February 18, 2013
Ogaden National Liberation Front
For
the last few Months, African Oil Corporation, an upstart
oil company has been engaged in a propaganda stunt conspiring
with the tyrannical Ethiopian regime in order to exploit
Ogaden oil and try to bury and deny the documented human
rights abuses committed by the Ethiopian Army in Ogaden.
On February 17, 2013, Keith C. Hill, President and CEO of
African Oil, started to regurgitate Ethiopian government
false propaganda in an interview with reporters from the
Swedish Expressen Newspaper. He stated that “most
of the ONLF has now basically made peace with government
and laid down arms” and that “there is one faction
left and they’re conducting talks with the new administration”.
Mr Hill further claimed that the people of the Ogaden were
happy and that his company was providing services to help
them develop. Mr Hill made similar statements to Swedish
journalists last in Sweden.
Then the journalists were invited to visit Addis Ababa to
interview Ethiopia’s Minister of Minerals, Mrs. Sinkinesh
Ejigu, who, irritated by the journalists’ questions
about the human rights violations in Ogaden, furiously responded
by saying those making the accusations are “lying”
and claimed that there was no a human-rights abuse or torture
in Ogaden. The Journalist were then taken to Hargelle town,
which was nothing more than few dusty huts, although it
is classed as the regional Capital of the Afdheer region,
a vivid reminder of the legacy of systematic marginalization
of the Ogaden. There, the journalists were led through an
arranged tour of Hargelle to meet with some of the town’s
residents and ‘students’ who were assembled
to give a well-choreographed Soviet-style speeches about
how happy they were with African Oil’s presence in
the region. What the Ethiopian minister did not know was
that the journalists had already visited Dadaab refugee
camps and had seen victims who were tortured by the Ethiopian
Army and forcefully displaced from their lands and communities!
Setting the record straight:
ONLF wishes to categorically refute the false claims made
by Africa Oil’s President and CEO Mr Keith C. Hill,
that the majority of ONLF has laid down arms and made peace
with the Ethiopian government; and the other absurd claim
about the existence of one ONLF ‘faction’ which
is conducting talks with the Ethiopian government. Furthermore,
the Ogaden National Liberation Army and the Ethiopian government
are currently engaged in an active armed combat and the
Ogaden is a battle zone that is not safe for an oil company
to operate. For more than ten years, this has been Ethiopian
government propaganda and it is tasteless and immoral when
the CEO of an international company decides to repeat it
without any qualms.
First, ONLF has no factions and there are no ongoing talks
between ONLF and the Ethiopian government, since the Ethiopian
government stomped out of the Kenyan mediation efforts last
October. The Ethiopian regime’s phantasmagorical creations
will not stop the march of the Ogaden people towards attaining
their self-determination, nor will such artless and outmoded
machinations bring peace to the Horn of African region.
Secondly, the Ethiopian government is committing gross human
rights violations in Ogaden and has refused to allow neutral
international human rights organizations, such as Human
Rights Watch, African Rights Monitor, Amnesty International,
the ICRC, UN human rights rapporteurs and independent journalists
to visit the Ogaden freely and investigate the state of
affairs in Ogaden. Therefore, African Oil’s association
with Ethiopian government constitutes a deliberate act of
collaboration in the on-going violations in Ogaden as Ethiopia
uses the money they receive from the oil company to fund
its army and local militia who perpetrate human rights violations
in Ogaden.
Therefore, ONLF calls upon African Oil to desist from paying
blood money to Ethiopia until a just settlement of the conflict
is achieved and the people of the Ogaden are in a position
to be masters of their wealth and interest.
ONLF draws the attention of the UN and the international
community to the fact that African Oil and cohorts are violating
the norms “on the Responsibilities of Transnational
Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard
to Human Rights (U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/12/Rev.2 -2003)”,
by engaging in unscrupulous business in a conflict zone,
where the Ethiopian government is committing violations
against the Ogaden civilian population which is tantamount
to genocide.
Finally, ONLF calls on the UN and the Human Rights Commission
to re-start the investigation on the rampant human rights
violations that the Ethiopian government is committing in
Ogaden.
Issued by ONLF
Sources:
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/kvinnorna-ar-nagra-av-oljebolagens-offer/
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/trakigt-att-de-fick-sitta-sa-lange/
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/gruvministern-det-finns-ingen-tortyr/
