February 10, 2014

A source inside Ethiopia informed the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) that the two abducted ONLF officers in from Nairobi in 26 January 2014 were seen in a military hospital under going treatment for extensive wounds caused by torture. The source further informed ONLF that the abductee had resisted the torturers attempts to make them accept to claim that they willingly came to Ethiopia in order to surrender and sign a peace agreement.

The regime occasionally engineers a fictitious peace agreement with individuals who are convinced through either duress or promise of fabulous riches and power in a bid to discredit genuine liberation fronts and the opposition while misleading the international community. These groups are ‘convinced’ to sign standardized peace agreement forms that always states  the so-called group has repented from its past mistakes and is willing to work peacefully in the ‘development effort the regime is spearheading’.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, including the Kenyan police officers arrested for involvement in the abduction, the Ethiopian government is still not ashamed of spinning the story and intent on manufacturing a scenario that is intended to befuddle the public and create doubt about its illegal action. What flustered the Ethiopian regime is that it has been caught red handed in an illegal abduction inside a sovereign state. During the last week several of the regime’s many spokespersons made contradicting statements in this calculated effort to create confusion and doubt about the abduction until the regime prepares the ground for a fabricated propaganda end game.

The first spokesperson claiming to be an advisor to the president of the Ethiopian regional administration in Ogaden who gave an interview to VOA Somali, said that the two abductees came willingly, and are kept somewhere inside Ethiopia while negotiating with the Ethiopian government, and will soon speak in the Ethiopian TV. The next Ethiopian government representative, Shimelis Kemal said to Associated Press (AP) that “he has no information about the alleged kidnapping of Ogaden officials in Nairobi”. Lastly, Dina Mufti, Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesperson told VOA Amharic that his government was not aware of the whereabouts of those men or any abduction. He further claimed that the Somali border is very big and that people come and go! Therefore, they may have cross it somewhere to Ethiopia.

This is a sinister development, and ONLF is gravely worried about the lives and well being of the abductees. Therefore, ONLF requests the Kenyan government to use its good offices to convince the regime in Ethiopia to allow the Kenyan ambassador in Addis Ababa to visit the abductees and ascertain their wellbeing, while Kenya negotiates the release of Sulub and Ali.

Furthermore, ONLF requests the UN, AU, and EU to send a commission of enquiry regarding this abduction since this a violation of Universal declaration of Human Rights and Geneva conventions and ask the Ethiopian regime to respect the rights of the abductees and guarantee their safe return.

ONLF holds the Ethiopian regime responsible for any mishap that happens to the abducted negotiators and no amount of denial or manufacturing consent through duress will absolve it from its responsibility towards respect of the human right of  the abductees.

issued by ONLF