart of the country.
And this is resented by some of Ethiopia's many different ethnic
groups.
To the far east of the country lies Ethiopia's Somali region.
The people there have Ethiopian nationality but identify as Somalis. Many there
say that their desperately poor region is starved of resources.
This has led some to rise up and challenge the government.
Self-determination
struggle
A movement for
self-determination for Ogaden, which is officially known as the Somali region,
led by the Ogaden National Liberation Force (ONLF), began in the mid-1980s.
ONLF took up arms a decade later.
Their attacks led the Ethiopian government to send in troops and
to carry out what many describe as a brutal crackdown on the some five million
ethnic Somalis who live in this arid region.
Thousands of people have died in a struggle that few outsiders
are allowed to witness. It's an invisible conflict that has cost lives and
livelihoods, and despite several rounds of talks in recent years, has no end in
sight.
After decades of conflict with little or no progress,
should ONLF give up their fight?
"How long did South Africa [take to] defeat Apartheid? When
you are fighting for your rights, time is not an issue," Abdirahman Mahdi,
a founding member and the foreign secretary of ONLF, tells Al Jazeera.
Madhi denies that ONLF wants to secede from Ethiopia and claims this is "a misconception that's being propagated by the Ethiopian regime"."My father was fighting for our rights and my children will fight for our rights. So for us, justice is the only solution - there is no other way."
ONLF's fight, he says, is about seeking the "right to
decide our
future".
The movement wants the "right to self-determination,
including even leaving the country". ONLF "cannot decide what the
Somali people want. What we are saying is let them be given their right to
decide."
He says: "Free choice is not secession; free choice means
you can choose the right to live together in peace and dignity."
ONLF's fight is not with federalism nor with ethnicity, Madhi
says. "The issue is when one group wants to dominate the rest of the
people in Ethiopia. So we are going to dismantle that."
Madhi speaks of the marginalisation of Ethiopia's Somali region.
"[Until] recently, we had only one secondary school after 100 years of
Ethiopian occupation, we had one hospital ... Our women have no maternity
services."
The region, he says, suffers from a brutal trade and aid embargo
and a military occupation, which he alleges has resulted in the rape of 30% of
the region's women and more than 30,000 detentions.
"How can you develop people you are raping?" he asks.
Madhi says ONLF is an Africanist movement, the struggle is
expanding and the group is now working with other ethnic groups in the country
by staging "peaceful mass demonstrations".
"Our alliance is
now expanding," he says. "Like the
Arab Spring, we are going to start insurrection all over the place. Ethiopia is
now boiling ... The regime is now in disarray; they're divided. The people of
Ethiopia have now risen up. They want their rights. We are tired of one clique
dominating the rest of Ethiopia."
On Talk to Al Jazeera, Madhi discusses the future and
vision of ONLF, the criticism that he is out of touch with the needs and
situation of the people in Ethiopia's Somali region now that he lives abroad,
and he responds to allegations of human rights abuses committed by ONLF and
that the group is armed and trained by Eritrea.
You can talk to Al
Jazeera too. Join our Twitter conversation as we talk to world leaders and
alternative voices shaping our times. You can also share your views and keep up
to date with our latest interviews on Facebook.
Source: Al Jazeera
No comments:
Post a Comment