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Africa: An Open Letter to the Federal Government of Ethiopia

September 22, 2012 · 352790 Comments2012-09-22+12%3A38%3A50goth+Mohamed

Ethiopian Somali Hawd Development Association

A plea to the Federal Government for urgent intervention

We the Haud Community of the Somali Region of Ethiopia would like to bring to the attention of the Federal Government of Ethiopia, a recurring serious and systematic human rights violation. The regional administration of Ethiopia has willfully failed to address this blatant disregard of human rights.

We strongly believe that it is our duty as concern citizens to sound the clarion call to what is transpiring in our region. This wonton disregard of the most basic of human rights, the right to live in peace if left unmitigated will festers into a national wound. Our community cherishes and has contributed toward the stability and the hopeful trajectory that our country is on in recent history.

It heartens our community to see the tangible progress our country is undergoing in both material developments and in granting of rights to its citizens.

We are also aware of the enormous sacrifice it takes to achieve such a goal and the myriad of obstacles that are/were needed to overcome. Thus, our community is always willing to work with any and all regional and federal institutions to attain the fore mentioned lofty goal.

Our community is patient and we endure grievances if we believe it is because of ignorance. Our community is patient and we bear injustices if we know our grievances are being addressed, albeit slowly.

To blame others needlessly is not us, we are quick and do respond positively to rectify if in anyway our grievances are due to our own shortcomings. However, it pains us to realize that certain elements within the regional administration have imported and are engaging in the vicious clan rivalry politics of the zero sum game.

A curse that ultimately wrecked the Somali Republic and is ravaging what is left of it to date. It is a toxic and heinous exercise, wherein governance is nothing more than a vehicle employed in the attainment and perpetuation of dominance over “rival clan” to exact humiliation. Hence, the killing, looting, imprisoning and oppressing of rival clan as dastardly as that is, isn’t a mean but an end in itself.

As Ethiopians, we are duty bound and thus, a multi-ethnic country like ours must and should guard against those who want to import this menace and try to unravel the fabric of our society so as to achieve a primitive and base objective.

We, Ethiopians cannot afford and should not tolerate such a bankrupt tumor and should confront it decisively. And we are hopeful we will do just that and we will prevail.

However, in contrast to the optimistic outlook we see for our country the same cannot be said for our region. The latest news that is coming out of our region though not, an aberration is nonetheless, still disheartening to us like all the previous ones.

On 09-05-12 the regional police murdered 17 civilians in the vicinity of Hershin, with the rest of the civilians of the area being held as virtual hostages.

Unfortunately, such gross violations had happened intermittingly for the past few months. To note just two other incidents for the record, on 04-11-11 in Baligubadle area and 03-17-12 in the Gashaamo area similar atrocities were committed by the same police force. And our call to the regional administration for redress and resolution has been in vain so far. We are afraid, it seems to have become customary for the regional administration to ignore or compound on the existing injustices.

Nevertheless, we would like to reiterate that, we are still trying and are willing to engage with the regional administration to help formulate a mechanism to address the gross human right violations that are sadly becoming recurring events in our area. But to date, this seems more like a wishful thinking on our part than anything else.

Thus, we believe it is incumbent on the federal government of Ethiopia to intercede and take the appropriate actions to remedy the gross failings of the regional administration before the simmering injustices create a lasting negative impact to the stability of the whole region. Finally we would like to impress upon the Federal Government as the ultimate executor, we its citizens seek sanctuary in our country’s constitution and expect its full protection.

By ESHDS

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By goth Mohamed

Tags: Ethiopia, Haud, Liyuu police, massarce