22 January 2012

Buckinghamshire, UK

The Ogaden National Liberation Front executive Committee held its first Ordinary Session of 2012 between 19 t0 22 January 2012 in a town in Buckinghamshire, UK.  The executive committee evaluated the current situation regarding the Ogaden national liberation Struggle for the emancipation and liberation of the Somali people under Ethiopian rule, the overall situation of the Somali nation and the dire political climate in the Horn of Africa.

After deliberating carefully and deeply on the issue that are affecting the Somalis of Ogaden and the neighboring countries, the Executive committee reaffirmed that:

1. The Human rights and Humanitarian situation of the Ogaden  people is further  deteriorating and that the Ethiopian government has spared no effort to destroy the livelihood and dignity of the Somali nation in Ogaden through  economic , Aid and information blockade, massacres and extra-judicial killings, rape, lootings, and illegal detentions with impunity and no restraint

2. As long as the Ethiopian government is colonizing and subjugating the Ogaden Somalis, the people’s liberation struggle will continue until the Ogaden is liberated regardless  of the severity or intensity of Ethiopia’s Human Right transgressions and oppression against the Ogaden people

3. It congratulates and is greatly satisfied with selfless heroism and effective confrontation of the Ogaden National Liberation Army (ONLA) against the Ethiopian army, which forced the occupation army into the defensive. ONLA   safeguards the wellbeing and rights of the Ogaden people

4. It also congratulates the Ogaden diaspora which has effectively thwarted Ethiopian government attempts to mislead the Ogaden and other Horn of African communities in the Diaspora, while consistently demonstrating against the head of the Ethiopian regime whenever he ventures abroad

5. Ogaden National Liberation Front supports the re-establishment of the Somali Republic and its sovereignty and calls upon the Somali people to grow out of the current tribal mentality and sectarian desire for meaningless mini-states and start safeguarding their national interests. A key step in re-establishing the Somali state for Somalis is to isolate the Ethiopian regime from Somalia affairs, since  the Ethiopian regime is the avowed enemy of the Somali nation and has done everything possible in maintaining the current status quo in Somalia

6. ONLF is ready and willing to negotiate with the Ethiopian regime, if and when Ethiopia accepts a principled and comprehensive negotiations that are mediated by a third neutral part in a neutral venues

7. ONLF fully supports the Eritrean people and government  in safeguarding their sovereignty and territorial integrity

8. The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) categorically rejects the manipulation of religion to justify violent and criminal acts targeted at civilians.

9. ONLF condemns state terrorism against innocent civilians and considers the  current regime in Ethiopia as a terrorist state that carries terrorist acts against innocent civilians in Ogaden, Ethiopia and Somalia

ONLF calls

1. The UN to fulfil its Charter obligation to the Somali people in Ogaden regarding their rights as peoples to and basic human, economic and political rights, specifically the right to self-determination. ONLF categorically states that the UN has systemically failed to protect the Somalis in Ogaden from Ethiopian government Human rights abuse and violations of the political and economic rights as enshrined in the UN charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

2. The international community to take into account the fact that the Horn of Africa will be in turmoil until the root causes of the conflicts raging are addressed, specifically the Ogaden conflict whose basis is the colonization of the Somalis in Ogaden by Ethiopia and the denial of the exercise of the right of self-determination. This conflict straddles across  and affects all major states in the region

3. The Somali people wherever they are to support the just cause of the Somalis in Ogaden, who are being systematically exterminated by the Ethiopian regime

4. The Ethiopian people to avoid being used by the current regime in committing crimes against their African brothers in Ogaden and cooperate together to oust the undemocratic minority regime

ONLF condemns

1. The Ethiopian regime that is committing acts tantamount to genocide in the Ogaden and calls upon it to allow the Ogaden people exercise their rights to self-determination

2. The inhuman and illegal imprisoning the Swedish journalists in Ethiopia, in order to hide the crimes it is committing in Ogaden and frighten away other journalists to attempt to visit the Ogaden freely

ONLF Executive Committee

Buckinghamshire, UK

22 January 2012