August 2 2011

The announcement that PetroTrans Company Ltd has contracted with the criminal Ethiopian Regime of Meles Zenawi to robe the Ogaden people of their natural resources, which is committing War Crimes and imposing Economic and aid blockade at time of a famine is a declaration of war against the Ogaden people.

Since 2007, after the Obole incidence, The Ethiopian government has conducted a massive campaign of scorched earth policy, killed, maiming, torturing and detaining tens of thousands of Ogaden civilians, while forcefully uprooting hundreds of thousands of nomadic communities from their land under the false pretext of fighting ONLF. In addition Ethiopian has embargoed the Ogaden from trade and Aid, which is still continuing even at this time of famine in the Ogaden and no independent journalist are allowed to report the suffering and calamity that is perpetrated by the Ethiopian regime Army in Ogaden

The Ethiopian regime is openly propagating that the Chinese company intends to invest in arming militia in the Ogaden and supplying advanced weaponry and technology to the Ethiopian Army in a bid to try to destroy any resistance from the Ogaden people to protect their natural resources. This is being confirmed by the massive amount of money allocated to the project- Four billion USD. Such an act will be a violation of international law and would force ONLF to seek all available means to protect its people and resources.

Cordoning large tracts of land in Ogaden for this nefarious project will create havoc in the delicate drought-prone eco-system of Ogaden territory and destroy the livelihood of millions of agro-pastoralist communities. – The total area of the exploration blocks is 93,000 sq.km, including the Jeexdin and Elele (Calub and Hilala) natural gas fields which covers 283 sq.km. The regime of Meles Zenawi has divided the whole of the Ogaden into 21 blocks and is selling the land of the people like ice-cubes in the oil and mineral markets. No other part in Ethiopia is divided in such a manner, which shows the wicked intention the regime has in store for the Ogaden people, since it treats their land as merchandise (see the attached map).

On many occasions ONLF called upon multi-nationals to invest in bringing peace to the Ogaden by contributing to finding a peace full solution to the conflict, instead of financing one party to continue its aggression and oppression while the people who own the land and the resources are marginalized. Since no one is heeding the well-being of the Ogaden people and their cries for help against an inhumane regime, but instead Ethiopia is being further rewarded in its War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity it commits, the Ogaden National Liberation Front and the Ogaden people have no alternative but to pursue all legal, political and other necessary means in order to protect their land and God-given natural resources.

ONLF requests from the Chinese government and others to stop sending their citizens to the Ogaden battlefields.

ONLF requests the UN secretary general and the Security Council to intervene in the calamity in the Ogaden and stop ignoring the plight of the Ogaden people and the crimes committed by the Ethiopian regime.

Ogaden National Liberation Front

 

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