Preventing the next Darfur
Ethiomedia - September 8, 2007
A Press Release by the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy
A call for action to halt the unfolding crisis in the Ogaden
In 2004, memorial ceremonies for the victims of the Rwandan genocide caused the world to begin to awaken to the slaughter of innocent civilians in Darfur. “Never again,” became the rallying cry for a movement to save Darfur.
Tragically, today, even as the world community unites to end the killing in Darfur, policymakers are ignoring a new Darfur, a spreading conflict in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia that could become the spark that enflames all of Ethiopia.
The Alliance for Democracy and Freedom (AFD), therefore, calls on the international community to act now to halt human rights abuses in the Ogaden -- and before it is too late to prevent the next Darfur.
In recent weeks, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRS), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Human Rights Watch and the New York Times have all reported that Ethiopian government soldiers have forced thousands of civilians in the Ogaden to abandon their homes. Whole villages and food stocks have been torched by government soldiers. Civilians refusing to leave their homes and villages have been tortured, raped and killed. In direct violation of international humanitarian law, the Ethiopian government has used food as a weapon in its military campaign against the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). The government has blocked humanitarian agencies from providing food, medicine and other assistance to civilians in the region. And it has arrested and expelled the few journalists who have tried to report on the human toll of the Ethiopian government’s desperate efforts to crush democratic opposition in the region ...